Petition to remove Travis County DA José Garza dismissed

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A petition to remove Travis County District Attorney José Garza was dismissed Thursday morning by Judge Dib Waldrip, the 433rd District Judge in Comal County and Presiding Judge of the 3rd Administrative Judicial Region.

The 21-page petition was filed April 8 after a 2023 law targeting “rogue” prosecutors passed in the Texas legislature.

"Over the past four years, we have worked hard to keep the community safe, fix the criminal justice system, and uphold the laws of the State of Texas.  We have never deviated from those goals, and I am proud of what we have accomplished thus far," according to a statement released by Garza.

The statement describes the the removal petition as a "politically motivated effort" that didn't work.

Garza's statement additionally states

The petition against Garza argued “incompetency and official misconduct” related to the policies enforced by Garza's office.

Attorneys representing Garza and the State were in attendance along with several members of the community who had lost loved ones, been victims of violent crime in Travis County or were advocates in support of the petition to remove Garza.

Garza was not present for the hearing.

Waldrip addressed two separate motions to dismiss the case filed by Bell County Attorney James "Jim" Nichols and a second filed by Garza's attorneys in effort to maintain public transparency.

Nichols was assigned to serve as the case prosecutor to represent the State as “a qualified and appropriate prosecuting attorney from within the region,” the petition said.

Once both sides of attorneys provided the court their arguments for dismissal, Melinda Hipolito addressed Waldrip to explain the reason for her presence in the court and requested time to obtain an attorney to represent her in the petition against Garza.

Hipolito explained she and her two daughters were victims of a violent attack when a man began shooting her car wounding all three of them.

The shooter was offered a plea deal and given a 12-year prison sentence with the possibility of parole after six years.

A sentence Hipolito said is an "injustice" to her and her family after the crime he committed and the trauma they endured.

Waldrip was unaware that Hipolito had recently filed a petition to intervene as a second plaintiff against Garza in the removal case.

Waldrip denied her petition, explaining that although he understood and sympathized for what happened, the case was prosecuted regardless of the result, therefore her petition didn't apply to the grounds for removal cited in this petition.

Additionally, the judge brought light to the fact that Garza was recently re-elected by Travis County voters, which effectively voids any alleged acts of previous misconduct prior to his newly elected position.

As a result, Waldrip granted Nichols' motion to dismiss the case against Garza.

In the initial motion to dismiss the petition, the county prosecutor wrote Garza’s actions were not considered to be misconduct.

The reasons cited in the motion to dismiss included:

• Referring cases of “excessive force” by law enforcement to the grand jury was not valid grounds for removal;
• The DA denied the existence of a “do not call” list, which would not be considered misconduct. The motion said the prosecutor took Garza “at his word” that the list didn’t exist and noted that the existence of such a list would not create a specific instance of misconduct.
• The prosecuting attorney said in the motion the Travis County DA’s Office was prosecuting state jail felony drug charges in accordance with a new Texas law after reviewing Garza’s policies, cases and judgments from the DA’s office as well as the Office of Court Administration.

KXAN’s Cora Neas and Sarah Al-Shaikh contributed to this report.