(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Walmart shooting case, migrant prosecutions play large in El Paso district attorney primary runoff election [1] ['Diego Mendoza-Moyers', 'More Diego Mendoza-Moyers', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Date: 2024-05-17 Early voting starts Monday for the primary runoff election, where El Paso voters will decide which of two Democratic candidates will face appointed Republican incumbent District Attorney Bill Hicks in the November general election. Running in the Democratic DA runoff race are Alma Trejo, 59, who served as judge for the El Paso County Criminal Court No. 1 from 2002 until she resigned last fall to run for DA, and James Montoya, a 33-year-old El Paso County public defender. A rash of recent elections has dimmed voter enthusiasm somewhat, the candidates said, referring to the March primary and the May 4 uniform election. But the May 28 primary runoff – where voters will also select a Democratic candidate for sheriff – could shape law enforcement in El Paso for years to come. “These are the two elected officials dealing directly with crime and public safety,” Montoya told El Paso Matters. “And I think voters seem to understand that.” The District Attorney’s Office, which covers El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties, has 175 employees and an operating budget of $21.7 million. The DA serves a four-year term and is paid $198,000, calculated under state statute. The runoff election is May 28, and early voting runs from Monday, May 20, through Friday, May 24. In the March Democratic primary, Montoya received 38% of the votes, with Trejo garnering 35%. The third Democratic candidate in the primary, Nancy Casas, received 27%. After losing in March, Casas endorsed Montoya. Hicks, who was appointed to the seat in late 2022 by Gov. Greg Abbott following the resignation of Yvonne Rosales, didn’t face any Republican opponents in the primary. Trejo has campaigned on her experience as both a prosecutor and a judge, and said she was the administrative know-how to run the DA’s office. Montoya, meanwhile, has promoted his wide-ranging experience at a relatively young age – including time spent as a prosecutor in El Paso and on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma. He has said he can recruit numerous lawyers to boost staffing in the DA’s office. Rosales, who was elected DA in 2020, resigned two years into her term before a trial to remove her from office was to be held. She was criticized for getting thousands of criminal cases dismissed without a trial or hearing, for dismantling the domestic violence unit and mishandling various criminal cases. Rosales fired dozens of lawyers and other employees when she took office in January 2021. Chronic staffing shortages after the mass terminations – and disruptions caused by the pandemic – plagued the office throughout Rosales’ tenure, leading several judges to criticize the office for being unprepared to try cases. Voter Guide El Paso Election 2024: Everything you need to know for May 28 primary runoff On May 28, El Paso voters will cast ballots in the 2024 primary runoff election. Here are key dates to remember, who’s on the ballot, candidate information and related stories. On the campaign trail in recent months, Montoya and Trejo have consistently said the DA’s office is still understaffed and that morale among lawyers there is low. Hicks blamed the ongoing staffing shortage on Rosales, who he said fired 40 attorneys in the DA’s office when she took office. Hicks told El Paso Matters on Thursday that 71 lawyers are on his office’s payroll. A fully staffed DA’s office would have 93 attorneys, he said. Hicks said his office will soon be adding four new attorneys, as well as five law school graduates later this year after they pass the bar exam. Since he took office, Hicks said, 19 lawyers have left the District Attorney’s Office for higher pay or health reasons, among others. Five who left were “disgruntled,” he said. “I do admit that we are stretched thin. I do not think that we are not taking care of the cases in our courts,” he said. “It is stressful for the attorneys. We would very much like to have more attorneys, and are on track to have more attorneys to back up the attorneys that are in court. We’re going to get there.” Migrant ‘riot’ cases Trejo and Montoya were critical of how Hicks has handled a flood of migrant arrests over “riots” at the border wall in recent months. In different instances, groups of migrants have tried to push through razor-wire barriers and the Texas National Guard to reach the border wall and surrender themselves to U.S. Border Patrol agents to seek asylum. “I felt like it is very important that we send the message that if you’re going to be violent, and you’re going to destroy property, and you’re going to threaten lives, there will be a consequence,” Hicks said. His efforts to prosecute the migrants have largely been blocked by judges who have dismissed most of the cases over lack of evidence or procedural missteps by prosecutors. Hicks said he plans to appeal the dismissals. The arrested migrants had a federal immigration “detainer” placed on them, which means the migrants were released from jail in El Paso within 48 hours of booking, and then handed to federal immigration authorities. None were released onto the streets. “These migrants already had federal charges. And then we decided to do state charges as well. And so I kind of see that as a waste of taxpayer’s money, a duplication of services,” Trejo said. “Four-hundred-something cases were taken to the grand jury when they were misdemeanors. … So what that means is 400 felonies were pushed aside so that these 400 cases could go to the grand jury quickly.” Montoya and Trejo have suggested it was a political move to convene a grand jury to indict migrants over misdemeanor charges – an option typically reserved for felony cases. Montoya points out that Hicks was appointed by the governor. “These arrests are coming from DPS, who act at the direction of the governor and the director of DPS,” Montoya said. “This is a federal problem that requires a federal solution. I think it’s completely inappropriate for El Paso County taxpayers to bear the burden of detaining, prosecuting and defending these migrants.” The DA’s Office sought misdemeanor charges against the migrants rather than felonies to avoid overtaxing the judicial system, Hicks said. “We prosecute based on the violations of state law, not on the basis of what the federal government is going to do,” Hicks said. Walmart mass shooting case Trejo and Montoya also said one of their biggest priorities for the upcoming term would be concluding