No way to treat a respected, hardworking associate judge

Garza deserved better.

After presiding over more than 45,000 detention hearings and 15,651 juvenile court hearings over three decades, the Bexar County Juvenile Court associate judge was unceremoniously ousted by 386th District Judge Arcelia Treviño, his boss for the past three years.

Garza was informed via email by the juvenile court’s staff attorney, Laura Angelini, in late April that his position would be eliminated in two weeks. He was offered no further explanation and Treviño never discussed it with him, Garza said.

Garza was an “at-will” employee, meaning he could be dismissed without cause. He was given the option to resign or retire. Garza, who served as chief of the district attorney’s juvenile section in the 1980s and has 25 years of service with the county, chose to retire effective May 15.

The lack of professional courtesy extended to Garza by Treviño is appalling. During his long tenure in the juvenile justice system, Garza, who is board certified in juvenile law, gained a reputation as a hardworking and fair judge.

It is disturbing that after covering for his frequently absent boss, he was rewarded by having his job eliminated after Treviño lost a re-election bid. The position was funded through the end of September.

What prompted Treviño’s decision is anyone’s guess. It caught juvenile court staff by surprise. She did not respond to a request for an interview.

This isn’t the type of behavior one would expect from a member of the Bexar County judiciary, especially toward a long-tenured and well-respected staff member.

Garza has handled the bulk of the workload in the 386th District Court during Treviño’s frequent unexplained absences. Treviño was elected in a Democratic party sweep at the polls, defeating a longtime incumbent with a national reputation.

Treviño’s reputation, on the other hand, was style over substance — seemingly more interested in posting glamorous selfies on her social media accounts than presiding in court.

In a conversation during her re-election bid earlier this year, Treviño said prior to her initial run for office, she had a diverse private law practice but did not handle juvenile court cases. She explained her caseload included a heavy dose of family law — divorces and custody cases — and she felt taking on a juvenile court case would be a conflict of interest.

Few were surprised when Treviño’s questionable work ethic became an issue in the March Democratic primary and led to her defeat by Jackie Valdés, a veteran juvenile prosecutor. Although Treviño lost in the primary, she remains on the bench through the end of the year, when her term of office ends.

Treviño’s move to eliminate Garza’s job was within her authority, and if it had been hanPat dled differently she might have come out of it looking good.

The role of appointed associate judges in the juvenile court system has been topic of much debate the last several years due to declining caseloads. There was an unsuccessful attempt by the county commissioners to streamline the bureaucracy by eliminating two of the three appointed juvenile court positions when they became vacant back in late 2018. It didn’t work.

The move met with resistance from the judges, and the posts were filled. Lisa Jarrett, 436th District Court judge, hired former Councilman William “Cruz” Shaw as her associate judge, and 289th District Judge Carlos Quezada hired Jim Wheat, a former North East Independent School District trustee and former prosecutor.

Wheat’s position was eliminated last budget cycle, and Garza’s job would have likely ended up on the chopping block at the end of this fiscal year in September. In a situation like this, it’s the tenure of the judge who did the hiring, and not the appointed judge’s time on the job, that determines who stays and who goes. Jarrett is the senior juvenile court judge.

That Bexar County would end up losing another good jurist was almost inevitable. It just didn’t have to be handled in such a callous manner.

Garza was a good judge. Regrettably, I can’t say that about all judges.

Judge Arcelia Treviño’s ouster of Associate Judge Pat Garza makes no sense.