Good day all. Texas is generally considered to be a tough on crime, pro-law enforcement state. However, they do have a few centers of Progressive stupidity, one of them being Austin, Texas. The city is were a lot of Liberals have migrated to, and being morons, they continued electing other morons such as their District Attorney, Jose Garza.
I wrote about Garza not long ago and how he had originally intended to bring the Austin police officers who stopped the Islamic terrorist attack in front of a grand jury. That was shut down fast, although no real reason was provided. I suspect he was privately hammered by pretty much everyone. Now there are demands that Garza resign over other cases of prosecutorial abuse. Here are the details from Fox News:
A criminal case tied to the 2020 Austin, Texas, George Floyd riots is erupting into a broader controversy, with prominent law enforcement groups calling for the Soros-backed district attorney to resign over accusations of misconduct, political coordination, and withholding key evidence.
Attorneys for Austin Police Department officer Chance Bretches filed a motion in Travis County district court to dismiss the case against him, alleging prosecutors in DA Jose Garza’s office violated the officer’s constitutional rights and compromised the integrity of the case by not disclosing alleged behind-the-scenes communications with Austin officials about potentially holding the city or police leadership criminally responsible for harming injured protesters.
The George Floyd riots kicked off the Summer of Fiery Love with several cities pulling police back and allowing the rioters to loot and burn with abandon. They were also attacking people who weren’t interested in their support of a criminal who died of a Fentanyl overdose or who tried to protect their own property.
We saw several people, notably Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with crimes that were clearly self defense. Rittenhouse was acquitted and the prosecution ripped apart for political grandstanding on what turned out to be the best documented case of self defense seen in years.
Bretches is facing charges of aggravated assault by a public servant after being deployed as part of a crowd-control response during the 2020 riot, where officers worked to disperse demonstrators and restore order in downtown Austin. His attorneys argue he relied on department-issued “less-lethal” beanbag rounds that were later called into question, contending the equipment itself was defective and contributed to the injuries at issue.
I honestly do not recall that case. I do know that the many of these less than lethal systems can kill or seriously injure if they hit the wrong part of the anatomy. This is why training tells the users not to aim for the head. Of course, we all saw just how “Peaceful” these “Protesters” actually were. Many people were surprised that law enforcement didn’t end up using live ammunition.
The alleged “secret meetings” with Austin officials about the city being responsible for the defective beanbag rounds that caused more harm than they were designed for, Bretches’s attorney says, were something the prosecution was “required to give us” because it showed the belief and possibility the city had “criminal culpability” in the case.
Again, I do not know the details of this case or what actually happened. It appears that the beanbag rounds were used may have been defective, in which case the blame would fall on the manufacturer. What this sounds like is Garza’s pro-criminal, anti-law enforcement mindset saw this as a way to get a police officer who was doing his duty.
The motion bases its claim of “secret meetings” on two sworn declarations: one from a former Austin city manager, who says he personally met multiple times with Garza and prosecutors in 2023 to discuss potential charges against the city, and another from a former city council member, who says she was aware of internal communications indicating the DA’s office was considering such charge.
“Prosecutors can hold meetings with anybody, there’s nothing illegal about that,” Bretches’ attorney Doug O’Connell told Fox News Digital. “The problem in this case is the district attorney felt he had enough evidence to indict the city as a corporate entity, which would make the city an alternative suspect or an unindicted co-defendant.”
O’Connell argues that Garza triggered disclosure obligations under Brady v. Maryland, which requires prosecutors to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense.
The first time I heard about the Brady Disclosure rule was, believe it or not, watching an episode of Bosch on Amazon Prime. It was found that a prosecutor had not handed over information that was exculpatory to the defense and the defendant later was convicted.
“If you follow that logic, then the basis of his indictment of the city, which never materialized, is, in fact, Brady,” O’Connell said. “Even if he thought he had enough evidence and later determined he didn’t, it’s still Brady. It’s a violation of the Michael Morton Act, a violation of the court’s order, and the defendant’s constitutional rights.”
