Comments on: Juan Quixote Behind Bars http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:57:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: Texas Observer Blog » Prisonville Grows - The Texas Observer http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-38709 Texas Observer Blog » Prisonville Grows - The Texas Observer Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:43:22 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-38709 [...] is an economic backwater in South Texas with a near-comically dysfunctional local government. For over a decade area leaders have been trying to dig their way out of the [...] […] is an economic backwater in South Texas with a near-comically dysfunctional local government. For over a decade area leaders have been trying to dig their way out of the […]

]]> By: LB http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-5368 LB Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:31:16 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-5368 here's a quote from the link you provided: "Guerra's case was in municipal court because of an additional charge of interfering with the public duties of a peace officer for blocking his office door when Raymondville police tried to serve a search warrant." so, you can stop wondering. but i'm still wondering how you happened to use the term "knife fight" to describe a south texas political alteration. here’s a quote from the link you provided:

“Guerra’s case was in municipal court because of an additional charge of interfering with the public duties of a peace officer for blocking his office door when Raymondville police tried to serve a search warrant.”

so, you can stop wondering. but i’m still wondering how you happened to use the term “knife fight” to describe a south texas political alteration.

]]> By: Dave Shapiro http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-5037 Dave Shapiro Sat, 24 Mar 2007 19:35:49 +0000 http://www.texasobserver.org/blog/?p=196#comment-5037 You were not off-base to question how a municipal court dismisses a felony-level case.But charges by either police or prosecutors that someone has committed a felony do not become a formal accusation vesting the district courts with exclusive jurisdiction until a grand jury has voted to issue a felony indictment.Up to that point, municipal court judges and justices of the peace, in their capacity as magistrates, have authority to act on such preliminary matters as issuing arrest warrants and search warrants and setting the amount of preliminary bail bond. They do so in ex parte hearings, listening to only the law enforcement side and using the very low standard of proof allowed in these early steps of the process, not the tougher standards used at later hearings or the reasonable doubt standard required at trial. Frequently, the news media and the general public use shorthand phrases like "dismissed a felony" when that doesn't fully convey the precise nature of what happened and isn't entirely in sync with the language used in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. My hunch as to what happened here is that the municipal court judge decided, after considering the the evidence and arguments at the hearing, that the previously-issued warrant to arrest Juan Guerra(when there had been no hearing)had been improvidently granted and withdrew his approval of that warrant. It would have been perfectly normal for the reporter covering the event to have summarized what happened as the dismissal of a felony. You were not off-base to question how a municipal court dismisses a felony-level case.But charges by either police or prosecutors that someone has committed a felony do not become a formal accusation vesting the district courts with exclusive jurisdiction until a grand jury has voted to issue a felony indictment.Up to that point, municipal court judges and justices of the peace, in their capacity as magistrates, have authority to act on such preliminary matters as issuing arrest warrants and search warrants and setting the amount of preliminary bail bond. They do so in ex parte hearings, listening to only the law enforcement side and using the very low standard of proof allowed in these early steps of the process, not the tougher standards used at later hearings or the reasonable doubt standard required at trial.
Frequently, the news media and the general public use shorthand phrases like “dismissed a felony” when that doesn’t fully convey the precise nature of what happened and isn’t entirely in sync with the language used in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. My hunch as to what happened here is that the municipal court judge decided, after considering the the evidence and arguments at the hearing, that the previously-issued warrant to arrest Juan Guerra(when there had been no hearing)had been improvidently granted and withdrew his approval of that warrant. It would have been perfectly normal for the reporter covering the event to have summarized what happened as the dismissal of a felony.

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