JP TREJO PUBLICLY REPRIMANDED BY JUDICIAL COMMISSION FOR DISMISSING CASES OF FRIENDS AND POLITICAL CRONIES

Salas said Trejo asked who in the AD's Office could dismiss cases.

“He asked me if the other prosecutor who reported to the JP courts, Rene Garza, would be the one to sign them, and I explained to him that I wasn’t certain but he could talk to Mr. Garza about that,” stated Salas.

 It was common knowledge in the office that [Judge Trejo] would ask the prosecutors who worked in his court to sign dismissals for people he knew,"  she said.

ADA Garza voluntarily submitted a notarized statement to the commission where he testified that he “never witnessed or participated in any disposition that was out of the ordinary or questionable.”

However, a staff review of all of the traffic cases that were dismissed in May 2018, slightly more than half of the motions to dismiss filed by ADA Garza included the initials "mt" next to the reason for the requested dismissal.

Garza testified before the Commission that when he would appear in Trejo's court, court personnel presented him with a folder of cases that had been pulled by Judge Trejo for Garza's "consideration." 

Garza testified that he would then review the files and take what he perceived to be the appropriate action. On those cases that he would recommend dismissal, Garza testified that he would write the judge's initials ("mt") next to the reason for the dismissal. 19. ADA Garza was unable to recall a single case in which he disagreed with Judge Trejo's request that a citation should be dismissed. 

The commission noted that a review of the cases involving Felipe Alaniz it found that Trejo had signed dismissal orders on seven traffic infractions from 2007 to 2017. Trejo also dismissed the case against Diana Celia Ruiz, said to be related to Cameron County Pct. 4 commissioners Gus Ruiz, and one against Joseph Palacios.

Precinct 5 Constable Eddie Solis, who testified, m pertinent part: On at least three occasions in 2017, Judge Trejo contacted me by phone and requested that my office change particular traffic citations into "warnings." 

"I specifically recall that in the summer of 2017, Judge Trejo requested that my office change the following two citations into warnings: (1) citation no. 269624 issued to Noe Aleman on a charge of speeding 64 miles per hour (m.p.h.) in a45 m.p.h. zone and (2) citation no. 171064 issued to Mandela Garcia on a charge of speeding 50 m.p.h. in a 30 m.p.h. zone. On citation no. 171064, my office complied with Judge Trejo's request and changed the citation to a warning."

In a sworn written response to the commission’s initial letter of inquiry, Trejo denied the claims that he dismissed citations for friends and family at the request of Fruity Villarreal. However, in an appearance in front of the commission, Trejo acknowledged that he would pull cases for ADA Garza’s “consideration.”