{"id":454327,"date":"2026-10-02T14:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454327\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:26:07","slug":"texas-house-hearing-takes-aim-at-travis-county-da-jose-garza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454327\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas House hearing takes aim at Travis County DA Jos\u00e9 Garza"},"content":{"rendered":"

Travis County\u2019s district attorney was much of the focus of a 12-hour Texas House committee hearing this week \u2014\u00a0but Jos\u00e9 Garza didn’t attend. <\/p>\n

The Texas House Committee on Governmental Oversight hearing Wednesday centered around \u201cprosecutorial integrity\u201d \u2014 or a lack thereof, as some lawmakers see it. State officials have long accused so-called rogue prosecutors<\/a> of failing to investigate and try cases under the letter of the law, singling out Garza specifically.<\/p>\n

Garza ran on a progressive platform to reduce jail stays in Travis County and prosecute police for misconduct. He was invited to testify at Wednesday’s hearing after being called out<\/a> by the state\u2019s governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.<\/p>\n

One of his prosecutors, Stephanie Gharakhanian, served as Garza\u2019s proxy, reading a five-page written statement to the panel. She argued the district attorney\u2019s office is prosecuting cases when it has evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cA prosecutor’s decision to reject a charge or to dismiss a case based on insufficient evidence does not mean that a prosecutor has gone ‘rogue,’\u201d she said. \u201cIt does not mean that a prosecutor is not enforcing the law. To the contrary, it means that the prosecutor is following the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Rep. Richard Hayes, a Denton Republican and former prosecutor, dressed down Gharakhanian and the district attorney\u2019s office for not being accountable to constituents or the committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of the problem of y’all hiding the weenie, so nobody knows what’s going on, and then you wonder what all this hubbub is about,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need a little sunshine here. We need to open up the doors, put a little light on this issue. That’s what we’re trying to do, and all you’ve done today is hide.\u201d<\/p>\n

State Rep. Richard Pe\u00f1a Raymond from Laredo was perhaps the most outspoken against Garza, a fellow Democrat. He said he personally had issues with Travis County prosecutors when he received a death threat, and it wasn’t investigated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public has a right to understand what the hell is going on,\u201d Raymond said in a heated exchange with Gharakhanian.<\/p>\n

Raymond said prosecutors in Travis County \u201cchose not to do anything\u201d with the case and even brandished a pistol on the dais that he said carries for self-defense as a result of the incident.<\/p>\n

Gharakhanian, who doesn\u2019t prosecute violent crime, spent nearly two hours addressing concerns. She pointed out that Austin\u2019s violent crime rate has dropped<\/a> since 2021 and that Garza\u2019s office handles roughly 15,000 cases a year.<\/p>\n

But scores of witnesses came out against the district attorney\u2019s office, highlighting instances where prosecutors fumbled a case or when repeat offenders were released on bail.<\/p>\n

In a statement to KUT Thursday, Garza\u2019s office said he offered to meet with lawmakers individually and that he takes the committee\u2019s concerns seriously.<\/p>\n

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows signaled support Thursday for more state oversight of local prosecutors ahead of the legislative session next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen witnesses like District Attorney Jos\u00e9 Garza fail to attend and answer questions on public safety in their county, it is evident the work of this committee is just getting started,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Travis County\u2019s district attorney was much of the focus of a 12-hour Texas House committee hearing this week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,50441,156031,156032,156033],"class_list":["post-454327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-jose-garza","tag-rogue-das","tag-texas-house-hearing","tag-travis-county-da"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}