Officials: Guerra can’t remove Barnhart

RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra doesn’t have legal grounds to remove County Judge Eliseo Barnhart from office, District Clerk Gilbert Lozano and legal experts said.

In a motion filed Wednesday, Guerra accuses Barnhart of sexual assault of a former secretary and aggravated perjury which Guerra alleges occurred before Barnhart’s election in November 2006, Lozano pointed out.

But law bars the removal of elected county officials for acts committed before their election, Lozano said, citing section 87.001 of the Texas Local Government Code.

“An officer may not be removed under this chapter for an act the officer committed before election to office,” the law states.

Barnhart’s attorney, Eileen Leeds, said Friday that a gag order bars her from commenting on the case.

Barnhart said this week that the gag order prevented him from commenting. Last year, when an allegation of indecent exposure first arose, Barnhart denied the accusation.

Guerra said the law does not set limits for the removal of elected county officials who commit criminal acts.

“For a criminal (removal), it doesn’t matter when he commits a crime,” Guerra said.

But other attorneys, including one who is the former director of legal services for the Texas Municipal League, said Guerra is wrong.

Monte Akers said the law clearly bars an elected county official from removal for acts committed before election.

“If he has not been convicted and the acts occurred before he was elected, I don’t see how this can pertain to the Local Government Code,” Akers said.

Barnhart has never been charged with the accusations in Guerra’s motion.

David Brooks, an Austin attorney on retainer with Cameron County, said “the statute speaks for itself.”

“The district attorney may be off-base,” Brooks said.

In the motion, Guerra accuses Barnhart of sexual assault and aggravated perjury and argues that Barnhart is incompetent or has committed misconduct, two offenses that could lead to removal from office.

“As an attorney, (Guerra) should be familiar with this chapter so if he isn’t, then he’s incompetent, and if he is aware and went ahead and filed … then he has committed official misconduct,” Lozano said. “So it’s one or the other.”

Akers said he didn’t believe a district attorney who files such a petition would face sanctions.

Guerra has tried to indict Barnhart before the current Willacy County grand jury, Police Chief Uvaldo Zamora has said.

Friday, the grand jury continued deliberations, Guerra said.

Barnhart becomes the latest elected county official that Guerra has tried to remove from office.

In April, Guerra tried to remove Lozano, Sheriff Larry Spence and County Clerk Terry Flores, charging they failed to shut down a bail bond company he claimed operated illegally. In May, a judge dismissed Guerra’s motion based on Guerra’s own recommendation.

In 2006, voters overwhelmingly elected Barnhart, then a justice of the peace, to the county judge’s bench.

Barnhart has been mired in allegations since former secretary Andrea Sias Espinosa accused him of exposing himself to her in February 2006 while he was a candidate for county judge.

In May 2006, a grand jury found no evidence to indict Barnhart on a charge of indecent exposure.

Then in October 2006, a grand jury indicted Sias Espinosa, her husband Rene Espinosa and her aunt Gloria Reyes Garcia on charges of trying to extort $35,000 from Barnhart.

In June, state District Judge Manuel Bañales, the Fifth Judicial District’s administrative judge, dismissed charges against the three co-defendants because special prosecutor Gus Garza had failed to take an oath of office to prosecute the case.