Medina County JP suspended again in vote case
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has reversed its position and suspended a Medina County justice of the peace who had been arrested over the weekend on election-related charges that already had been dismissed in Bandera County. Tomas “Tommy” Ramirez III was arrested Saturday and was released on personal recognizance bonds, based on a 35-county indictment issued Jan. 7 by a Medina County grand jury at the request of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, according to court documents.
The charges, alleging an election fraud conspiracy in 2018, were identical to the ones obtained by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Bandera County in February 2021.
The commission had suspended Ramirez pending the Bandera County charges, which a judge there dismissed in December. Three days later the commission said Ramirez could return to his JP position. The state, meanwhile, filed charges in Medina County on Dec. 20, according to the latest indictment.
Paxton’s case appears to be centered around Ramirez’s 2018 run in the Republican primary election, which he won. He faced no Democratic opponent.
Paxton’s office said in a news release at the time of the first indictment that Ramirez and three women ran a vote harvesting operation that worked out of assisted living centers.
The charges include engaging in organized election fraud, illegal voting, unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope and enhanced election fraud for multiple offenses in the same election.
Ramirez has previously said Paxton’s case was “politically motivated.”
On Thursday, the commission released its new order of suspension, indicating that Ramirez would be suspended without pay “until the charges set forth in the indictment are dismissed, Judge Ramirez is acquitted of all charges in the indictment, or upon further orders of the Commission.”