Lawsuit to remove Travis County District Attorney José Garza faces legal hurdles
The Travis County district attorney’s office says that a petition to remove José Garza from office is "meritless," primarily because the man who filed it has a pending criminal case.
The petition is the first to be filed in Travis County under Texas House Bill 17, which allows for the removal of a district attorney for "official misconduct" — including declining to prosecute certain criminal offenses. The Texas law took effect Sept. 1 and is part of a movement among state Republicans to rein in "rogue" progressive prosecutors.
Martin Harry, a former Republican candidate for district attorney, confirmed to the American-Statesman that he wrote the petition. In 2020, Harry lost the general election for district attorney to Garza. Harry, who now resides in Florida, has posted on X, formerly Twitter, recruiting Travis County residents to file the petition. Harry’s website also contains a blank copy of the petition.
Harry would not publicly comment on the petition beyond confirming that he wrote it.
"This meritless petition is just another example of how Travis County Republicans are hell-bent on undermining local elections," Garza said in a statement. "I will continue to focus on leading on gun violence prevention, meeting the needs of crime victims, and ensuring our criminal justice system works for everyone."
On Nov. 30, Jason Salazar filed the petition, which claims that, because the district attorney's office has a policy not to prosecute certain charges, Garza has failed in his legal duties as district attorney. The petition alleges that the district attorney’s office has adopted a “blanket non-prosecution policy” for drug possession. It also cites Garza’s promise not to prosecute abortion crimes, along with policies that it describes as “discriminating” against law enforcement officials.
“Instead of enforcing laws of the state, (Garza) promises to ignore them,” the petition says.
However, lawyers representing the district attorney’s office have argued that Salazar is ineligible to file a petition against Garza because he has a pending criminal case. Court records show that Salazar was arrested Oct. 6 on charges of drug possession at the county’s civil and family courthouse downtown.
According to the Texas Local Government Code, a person petitioning to remove a prosecuting attorney from office cannot be facing criminal charges.
The drug possession case against Salazar is still pending. On Thursday, prosecutors filed a motion to recuse themselves from the case, citing Salazar’s petition.
In the motion, prosecutors dispute the petition’s characterization that their office does not prosecute drug possession.
“If this office did have such a policy, (Salazar) would surely benefit from it,” the motion says.
Salazar did not respond to requests for comment.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Lawsuit to remove Travis County DA José Garza faces legal hurdles
