The Justice of the Peace Court is an important service and function of our County Government. Many people who come before this court on civil matters are unrepresented by an attorney. It is very important that the Judge of this court have the legal knowledge to understand the options the judge has to be able to make a fair decision.

 

As in any other profession, it does not just take good judgment to make a just decision, it requires knowledge and experience.

 

Knowledge and experience of the legal system allows the justice of the peace court to operate efficiently and within the bounds of the law. The justice of the peace court handles civil matters up to $10,000 in controversy. $10,000 is not a minor consequence to most individuals in our community. Sergio has handled cases in all courts in El Paso including Justice of the Peace Court, County Courts at Law, District Court and Appellate courts. The Justice of the Peace Court also handles class C misdemeanors, criminal cases (traffic citations, assaults, criminal mischief, theft under $50). Sergio’s experience with criminal law makes him uniquely suited to serve as JP. The Justice of the Peace also handles evictions and truancy cases. 

 

He has handled criminal cases as a prosecutor (Texas Attorney General’s Office, Travis County Attorney’s Office and El Paso County Attorney’s Office) from Class C misdemeanors to capital murder.

 

He is the only candidate in this race that has been a prosecutor in Justice of the Peace Court and who handled civil and criminal cases on a regular basis. He has also handled cases of eviction throughout my entire career as a private attorney.

 

Handling truancies are also an important function of the Justice of the Peace Court. Justice of the Peace Court is the front line of defense against High School dropouts. Sergio has been involved in both the defense of these cases and also as an official of a school district that refers these cases to court. One way to decrease dropouts and increase attendance is to engage students. Students become engaged in their education when they have an interest in a particular subject or career.

 

Sergio believes schools should focus on career counseling and on changing the school curriculum to require every student to be certified in a career field in order to graduate. This is a better measure of accountability than high stakes testing. During his tenure on the Canutillo School Board, Canutillo ISD has been at the forefront of getting rid of high stakes testing and focusing more on substantive learning. Using up valuable time and resources to prepare benchmarks, mock tests, seminars for teachers, curriculum programs geared strictly to pass the test and of course the multitude of actual high stakes tests is not working.

 

The result of truancies, is lost learning time. The cause of a student missing school is never properly addressed. To that end, Sergio will work with the school districts to set up a position at every school that deals strictly with truancies and getting students and parents the help that they need to avoid school absences. For truancies that result from collective “tardies,” court dates must be scheduled far in advance and require the student to attend tutoring to make up for lost class time. Firing people is not the answer. Education and counseling to fix the cause of the absences is the correct approach.