400 more criminal cases motioned for dismissal due to inaction by the district attorney's office: Texas

10/12/2022

The El Paso county public defender says her office has motioned to dismiss another 400 criminal cases because of inaction from the district attorney’s office.

Kelli Childress, the public defender, says her office made the motion on Wednesday morning, and they expect the cases to be assigned to the referral docket on October 18, where a judge will make the final determination on whether or not to dismiss the cases.

Childress says her office has identified hundreds of additional cases that are eligible for dismissal, and it could add up to more than 1,000 new filings. Her office is in the time-consuming process of contacting clients who are impacted.

This is the first filing since late August when the public defender’s office filed a wave of dismissals that resulted in more than 900 criminal cases being dismissed.

Texas law allows the district attorney’s office to refile these cases. The office is in the process of reviewing the more than 900 cases that were dismissed in August and September. Chief of the intake department, assistant district attorney Douglas Tiemann, told ABC-7 on September 7 that 80 cases have been refiled and the office has identified another 420 to refile.

The case dismissals are considered a 32.01 dismissal. That code in Texas law says a case can be dismissed if an individual is not indicted within 180 days of their arrest. In some of the cases dismissed in August, defendants were still waiting for an indictment more than 900 days after their arrest.

“There are people who are truly scared, and if their case isn’t finalized, what security do they have,” Carmona asked back in August.

Carmona filed a motion to remove district attorney Yvonne Rosales from her elected position on August 24.

The cases that were dismissed include drug possession, assaults, and family violence. Legal experts have said that the delay in indictments affects both the accused and accusers. Local attorney Omar Carmona says those accused of family violence have no restrictions against them from contacting their accuser.