Petition to remove Travis County DA José Garza granted

A petition filed in the 455th Travis County District Court on Apr. 8. calling for the removal of Travis County District Attorney, Jose Garza, was granted this afternoon by Dib Waldrip, the 433rd District Judge in Comal County and Presiding Judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A petition filed in the 455th Travis County District Court on Apr. 8. calling for the removal of Travis County District Attorney José Garza was granted Friday afternoon by Dib Waldrip, the 433rd District Judge in Comal County and Presiding Judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region.

Waldrip, who was appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to serve as the Presiding Judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region in 2022, was assigned the case on Apr. 10 before granting the application for the issuance of a citation with an order for Garza to answer and appear in Travis County District Court on May 16.

Additionally, Waldrip appointed the Office of the Bell County Attorney and the Honorable Jim Nichols to represent the State as "a qualified and appropriate prosecuting attorney from within the region."

According to the court records, Nichols was selected by Waldrip after considering available options in accordance with Texas' statute stating "the county attorney of the jurisdiction serves as counsel for the State in actions to remove an officer, except when such an action seeks removal of a prosecuting attorney."

KXAN reached out to Waldrip, Abbott and Nichols about the matter and will update this story once a response is received.

The petition's allegations

The petition argues "Incompetency and official misconduct" related to the policies enforced by Garza about the who and what criminal offenses his office prosecutes.

Specifically, the petition references three issues supporting these allegations:

1. Defendant singles out law enforcement officials by automatically, indiscriminately, presenting charges against them to grand juries;
2. Defendant maintains a "do not call to testify" list of law enforcement officials who he deems unfit to testify and disqualifies from serving as witnesses for the State of Texas and
3. Defendant refuses to prosecute a class or type of criminal offense under state law.

The 21-page petition goes on to detail policies and evidence that allegedly show violations of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure such as presenting cases to grand juries that are not supported by probable cause and discriminatory practices specific to law enforcement officers.

KXAN reached out to the District Attorney's office for a comment on these allegations and will update this story once a response is received.