Lawsuit calls for removal of county judge

A recently filed lawsuit calls for the removal of Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra, alleging he accepted a stipend for duties he did not perform.

Plaintiff Nathan Kaspar alleges that Becerra accepted two stipends of $25,000 each to perform judicial functions, although there are no records of documents to show that work was done.

The lawsuit filed Monday in a Hays County District Court states Becerra received $50,000 between 2019 and 2020 after filing affidavits with the Texas Comptroller’s Office swearing at least 40% of his duties would be judicial functions.

An administrator for Hays County Courts at Law 1, 2 and 3, however, testified that Becerra has never presided over any docket at the Hays County Courts at Law Level.

The lawsuit calls “official misconduct” and “incompetency” into question as the basis for Becerra to be removed from office immediately.

“Either in a lack of ethics or competency, he is not qualified to serve as county judge,” Kaspar said.

Kaspar suspected that Becerra was not holding a docket after conducting a financial audit of the county court system spurred by the recent discussion about creating a Public Defender Office.

“There is a lot of talk of access to justice here lately and how there is a backlog in the courts and jail,” Kaspar said. “Judge Becerra isn’t doing anything but running around campaigning for a public defender office. It’s the height of hypocrisy to be going to taxpayers to say we need a public defender office when he is already taking a salary to act as a judge in court to alleviate some of that backlog.”

In contrast, records show former Hays County Judge Bert Cobb performed magistration for 209 cases between 2014 and 2017 under the same Texas Government Code section describing the Judicial Functions Salary.

A statement issued on behalf of Becerra through the Pastrano Law Firm calls the lawsuit baseless.

"In conjunction with the General Counsel for Hays County and the Texas Association of Counties, we will put together a team that will work to put this nonsense to rest so that Judge Becerra can continue his work on behalf of Hays County without these distractions,” the statement said.

Becerra’s representation E. Chevo Pastrano, a criminal defense and personal injury lawyer based out of San Marcos, refers to the lawsuit as a smear campaign, to which Kaspar responded, “Everyone Republican and Democrat should be mad about this. I would hope that people would look past partisanship and look toward financial responsibility. We are a very fast growing county, our tax base is slow to catch up with the needs of the county. So we cannot tolerate wasteful and fraudulent spending out of the county or state budget. Our public officials have to be held to an incredibly high standard. Putting money directly into their own pocket is incredibly disqualifying.”

Kaspar is represented by Bud Wymore, a former candidate for State Representative who is the attorney for the city of Woodcreek and the General Counsel for the Hays County Republican Party, and Brian Bishop, an attorney and former prosecutor for the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.

The lawsuit filed Monday also alleges criminal misconduct by tampering with or falsifying a governmental record or making a false statement under oath.