I have always had trouble voting for people who do not live in the district, and I have no reason to believe that Israel Garcia resides in the district. I assume he still resides with his wife in the house they bought in Bellaire, Texas. I won’t vote for the Republican, but that does not mean I will vote for someone who I think does not deserve to be there.
Israel Garcia indicates that his voting address is the courthouse where he works. When he first ran four years ago I looked up his voting address and found that he listed an apartment.
There is every indication that his house with a homestead exemption is in Bellaire and outside the district.
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Every document that I could find indicates that his address is in Bellaire. The fact that he has had so many liens placed against him certainly does not give me confidence to vote for him.
The Houston Chronicle has a bad habit of endorsing people who have had problems in their offices. Below is what the Chronicle wrote about Garcia.
Ultimately, we believe taxpayers have already invested in Garcia, and should give him more time to do better. We hope he’ll give more time to the people who come to his court. Source
Below is what was previously written about Garcia.
On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct concluded a review of allegations against Justice of the Peace Israel B. Garcia Jr. of Precinct 5, Place 1 in Houston.
According to the document which the state agency released on January 12, 2024, the Commission found that Judge Garcia had advertised his wedding services in an attempt to solicit paying customers. He distributed business cards featuring a picture of himself in judicial robes and mentioning his title. Judge Garcia also ran advertisements in Spanish newspapers that showed a photo of him on the bench in robes under the Harris County seal with his name and title.
During his appearance before the Commission, Judge Garcia provided inconsistent testimony regarding his advertising efforts. He confirmed distributing the business cards and running the newspaper ads but could not provide clear details on how, where, or how long they were used. The Commission found his testimony to be contradictory and not fully truthful.
The Commission determined that by advertising his wedding services using images of himself as a judge, Judge Garcia violated the canon of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct prohibiting using the prestige of office to advance private interests. As a result, the Commission issued Judge Garcia a public admonishment and ordered him to obtain three additional hours of instruction on not using his judicial position improperly. The mentor-led instruction must be completed within 60 days.
The Commission took this action under its authority to protect the public and promote confidence in the judicial system. Judge Garcia will have to complete the additional education in addition to his normal annual training for the next fiscal year. Source
Below is the State Bar finding.
Below is what the Texas Tribune wrote about Israel Garcia.
But somewhere along the way, as the emergency of the pandemic subsided, rental assistance ran dry and other protections ended, García’s courtroom evolved into the starkest depiction of the legal churn of Houston’s growing eviction machine.
His case load quickly mounted. Now, it is not unusual for him to work through 300 or 400 eviction cases every Tuesday. On Valentine’s Day, he had 444.
For months he made no effort to connect tenants with lawyers from Lone Star Legal Aid, who took over from the University of Houston and often set up a table at the courthouse offering to represent tenants for free. Their relationship grew hostile after lawyers filed several mandamus suits against García, asking a higher court to review evictions they claim he wrongly approved.
In one such case, a county judge found García had improperly directed a constable to evict a tenant instead of freezing the case for 60 days, the Houston Chronicle reported last July.
García relegated legal aid workers to a small vestibule with no air conditioning between two sets of automatic sliding doors at the building’s entrance, away from the side door tenants are directed to enter. When they tried to set up inside the building, García moved their table himself.
“They know that I’m upset with them and they know that I’m not going to tolerate them, and they know that I’m watching them, and they don’t go to any other court like this in full force,” García said recently. (Legal aid is a regular presence in other courts, though they don’t have the resources to cover every docket.)
On this morning in April, García entered the courtroom wearing black robes that amplified his 6-foot frame and an ivory cowboy hat, which he hung on a hat stand before taking a seat.
Why is Aubrey Taylor getting paid so much?
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