Special Edition: Ousting Activist DAs

Will Travis County, Texas continue on its current trajectory? Or will the voters force a course correction?

The Texas capital city of Austin takes up most of Travis County. Because it is home to the seat of power for one of the largest states in the country, Travis County gets a lot of attention from the state government as well as national media outlets. It also happens to be a deep blue county in a largely red state, so it can often become a focal point in political discussions.

Since the county is constantly awash in media coverage at all levels and from all sides, the people in charge are subject to a pretty high level of scrutiny. Such is rapidly becoming the case for Travis County’s current district attorney, Jose Garza.

Primary season is underway and Garza, who has been the DA in Travis County since he ousted the former incumbent DA in 2020, has a challenger from his own party: Jeremy Sylestine.

In Sylestine’s own words:

"What I’ve seen out of the DA’s office over the past three years is a movement towards leniency where leniency isn’t due,"

He left the Travis County DA’s office in 2021 after seeing that it was heading in the wrong direction. Now he wants to do something to fix that. Meanwhile, Jose Garza continues to push a false narrative that he stands for victims and is successfully reforming the criminal justice system:

"José Garza is doing exactly what Travis County voters elected him to do, fixing our broken criminal justice system by standing with survivors, working to end the excessive use of force by police, and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses."

But the data doesn’t reflect that at all, nor do a myriad of high-profile cases wherein lenient sentencing, deferred adjudication, and cutting deals has put violent people back out on the streets repeatedly. So much so that newish Travis County resident Elon Musk elevated the work of people uncovering Jose Garza’s poor track record of victim advocacy and public safety.

Here’s an excerpt from the original tweet by Daniel Lubetzky:

• Garza let Santos Celso-Flores, who was awaiting trial for participating in the gang rape of 13-year-old girl, out on a $40 bond. While out on bond, Celso-Flores molested two more young girls.

• Hilario Adrian’s bond was lowered to just $1 after Garza failed to bring his aggravated assault case to a grand jury in time. Shortly after his release, he brutally attacked an innocent bystander in downtown Austin, stabbing him to death.

• Richard Williams brutally raped his ex-girlfriend at knifepoint for two hours while strangling and beating her. Garza cut a deferred adjudication plea deal with Williams, meaning he was released after just 90 days in prison without anything on his record.

• Garza released Dedreuain Reese, who had been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for pistol-whipping a woman, on a personal recognizance bond. Just weeks after he was released on bond, Reese committed a murder at the same house where he pistol whipped the woman.

While these cases are anecdotal evidence, the above linked data uncovered by Austin’s KXAN investigative reporters has shown the data is not in Garza’s favor. It was easy for him to claim he was lowering the crime rate because in reality he wasn’t prosecuting any criminals. But reality has finally caught up with him as headline after headline demonstrates the true impact of his damaging policies.

Sylestine intends to right the ship at the Travis County DA’s office. And while there is a long way to go to undo the damage done by Jose Garza to the criminal justice system in the Texas capital city, it would certainly be a step in the right direction.