Let’s begin by following up on our last story about the Acacia Cliffs apartment complex. That’s where a new City Council-devised development incentive called DB90, supposedly designed to create new affordable housing, instead turned into an incentive for the owner of an existing, unsubsidized, affordable complex in northwest Austin to seek to rezone and demolish the complex. It would then be replaced with a larger, taller, apartment community, but with less affordable housing and higher rents on the portion of the new development that would qualify as affordable housing. After a lengthy hearing on May 22 the Council postponed a final decision on the zoning case until June 5.
We’ll provide a little more detail on Acacia before June 5, but for this installment let’s check in on Travis County District Attorney José Garza. Veteran Austin American-Statesman reporter Tony Plohetski recently provided an update regarding Garza’s office missing 90-day deadlines, under state law, to either indict accused criminals or lower their bail and let them go free. (District Attorneys retain the authority to indict as long as the statute of limitations is in place, but they must indict within 90 days or bail must be lowered to an amount that arrestees can afford. This law has been in place for half a century.)
Readers may recall that back in March Garza’s failure to meet such deadlines resulted in two murder suspects being released from jail after their bonds were lowered, consistent with the state law. In some confusingly worded answers and statements at the time Garza seemed to imply that there were no more such cases; or, if there were, they were “handled appropriately (more specifics on that further down).”
Garza blamed the two lapses in murder cases on an unnamed prosecutor, whom he noted was a holdover from the previous DA’s tenure. He added that the prosecutor was demoted after missing the deadlines; the prosecutor soon after resigned.
Well, it looks like there might have been a little more to it than the mistakes of a single holdover from the old regime. Plohetski recently published some rather startling updates. And, unfortunately for Garza, Plothetski works for both the Austin American-Statesman and KVUE.
Here let’s look in on his KVUE story which co-anchor Quita Culpepper introduced with an excellent dark and stormy night type opening: “Missed indictment deadlines by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office . . . And a new spotlight on possible violations of the rights of some defendants in jail (brief pause), and putting potential violent ones back on the street.”
“Missed indictment deadlines by the Travis County District Attorney’s Office . . . And a new spotlight on possible violations of the rights of some defendants in jail (brief pause), and putting potential violent ones back on the street.”
Quita Culpepper, KVUE News
KVUE’s analysis found 263 cases which “involved 181 defendants who were released on personal recognizance bonds or bonds reduced to as low as $1 after prosecutors missed the deadline to indict them and attorneys argued for their release.” KVUE reported that Garza’s office later obtained indictments in some of the above cases after the 90-day deadline.
The report continued, ”Of the cases, 70 involved defendants who were accused of violent crimes and sex-related offenses, including five murder suspects. 193 cases involved suspects accused of drug-related offenses, theft, and other non-violent crimes.”
”Of the cases, 70 involved defendants who were accused of violent crimes and sex-related offenses, including five murder suspects. . .”
KVUE News report by tony plohetski
So let’s summarize. One, José Garza’s inability to meet state law deadlines has resulted in people charged with violent crimes being released back onto the streets uncharged, and considerably more of them than originally thought.
There is also a flip side. Many people accused of nonviolent crimes stayed in jail longer than necessary — many, considerably longer — because Garza’s office did not find time to act on their cases during the 90-day deadline period. These were people who did not commit violent crimes, or maybe were even innocent. Prisoners in these categories would likely be people without access to the resources to make bail. During both his campaigns Garza vowed to not let people in these sort of circumstances languish in jail.
Yet, due to the way Garza and his office have handled their responsibilities, numerous people have sat in jail months longer than necessary. Several Travis County judges said back in March that such missed deadlines have increased dramatically since José Garza took office. Given that, it doesn’t seem a stretch to say that there are people who have unnecessarily languished in jail because José Garza is the District Attorney of Travis County.
Sure, Garza’s core beliefs and his ideology do not favor people being left in this situation. In fact, during his campaigns, he states emphatically that he is against it. But, the incompetent way Garza’s office operates results in this happening anyway.
Will Democrats Notice?
One important question in this situation is, will local Democrats notice? And, if so will they do anything about it?
I specifically mention Democrats because elections for Travis County District Attorney are decided in Democratic primaries. That’s because no Republican has a chance to become District Attorney, or any other county-wide position, in Travis County. So the victor in the Democratic primary always wins in the fall. It’s sort of the mirror image of state government, where no Democrat has won a statewide election since 1994
When Garza was interviewed by Plohetski back in February he said, “We will let our community decide who’s at fault or who should be blamed.” When Garza said “our community,” he really meant Democrats.
Many Democrats seem immune to obtaining or absorbing any negative information about their “progressive” Democratic District Attorney. It’s unclear how many don’t know about his record or how many know, but don’t see a problem with it. A corollary to both is that many Democrats are convinced that any negative information about Garza is “MAGA” inspired, and thus false — a tactic Garza successfully used against his opponent in last year’s Democratic primary. Another Democratic thought process, which I have observed, is that since Republicans – like Governor Greg Abbott — criticize Garza then many Democrats believe they have to back him.
Another contributor to the situation is that too many Democrats consider being concerned about crime a Republican issue. To me this is a huge danger for Democrats politically and a tragedy for American society.
When I say dangerous politically for Democrats I mean nationally. I don’t think this will be the case in Austin. It certainly hasn’t been so far. Chances are that a majority of local Democrats — probably a large majority — will ignore José Garza’s poor performance or continue to remain unaware; he might even get elected to another term.
