Travis County DA receives criticism from opponents ahead of election
AUSTIN, Texas - The Travis County District Attorney is getting more criticism from his political opponents. This comes as Jose Garza is adding endorsements and calling into question Democratic challenger Jeremy Sylestine’s campaign funds.
Downtown Austin Alliance and Opportunity Austin hosted a candidate forum with Sylestine and Daniel Betts on Thursday. They told voters why they think they’d be best for the job and plan to unseat Garza, who picked up another high-profile endorsement from Beto O’Rourke.
The two candidates at the forum are both criminal defense attorneys and have similar views, but are on different ballots. Sylestine is a Democrat running against Garza in the primary election and Betts is a Republican running unopposed.
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"It’s been difficult to see the damage that’s been done to our community in the last three plus years now with the lack of leadership in the District Attorney’s Office," Betts said.
"What I’ve seen out of the DA’s office over the past three years is a movement towards leniency where leniency isn’t due," Sylestine said.
Sylestine and Betts said, if elected, they want to be more transparent with the community. They said violent crimes need to be prosecuted seriously, and they want to help those dealing with mental health problems.
"The jail cannot be the reservoir for people who are suffering from mental health issues, and we just decide that that’s okay," Sylestine said.
"We can try to help them get the resources that are out here in our community, so they can start to undo that trauma, so that they can start to own it and not continue to be comfortable victimizing other people," Betts said.
As far as how the office would run, Betts said vertical prosecution is the answer, which is when a district attorney is assigned a case and works on it until there’s a resolution.
"That means that we know whose responsibility it is if a ball is dropped," Betts said.
Sylestine disagreed.
"It has lumped thousands of cases onto already overworked line prosecutors," Sylestine said.
He said that’s how a case like Hilario Adrian happens. Adrian was arrested last April for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. An indictment wasn’t returned, his bond was reduced, he got out of jail and then stabbed a man to death in December.
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"The DA’s office missed their deadline, they don’t want to own it because on that back end of that, three months later, there’s a dead person, and that dead person did not need to be there in that situation," Sylestine said.
The Garza campaign defended his work and said in a statement, "José Garza is doing exactly what Travis County voters elected him to do, fixing our broken criminal justice system by standing with survivors, working to end the excessive use of force by police, and prioritizing treatment over incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses." The Garza campaign sent the statement when 10 Democratic elected officials called on Sylestine to "renounce Republican money and Republican attacks in the Democratic primary."
"Sylestine is following their playbook to the letter, employing fear mongering and right wing misinformation tactics," Garza said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Garza campaign said he wasn’t at the forum Thursday morning because he had conflicting childcare responsibilities.
Garza has gotten into legal fights with the Texas Attorney General over decisions not to prosecute low-level marijuana offense, and Garza said he won’t prosecute abortion-related cases despite state law.
Sylestine’s campaign did not return FOX 7’s request for response on those issues. Sylestine also has not responded to the calls to return Republican money.