EL PASO, Texas (KTEP) - El Paso County District Attorney Yvonne Rosales in a court filing late Friday night accused attorneys and a journalist of being involved in a ‘political conspiracy’ to remove her from office.
Attorney Omar Carmona petitioned the district court on August 24th to remove Rosales from office for “official misconduct and incompetence.” The same week, Rosales lost two key prosecutors involved in the Walmart mass shooting case.
Carmona alleged Rosales misused civil forfeiture funds, mishandled hundreds of criminal cases that have been dismissed, and cannot retain employees or fully staff her office.
El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal entered the dismissal proceedings on Friday and called for a status hearing in the petition for removal. The proceedings are being overseen by judge Tryon Lewis of Odessa, who was appointed to preside over the petition process.
Rosales objected to Bernal’s entrance into the removal petition proceedings.
Rosales in a reply to Bernal's notice said the county attorney's office employees Omar Carmona’s wife and three attorneys Rosales did not rehire to be prosecutors when she was elected District Attorney.
"Petitioner (Carmona) would further allege that the county attorney has a conflict because some of her employees and family members have been conspiring to politically attack and remove DA Rosales," Rosales' filing states.
She also alleged others were part of a “conspiracy” including attorneys Justin Underwood, Omar Carmona and journalist Robert Moore, founder of the non-profit news organization El Paso Matters.
She accused Moore of stories that include “information unlawfully obtained through the inappropriate use of the Texas Public information Act.”
"The district attorney's filing is an attempt by El Paso County's top law-enforcement official to use the courts to intimidate and suppress a news organization whose coverage she doesn't like,” CEO of El Paso Matters Bob Moore said.
“Our reporting on the district attorney has been fair, accurate, and necessary,” Moore said.
El Paso Matters has reported on Rosales’ handling of family violence cases and along with other media, has covered the dismissal of hundreds of misdemeanor and criminal cases because the El Paso district attorney’s office did not file indictments or take any action with the deadline set by the state of Texas.
This week magistrate judge Beto Acosta dismissed more criminal cases bringing the total number near 900 in a month’s time. Dismissal hearings began on Aug. 15, when attorneys with the public defender’s office petitioned the judge to dismiss the cases.
According to the Texas Code of Criminal Conduct, criminal cases may be dismissed by a judge if prosecutors fail to review or pursue indictments within 180 days.
The cases ranged between 200 to 2,000 days old, according to court dockets. Charges included possession of drugs, driving while intoxicated, family violence, interfering with public duties, criminal mischief, burglary, criminal trespass and resisting arrest.
On Thursday, judge Acosta stopped a hearing to verify information being shared by prosecutors to his court. Acosta called on Douglas Tiemann, a trial team chief, to explain why prosecutors were stating cases were filed when the county clerk's office did not have record of them.
Tiemann said it may have been a "misinterpretation" over notes and the DA office's system that tracks cases.
"I can't make an accurate ruling if you all give us information that is not accurate. It is completely unacceptable," Acosta told Tiemann.
Acosta and Tiemann revisited the issue the next day at another dismissal hearing.
Tiemann said notes between attorneys with the DA's office were "inconsistent," as they worked on sorting out a backlog of criminal cases.
Rosales acknowledged dismissals were “unprecedented, but not unique, as the same actions are being taken by defense attorneys across the State of Texas as District Attorney Offices both throughout the State and across the nation face personnel shortages and COVID backlog issues.”
District attorney’s offices in Dallas, Tarrant, and Travis counties have not experienced problems with dismissals according to their spokespeople.
“Supervising prosecutors say they have not seen many delays of the 180-day deadline (including possible pandemic fueled delays), nor have they seen many requests for dismissals based on the 180-day deadline being surpassed,” according to a statement from the Harris County District Attorney’s office which includes Houston.
That office has seen a “small handful” of cases dismissed due to delayed lab tests to determine if something was a controlled substance.
Bexar County which includes San Antonio did not respond to multiple calls and emails asking about case dismissals and backlogs.
Public Defenders offices in Hidalgo County on the south Texas border and Tarrant County in North Texas responded that they have not had cases dismissed because their District Attorney’s office failed to take action within the time limit.
The district attorney’s office in El Paso has not responded to multiple requests from KTEP News for comment this week.
In the statement to KFOX-14, Rosales also said the first 100 cases dismissed by judge Acosta had not been presented to prosecutors through an agreement with the El Paso Police Department.
The agreement is called the District Attorney Management System, or DIMS, where police and prosecutors can discuss what kind of charge to pursue with someone arrested and accused of a misdemeanor or felony.
Police disagreed with Rosales’ statement saying all cases are given to prosecutors usually within 10 days of an arrest whether through the DIMS agreement or not.
“The department has not received notice related to the dismissal of cases in this matter,” a spokesman with the El Paso Police Department responded in an email to KTEP.
KTEP's Angela Kocherga reached out to the Harris County District Attorney's Office for comment on this story.