One possibility, if a large majority of local Democrats continue to blindly back Garza, would be an independent candidacy. That would be a long shot, but sometimes long shots go into the basket — or into the net, depending on the sport.
Whatever the case, Garza’s current term does not end until the last day of 2028.
A (Very) Few Exceptions
There have been a few exceptions to this long standing pattern of Democrats refusing to scrutinize or criticize Garza. For instance State Senator Sarah Eckhardt spoke out in February, saying, “There is mounting evidence that our district attorney is not vigorously prosecuting cases, and that is of grave public safety and also of grave concern for the fairness to the accused.” Also some Travis County judges have stated publicly that failures to meet the 90-day deadline have increased during Garza’s tenure, The judges though, were just speaking out on issues that affected their offices, and potentially their reputations. Judges, rightly, tend to stay out of elections and politics.
Eckhardt’s statement garnered a few headlines due largely to its novelty. Other than Eckhardt and the judges, elected Democratic officials have been silent. That includes the ten elected officials — led by Congressman Greg Casar, a few members of the local legislative delegation, and City Council Members — who rushed to Garza’s defense in the 2024 Democratic primary, and accused his opponent of employing Republican tactics. None of them have been heard from about Garza’s current blunders . And, there has been no noticeable stirring among the local Democratic rank and file.
This all brings to mind another aspect of Democrats’ ongoing national reckoning. Are they capable of governing? (The Acacia case also raises this issue.) After all there are very real human consequences for Garza’s ineptitude.
Consequences to People’s Lives
Plohetski interviewed a young woman who was beaten up by a man who leaped into her car while she was waiting in a Whataburger drive-through in north Austin. That was in January 2024. As the young woman explained, “I pulled into the drive-through, and I was the only one there and I was actively ordering. The kid jumped into my car. He punched my face and (then) came in feet first (through the driver’s side window).” The KVUE report showed a picture of her from the time with a very large black, red and purple eye.
The attacker eventually fled, but his cellphone fell into the car during the attack. Police traced it to “21-year-old Jayderson Gabriel Sanchez Paz.” He was arrested a month after the attack. Sanchez Paz stayed in jail for 99 days. Despite the evidence of his phone being left in the victims car Sanchez Paz was not charged by the District Attorney’s Office during this 99 day period. He was then released on a personal bond after his attorney invoked the 90-day rule.
The woman who was attacked told Plohetski, “It is such an airtight case. You (they) had everything right there. . . and for them to drop the ball by not indicting, that is the biggest issue that I have. It was so easy for them to move forward.”
The attacker eventually fled, but his cellphone fell into the car during the attack. . . The woman who was attacked told Plohetski, “It is such an airtight case. You had everything right there. . .”
She also told Plohetski that it took 15 months for her to hear from the DA’s Office. As Plohetski summarized, “An assistant district attorney called her four days after KVUE asked Garza’s office about the status of her case. The caller left her a voicemail stating the case would be presented to a grand jury the following week.” Only then, on May 6 (2025), was Sanchez Paz indicted for assault with bodily injury. Online records show that he is back in the county jail.
According to Plohetski’s report, Garza also blamed this case on a former prosecutor.
Does this meet the standard of “handled appropriately?”
These cases all happened despite Garza making statements back in February which appear to say — or appear to try and leave the impression — that there were no more cases with missed deadlines; and, if there were, they were handled properly. For instance Plohetski reports that in February he asked Garza if there were “broader management issues getting cases in front of a grand jury.”
Garza replied,“The majority of cases, over the last 14 months, are cases that were handled appropriately.”
Also, in a February statement released to KXAN, Garza claimed: “While there are reasons a case may take longer than 90 days to present to the grand jury, including because of a lack of evidence, it is unacceptable for a case to remain unindicted due to a lack of care. Beyond the two cases handled by a career prosecutor, who is no longer employed by Travis County, we have not discovered any other case that falls within that latter category.”
If one diagrams those two sentences it appears that Garza is saying that he knows of no other cases that went beyond 90 days due to “a lack of care.” But, 263 cases involving 181 defendants is a whole lot of cases, whether they missed the deadline because of a “lack of care” or for some other reason.
Plohetski reports that Garza would not grant an on camera interview for the recent story and that “he did not respond (to submitted questions) as to whether he still believes his office handled the 263 cases appropriately.”
Garza’s refusal to grant an interview or respond to questions clearly reflects that there is really no good response he can give in this situation. Also, when he did respond to media questions in February it did not go particularly well. For instance Garza blamed judges for releasing the accused murderers, even though they and numerous other legal experts said the judges had no choice under state law.
“It sounds to me like the judge misunderstood the law,” Garza said of Judge Chantal Eldridge.
He also tried to throw reporters off the scent by dragging in the Austin Police Department (APD): “Both APD and the District Attorney’s Office are dealing with technological and cultural challenges in the Travis County court system about how evidence moves.”
So, to summarize, José Garza’s office often performs incompetently. He then makes misleading statements to the public and refuses to respond when those statements are exposed as inaccurate. He blames others for mistakes that he made. He claims that a law followed by prosecutors throughout Texas for 50 years does not apply to him.
Democrats, does this type of behavior remind you of anyone, perhaps someone in the other party?
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