Former Justice of the Peace Mary Alice Palacios announced she was ending her bid for her former seat of Hidalgo County justice of the peace for Precinct 4, Place 2.
After having just filed to run for the justice office she previously held for nearly 11 years, she announced she would be withdrawing to focus on the race for Hidalgo County district attorney for which her brother, Toribio “Terry” Palacios, is now running.
“My brother’s running for DA and with the short span of time and the area he has to cover, I feel that it’s going to take all of us to help him and that’s most important to me,” she said Monday. “Family is everything and I think that by being by his side … I think that he will prevail. But that’s what we need, we need that right now, for all of us to be with him.”
Palacios was first appointed to the office in 1999 to finish out an expired term. She went on to win reelection until, in 2010, she was suspended by the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct after allegations that she was illegally jailing teenagers for truancy.
She was convicted on two counts of official oppression in 2011 but later an appeals court cleared her of the charges in 2014.
The office is currently held by Homer Jasso Sr. who was appointed to replace her in 2010, though he had not filed to run for reelection as of press time.
Two other candidates are currently running for the JP office on the Democratic ticket — Andre Maldonado, an attorney, and Felix Gutierrez Jr., a former detention officer with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office who also previously worked for Precinct 4, Place 1 Justice of the Peace Charlie Espinoza.
“I wish them luck and I hope that they do a good job,” Palacios said of the two candidates.
While she will not be seeking office during this election cycle, she left the door open to serving again.
“If there is ever a place or time that my community needs me in this office or in any other, I will be ready to serve,” she said in a news release.