the state’s death penalty case against Patrick Crusius, the suspect in the Walmart mass shooting. Hicks is pursuing the death penalty on state capital murder charges, but it’s almost certain the trial will take place after the election. James Montoya, a candidate in the Democratic run-off for district attorney, speaks at Old Sheepdog Brewery in an event hosted by the UTEP College Democrats organization, April 10, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) Alma Trejo, a candidate in the Democratic run-off for district attorney, speaks at Old Sheepdog Brewery in an event hosted by the UTEP College Democrats organization, April 10, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) Crusius pleaded guilty last year to federal hate crimes and weapons charges after the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to seek the death penalty for those charges. He was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison. The only question now is whether he spends his life in prison, or the state executes him. All three of the lawyers defending the Walmart gunman against the death penalty gave donations to Trejo’s campaign, which totaled $1,100 combined. To address the Walmart case, Trejo said she would “meet with the attorneys (and ask) ‘Where are we?’ By then, it’ll be five years,” she said. “Where are we and how soon can we get this case tried?” Montoya said the Walmart case is the top issue on the minds of voters, who ask why it’s taking so long to conclude. Crusius’ defense lawyers have pinned the delay on Hicks and said he’s playing politics with the case by burying them in terabytes of case files. Hicks has maintained that defense lawyers have had access to the vast majority of the evidence for more than four years and should be ready for trial. “I personally believe that the death penalty is appropriate. I think a jury of El Pasoans should be the ones to decide (Crusius’) punishment,” Montoya said. “My hope is that, if I’m fortunate enough to prevail and take office on Jan. 1, that we’ll have a trial scheduled by that time. And then really, we just keep it on track.” DWI should be DA’s focus, candidates say Instead of prosecuting migrants on misdemeanor charges, Montoya and Trejo said the District Attorney’s Office must prioritize driving while intoxicated cases. Alma Trejo, a Democratic candidate for district attorney, participates in a forum organized by the El Paso Chamber, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) Montoya said as DA, he would lobby the Texas Legislature to allow local police departments to establish DWI road checkpoints. Today, a state’s legislature has to approve the use of checkpoints for DWIs to avoid running afoul of the 4th amendment that protects Americans from unwarranted search and seizure. Checkpoints are legal in New Mexico: The Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office last week said it was setting up sobriety checkpoints this month that will be active between noon and 2 a.m. throughout the county. “We need the Legislature in Austin to create a new statute allowing law enforcement to (establish checkpoints), and finally get some real deterrence that will discourage people from doing this in the first place,” Montoya said. Despite checkpoints, he said, New Mexicans “still enjoy many of the freedoms that we enjoy here in the state of Texas.” Trejo, however, pointed out DWI checkpoints are still unconstitutional in Texas, something legislators have shown little appetite to change. She argued harsher punishment on DWIs – like sending repeat DWI offenders to jail instead of offering probation – could be effective at reducing drunk driving in El Paso. Alma Trejo, a candidate in the Democratic run-off for district attorney, speaks at Old Sheepdog Brewery in an event hosted by the UTEP College Democrats organization, April 10, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) “When (jury) verdicts start getting stronger, then I can tell you that that’ll have an impact on the criminal justice system,” Trejo said. Checkpoints “would be a great tool, too. But in the meantime, let’s do something with what we have,” she said. “Which is to work with the police, other community partners, diagnostic tools, things like that.” The number of people charged with DWI by local law enforcement agencies in El Paso County increased to 2,064 last year from 1,880 in 2022. Yet the number of DWI convictions declined to 280 last year from over 500 in 2022, according to statistics from the Texas Department of Public Safety. El Paso County, the 10th most populous of Texas’ 254 counties, saw the 10th-highest number of people charged with DWI last year. Daniel Villegas’ murder case overturned Another issue in the race is the case of Daniel Villegas, who served 18 years in prison before his conviction on capital murder charges related to a 1993 shooting was overturned in 2018. Villegas wrote an op-ed earlier this month in the El Paso Times arguing Montoya, who prosecuted the case against him in 2018 before a jury acquitted him, was fighting to keep an innocent man jailed and should not be El Paso’s next DA. “When I think of Montoya being our DA, I think of a system where winning is more important than the truth,” Villegas wrote. In response to questions about Villegas’ case, Montoya said Villegas never submitted ethical complaints against any of the prosecutors or judges involved with the case. “We had probable cause to move forward with the trial,” Montoya said. “The jury found that the evidence was insufficient. And I respect the verdict.” “Any criminal lawyer will tell you that not guilty is not the same thing as innocent,” he added. James Montoya, a candidate in the Democratic run-off for district attorney, speaks at Old Sheepdog Brewery in an event hosted by the UTEP College Democrats organization, April 10, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) In the op-ed, Villegas said local businessman Juan Mimbela, owner of the construction firm Mimbela Contractors, played an important role supporting him and helping to secure his acquittal. Mimbela earlier this year donated $2,000 to Trejo’s campaign. “That highlights the point that we do have innocent people in prison. And that’s the takeaway I’m getting: Is that we need to do something about it,” Trejo said of Villegas case. “We really do need to strengthen our conviction integrity unit,” she said, referring to lawyers in the DA’s office who review cases post-conviction. “I know there’s one right now, I just don’t know how strong it is.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/05/17/elections-2024-primary-runoff-el-paso-da-alma-trejo-james-montoya/ Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/