Of course, law enforcement is a stressful job.  We’re grateful to those who protect and serve and we can all understand how nerve-racking it can be to be a cop in Texas these days.  No one’s gonna deny a cop the right to a brew or two after a long day’s patrol.  On the other hand….

There are two newstories JUST THIS WEEK about drunk cops in car crashes, one out of Fort Worth and one from San Antonio. 

In Fort Worth, a woman was killed shortly after 2 o’clock in the morning when she pulled in front of an oncoming patrol car on a street with a designated 35 mph speed limit.  Guess this poor woman didn’t think that some intoxicated police officer would be hauling down the road at twice the legal speed limit…. The victim of the crash, Sonia Baker, was only 27 years old.  The cop, Jesus Cisneros, was ten years older and had a blood alcohol count of 0.17% — over TWICE the legal limit of 0.08%.  Wow.

This week in San Antonio, at 8:45 pm in the evening, a pickup truck careened across highway US 90 West, narrowly missing 4 cars of oncoming eastbound traffic, and slammed into the Blue Ribbon Housing-Fleetwood manufactured home fenced sales lot.   Driven by Sargeant Tom Alonzo of the San Antonio Police Department, there were no human injuries in this accident other than the ones that the driver himself sustained.  Riding in the truck’s cab with Sgt. Alonzo was his pal Joe Gonzalez. 

And while the eyewitness — Jason Costo of Blue Ribbon — reports that both were acting drunk (unsteady on their feet, reeking of alcohol), no charges have been pressed so far against Sgt. Alonzo for driving drunk.  Interestingly, Alonzo had a friend pick him up from the scene before any law enforcement could get there.  (Costo called the cops.)

Homicide detective Jose Trevino of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department has told the media that their offices will not charge Alonzo because no one was hurt and the truck’s passenger — pal Joe — says that the driver wasn’t doing anything wrong, and they’re assuming it could be a mechanical malfunction that caused the pickup to veer over the highway ….

And here’s where things veer off. 

In Fort Worth, officer Cisneros not only quit his job, he has been charged with intoxication manslaughter with bond set at $25,000 (he’s free on bond right now). 

In San Antonio, nothing’s happened to officer Alonzo.  Smart enough to leave the scene before the cops could get there (isn’t there something wrong with that?), and lucky enough that those 4 cars got out of his way as he crossed over their eastbound lanes on US90West, Alonzo’s BAC wasn’t tested and isn’t known. Bexar County Sheriffs aren’t doing any investigation.  The San Antonio Police Department is reporting that they are double-checking things out, tho.  Well, hooray for that, right? 

Oh, and by the way, Alonzo is the second officer within the past 30 days – out of the same unit in the department, the SAPD’s Tactical Response Unit – to face allegations of driving drunk and crashing.  Fellow SAPD Officer Winder Morales was charged with DUI right before Thanksgiving after crashing a car, yes, on that same highway: U.S. 90 West.

Be careful out there.

Different parts of the state do things differently, and here in Dallas the way that criminal case workloads are distributed among the courts is through assigning certain judges to hear criminal cases specifically.  Other judges in other parts of Texas might have a smorgasbord of matters — civil and criminal, probate and family along with felony or misdemeanor.  Not here.  And many say that our Dallas system works just fine. 

The DA’s wife is a paid political consultant for 7 criminal court judges and the media is asking questions

However, the Dallas Morning News is disturbed because the wife of our current District Attorney is acting as a paid political consultant - i.e., working on the election campaigns – for seven judges who hear criminal cases in Dallas County.  Since Craig Watkins is the head prosecutor in Dallas, even if he isn’t personally in a courtroom on a particular day in front of one of these judges, one of his underlings is. 

And the media is suspicious about Tanya Watkins being involved in campaigning for folk who rule on cases her husband is prosecuting.  They’re wondering about it… as are others. 

Picture it. 

There’s the judge.  He’s paying a nice chunk of change to the wife of the attorney setting in front of him, arguing for a conviction on behalf of the state, so that the wife can get him re-elected.  Does that judge hypothetically have a reason to favor the prosecution? 

Now, Tanya’s campaign work for these judges has been okayed by the Texas Commission for Judicial Conduct. 

In an email that DA Watkins sent to his Republican opponent –not Gromer Jeffers and Jennifer Emily of the Dallas Morning News who are covering this story and bringing it to the public’s attention — Watkins points out that his wife has the okey-dokey of the TCJC.  Nuff said, right?

Well, maybe not.  Long ago in this state we had something we took seriously:  the idea that lawyers and judges both should avoid even the appearance of impropriety in order to keep up public respect and confidence in our efforts. 

Does the above scenario comport with avoiding the appearance of impropriety?  Many are arguing it does not. 

Perhaps Mrs. Watkins would have been wise to take her honed campaigning skills – learned from her husband’s own winning political runs – and used them in legislative and executive races.  Anything but the judiciary that has direct contact with her husband.  

Because by not doing so, this may well become a true Pandora’s box ….