Thats bullshit, they work for us.
Too many of them have forgotten that they work for us.
What happened with Judge Mike Herrera, and the subsequent approval by Judge Patrick Garcia of public funds to be used to file motions on Herrera's behalf - essentially defending his actions - was found to be improper. Here is coverage from KVIA on that issue.
Improper my ass, its complete and total bullshit. There was no reason that public funds should have ever been used to pay for an attorney to file motions on Herrera's behalf. Herrera can afford his own lawyer and should have paid for the attorney himself.
He should pay that money back to the public.
Frankly Judge Patrick Garcia should be held accountable and at the very least he should make himself available to speak to the public about his actions in approving that expenditure. And the argument that its been done before shouldn't be a defense because it damn sure doesn't work when you're trying to get out of a parking ticket.
The tragedy in all of this is that Judge Garcia is running unopposed for his seat. So not only is he running unopposed, but he isn't available to answer questions about why he felt it was necessary that the TAXPAYERS have to pay for an attorney to file motions for a judge who makes several times the salary of an El Paso family?
That is justice?
There are people who have probably been accused of a crime but are just above the line when it comes to eligibility to get a court-appointed lawyer to represent them and were ultimately denied a court-appointed lawyer but a wealthy judge has the taxpayers foot the bill for his lawyer?
You gotta be shittin' me.
And now on top of what he was already reprimanded for, Judge Herrera has campaign finance reports that are murky to say the least. Here is coverage from the El Paso Times on his campaign finance report issue.
Its not illegal, but it damn sure ain't transparent either.
No matter how you look at his actions, there is no way that his own divorce case shouldn't have been immediately thrown out of his court. Anyone with integrity would've done so immediately just for the sheer optics of the situation.
This is why elections matter. This is why you should pay attention to judicial races. This is exactly what can happen when people don't care enough to do their research on a candidate and just keep sending the same judges back to the bench.