By Denise McVea

Archives - The Lamp

First published: 2020

Updated: July 2, 2024

 

It’s a long and convoluted story that is nowhere near its conclusion. But for now, here is what you need to know:

There is a constitutional crisis in our local courts. One example of that crisis is how local civil judges treat pro se litigants, people who go to court without lawyers. Bexar County judges have illegally dismissed thousands of pro se litigants' cases for failure to pay court costs – while denying them a legally required hearing.

 

Bexar County civil judges bragged to the Texas Judicial Commission that they disposed of thousands of civil cases a year. Apparently nobody cared how they were getting those numbers.

 

Here's how: staff attorneys stopped poor people from attending scheduled hearings, illegally denied their petition to proceed without paying court costs, and sent them home. A Bexar County  judge would then issue default judgments against those poor people for not showing up to court and close their cases.  (I know, it's awful.)

 

I protested that scheme. That was the first moment I fell afoul of the judiciary in Bexar County.

 

Then - naively - I announced in court that our small non-profit was building an information center on the Eastside to help give voice to my disenfranchised neighbors.  Eastsiders had already been complaining about property title fraud and other white collar crimes plaguing the area. The information center would help inform and empower them, I announced.

 

I promptly got arrested. Three times.

 

My first arrest came when I tried to report being attacked by a security guard from Statewide Patrol (a Statewide Patrol guard later gunned down a man he antagonized and pursued). The  criminal trespass charge the SAPD leveled at me - the victim - was quickly dropped. 

 

Not long after, I was arrested for allegedly holding a garage sale without a permit, reportedly the first criminal arrest of its kind in Texas. Disgraced former judge Angus McGinty convened a kangaroo court to try and get me to plea bargain. When I refused, that case was dropped. 

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It was after my third arrest that I became acquainted with Joe Gonzales.

 

The civil judges had evicted the Auris Project from the Eastside information center based on facially fraudulent quitclaim deeds. Kristina Combs, a semi-literate “practicing attorney” claimed to represent an Arizona buyer but immediately put the stolen property in her name and sold it. 

 

A day after the illegal eviction, which was facilitated by several judges, constables, and SAPD police officers,  I began filming the woman placing rare books from our bookstore in the back of a truck. The video shows the woman approach me, strike me, chase me to my car, before kicking my car door when I escaped inside. The entire thing was caught on video.  More than $100,000 of Auris Project assets were stolen that day.  Officer J. Martinez arrested ME for assault.

 

To defend me on that false criminal charge, I hired Joe Gonzales.

 

(I had little choice. SAPD had given criminal hackers free rein to intercept my cellular signal and emails at will when I tried to seek help.)

 

From the outset, I told Joe that I would not plea bargain under any circumstances.

 

Joe said that with the video, I had an open and shut case. I paid him $3000 for pretrial services.  I soon realized that Joe was doing no work on my case. He was evasive when I asked him what my rights and protections were. He ignored me when I asked about rules and procedure. Soon after, he informed me that he would not be doing any pretrial work after all; we would have to wait for trial. At that point, he informed me, I would have to pay him $3000 before he would commence trial work.

 

I fired him. He would not give me a full refund. The judge that kept me on a false bond for nearly two years, Scott Roberts, now works for Joe Gonzales. 

 

The entire time of our association, Joe Gonzales pressured me to plea bargain and repeatedly violated attorney-client privilege. (NOTE: If you plea bargain in Texas, you waive your constitutional rights.)

 

I ended up representing myself. I learned about probable cause, habeas corpus and criminal rules of procedure, which, as it turns out, no one in the courtroom was following. It took two years, but I successfully represented myself. No plea bargain, no trial, just a whispered hearing in a courtroom packed with other defendants straining to hear what was going on. I am now enrolled in Trinity Law School. I am interested in judicial reform for pro se litigants.

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Here’s why I am sharing this with you now:

 

I did not know Joe Gonzales when he took my money. His billboard promised (yes, it had come to that) a strong defense.

 

Joe Gonzales did not know me. He is a prosperous man. He had no need to steal from me, to deny me representation, to serve me up to a hostile court under FBI investigation for public corruption. Outside of external influences, Joe Gonzales had no personal reason to help corrupt police and judges victimize me in 2014.

 

So why did he? On whose behalf did Joe Gonzales abdicate his professional responsibility and why? What was the benefit? I asked myself that question many times during the 2014 malicious prosecution. When he ran for election for the district attorney post, I began to see. 

 

Joe’s tenure as district attorney has been disastrous, and the reputation of the DA's office has fallen precipitously under his leadership. It's not just me saying the District Attorney's Office under Joe Gonzales is toxic and corrupt. It's no secret. 

 

And now, as the district attorney, Gonzales has flouted criminal rules, due process, probable cause, state law, human rights, and legal ethics standards to try and help railroad me into prison so that the crimes I have documented against my community can remain hidden from view. The same corrupt SAPD cops who falsely arrested me in 2014 are now hunting me for my SIXTH false arrest - this time on bogus felony charges concocted in close collaboration with DA Joe Gonzales. 

 

And so now we know: Joe Gonzales is our Bexar County District Attorney because he will do just about anything to cover up crimes against our communities.

 

It's that simple. 

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