Judge Gloria Rincones, presiding over the 445th State District Court, scolded attorneys representing the Cameron County Commissioners Court and Sheriff Eric Garza at a hearing late Tuesday for not quickly resolving a dispute over courthouse security.
She also denied the commissioners court’s petition for a temporary injunction against Garza and dissolved a temporary restraining order filed by the plaintiff.
The commissioners court civil legal division filed the TRO petition against Garza on April 14, alleging he had acted beyond his official capacity as sheriff in making budget decisions for the commissioners court, disregarding civil service regulations and unilaterally terminating a memorandum of understanding the sheriff’s department under Omar Lucio made with Precinct 2 Cameron County Constable Abelardo Gomez Jr., which involved Gomez’s officers providing courthouse security.
Later that day, sheriff’s department Chief Deputy Robert Gracia held a press conference in which he called the lawsuit a waste of taxpayer money and said the commissioners court was preventing Garza from performing his elected duties.
On April 19 the legal division responded that Gracia’s press conference “highlighted Sheriff Eric Garza’s misunderstanding of this lawsuit’s central issue — the separation of power.”
According to the TRO petition, Garza sent a letter to Gomez and the commissioners court on March 25 saying he was terminating the MOU, which goes back to 2013, and that courthouse security would resume under the sheriff’s department. On the following day the commissioners court legal division told Garza that the officers providing courthouse security were being budgeted and commissioned by Gomez, reminded Garza of civil service rules, and asked him to rescind the letter terminating the MOU to “allow an orderly legal and administrative process” for putting courthouse security back under the sheriff’s department.
Garza, who said the MOU was not a legally binding contract, refused the commissioners court request and proceeded to commission and direct the constable’s deputies in providing courthouse security.
Rincones on April 23 denied Garza’s request to have the TRO dissolved, but did remove a provision that she said prevented the two sides from resolving the courthouse security matter. Rincones called on both sides to work together to “fix the problem” and said procedures that are in place need to be followed “to make sure everything is done right.”
On Tuesday, noting that at the previous hearing she ordered all parties to quickly find a solution, Rincones took them to task for complicating the situation with legal maneuvers and leaving 15 constable’s deputies in a state of limbo. All that’s necessary is to reverse the 2013 transfer of courthouse security from the sheriff’s department to the constable, she said, adding that in her opinion the dispute had become a battle of egos.
“ Now you have created confusion because (the deputies) don’t know who they answer to,” Rincones said. “Because you guys could not sit down and do this right. That is all you had to do, is do it right.”
The court set a status hearing for May 25.
“You all sit down and figure it out,” Rincones said.
Earlier in the day, Cameron County Commissioners Court tabled an item to discuss and transfer courthouse security back to the sheriff’s department because Garza was not available to answer questions the court had.
The court was to vote on transferring courthouse security to the sheriff’s department from the Precinct 2 Constable’s Office, transferring the budget to the sheriff’s department from the Precinct 2 Constable’s Office and transferring/reclassifying employees to sheriff’s department’s from the Precinct 2 Constable’s Office.
Security for the Cameron County Courthouse is being provided by the Precinct 2 Constable’s Office under a Dec. 22, 2016 MOU or Memorandum of Understanding between Lucio and Gomez.
Garza believes the sheriff’s department should be charged with handling security at the courthouse.
However, since Garza did not attend Tuesday’s Commissioners Court meeting and was unavailable to answer their questions, the items were tabled.
Rick Cornejo, office administrator for the sheriff’s department, said there was a conflict with Garza’s schedule but that he would be available to answer any questions they had. Since Cornejo is not the sheriff or in charge of courthouse security, Commissioners Court declined to hear from him.
Staff Writer Laura B. Martinez contributed to this report.
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