The Michael Morton Act, a Texas law enacted after a wrongful conviction case, requires prosecutors to turn over most evidence in their possession to the defense, including information that could be favorable to the accused.
If you watch television shows such as Law & Order, you will see the prosecutors discussing whether they have to provide information they’ve found that might not lead to a conviction. Usually the prosecutors figure out a way not to provide the evidence so they can get a conviction. Granted, that’s fictional television, but there is a kernel of truth to it, especially since the serious is based in Manhattan and we’ve seen just how corrupt Alvin Bragg is as a DA.
“It’s clear they didn’t turn over the evidence of why they felt they could indict the city and the city was legitimately scared about this enough that the city went out and hired their own criminal defense attorney,” O’Connell said. “So one of two things is true, either he had the evidence and he didn’t produce it to us, or he didn’t have any basis to indict the city, and he was just threatening them, and that would be official oppression anyway.”
And that would be the standard operating procedure of a Soros DA. It looks like this is the final straw and is now leading to calls that Garza resign.
“It’s kind of the final straw, everything that’s been going on with the continuing political prosecutions of Austin police officers who are out simply doing their job and doing the job the way that we’re trained to do their job,” Farris told Fox News Digital about the Austin Police Retired Officers Association’s (APROA), official letter calling for Garza to step down, the first time they have done so despite intense criticism of Garza over the years.
I’ve heard abut Garza off and on for a few years. He is a standard hard left lawyer who should never be allowed anywhere near power. We’ve been seeing the destruction they’ve wrought in a number of cities and a few states, notably Kalifornistan. Some of them have been so bad that the voters recalled them and removed them from office. Others have been forced to step down. It looks like Garza’s turn has come.
Garza has faced public blowback from his critics for years over his treatment of police officers and from families of crime victims who have spoken out against what they view as a lack of willingness to put criminal offenders behind bars.
It’s worse than that. Garza has gone after people who used lethal force to defend themselves and others. The most notorious case was that of an Army Sargent who was threatened by an armed BLM “Protester” and was forced to defend himself. As I recall, by any reasonable standard, it was a case of self defense. The problem was that this was in Travis County and Jose Garza decided to railroad the man into prison. Governor Abbott later issued a full pardon, noting that Texas has very strong self defense laws. Garza wasn’t to happy about that either.
After winning an election following a campaign, backed by liberal megadonor George Soros, that pledged to prosecute police officers, Garza indicted over 20 police officers, including Bretches, for their role in quelling the Black Lives Matter riot. Garza has attempted to prosecute multiple other officers on deadly force-related charges with only one successful conviction that was later overturned.
“There can be no worse violation of the oath taken by a District Attorney than to intentionally deny a defendant a fair trial,” Robert Leonard, CLEAT executive director, said about the motion. “It is a direct violation of their Constitutional rights.”
Apparently, this is a Texas law that allows a judge to hold a hearing to determine if a law has been broken.
“In this case, it would be a hearing to determine if the elected DA and top lieutenants committed an offense of official oppression and tampering with evidence by not producing the mitigating or exculpatory evidence in this case.”
As to whether or not anything will come of this, I can’t say. However, Garza’s actions are finally getting noticed by all the wrong sort of people. I checked and it appears that there is no mechanism in the Texas Constitution that allows a citizen initiative to recall a sitting District Attorney. According to Grok:
A district court removal trial (initiated by a petition from a resident) on grounds like incompetency, official misconduct, or intoxication, decided by a judge after a jury trial.
I don’t know if Garza drinks or not, and I can’t speak to his competence as a lawyer or administrator. However, I do think that official misconduct may be what they hit this guy with. It won’t be just this case, but, potentially his conduct since he took office. When the reports came out that he was planning on putting the officers involved in taking down the terrorist in Austin, people exploded at him and forced him to back down. I suspect that Garza’s days as District Attorney are numbered. He will either be removed or forced to resign. If he’s smart, it will be the latter and soon.
Thatisall
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