Texas AG Office OPPOSES Due Process and Constitutional Right to Attorney in SCOTX Case

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does a great job of filing briefs and taking legal action in support of constitutional rights, and many on his staff are very good at defending the Constitution. Unfortunately, at least one attorney on his staff didn’t get the memo about supporting and defending the Constitution. In Supreme Court of Texas case 19-1101, Ken Paxton’s office is arguing AGAINST due process and AGAINST the constitutional right to an attorney in criminal proceedings. These are basic constitutional rights. These are rights that Republicans shouted from the rooftops that President Donald Trump was denied these rights in the impeachment proceedings against him in the US House of Representatives. They shouted from the rooftops that these are basic constitutional rights of any criminal proceeding. But yet when it comes to an actual criminal case in Texas with someone lower in status than the President, all of the sudden these basic rights don’t matter anymore? That is wrong. Ken Paxton should be alerted to this horrendous position that his staff has presented to the SCOTX. Ken Paxton likely does not even know about this situation with all the cases his office processes, but the Ken Paxton I have seen on Fox News defending the Constitution would not agree with his staff’s position to oppose the constitution. If Ken Paxton doesn’t reverse this position by his office, then it will be a black eye for his record of defending and protecting constitutional rights in Texas. This case, if it does not end in the Texas Supreme Court, has the potential to go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Texas is better than this. Texas should stand up for basic constitutional rights, especially in criminal cases where someone’s life is on the line and they deserve to have an attorney and due process.

The Texas Supreme Court case number is 19-1101 IN RE JOSHUA LEROY JAROS. I wrote an article about this case and the #FreeJoshJaros situation not long ago when the petition first made its way to the Supreme Court of Texas. Now the Texas Attorney General’s office has filed their response, which to my surprise the staff attorney stuck to the story of rejecting the Constitutional right to an attorney and Due Process. This is something I do not believe Ken Paxton would agree with and I hope that he hears about this and takes action to ensure his office is upholding the Constitution and Due Process.

After the response from the Texas AG’s office, a response was made on behalf of #freeJoshJaros and a portion of this response to the state is below:

Comes now Joshua Jaros and would request that this Honorable Supreme Court order the temporary release of Joshua Jaros, as requested in the original Habeas Corpus petition to this Court, pending the final decision and judgement from this Court in this case. Now that the state has responded, it is clear that constitutional violations against Joshua Jaros have occurred which deprived him of Due Process. The state failed to even address the most serious constitutional issues in their response, and agreed or didn’t dispute many key facts and issues. For instance, it is agreed upon and undisputed by all parties that Joshua Jaros faced a criminal proceeding, he requested to be appointed an attorney because he cannot afford one, there was a previous undisputed affidavit of inability to pay by Joshua Jaros in the underlying case which Joshua pointed out, the court instead gave Joshua a form to fill out that did not allow for a listing of expenses, the request for indigency was never disputed by the state before the Judge determined Joshua is not indigent, the Judge never asked for more information nor allowed Joshua to provide any information to explain his expenses and his inability to afford an attorney other than the insufficient form he was given to fill out. The court found Joshua non indigent and denied him an attorney and immediately proceeded with the criminal trial against Joshua Jaros instead of giving Joshua Jaros adequate time to find an attorney now that the Judge had just denied Joshua a court appointed attorney.

None of the above facts are disputed by any party. The dispute is whether or not the Texas and US Constitution and Due Process requires that Joshua Jaros, who was facing a criminal trial with a state attorney against him, have an adequate review of his actual ability to afford an attorney which would include a review of his necessary expenses in order to be able to make a reasonable determination of ability to afford an attorney before being denied a court appointed attorney, and then given time to find an attorney after being denied a court appointed one. The State’s position is that yes Joshua was denied a review of his expenses and denied a review of his full situation regarding ability to afford an attorney, but its ok because he doesn’t need a full review because the law doesn’t require it. The State is wrong. The law does require it as the law does require an indigency determination and an indigency determination cannot reasonably be determined without having looked at both income and expenses. However, it is true that the law, although reasonably implied, does not specifically state the process or basic guidelines of determining indigency in this case must include reviewing expenses. The state relies on the idea that the law doesn’t say it must be done so it is ok if it isn’t done. What the state fails to consider or respond to is that the Constitution is above the law. The Constitution and Due Process require that Joshua Jaros have a full and reasonable examination of his actual ability to afford an attorney, which would include reviewing expenses, before being denied the fundamental constitutional right to a court appointed attorney, or given time to find an attorney if a reasonable and adequate determination has been made denying him an appointed attorney.

The Constitution and Due Process requires this, Joshua Jaros was denied this, and therefore Joshua Jaros must be released as his rights were clearly violated. If the state’s argument is right that the law allows it, then the law must be struck down as unconstitutional because it is at odds with the constitution and due process. This is not just about Joshua Jaros. This case is about every Texan who might face a criminal prosecution and who cannot afford an attorney. There must be a more constitutional standard for which Judges must go by when determining who gets a court appointed attorney. It is unconstitutional for every judge to have a different standard, or no standard at all, which allows for them to just check a box of non-indigent and deny constitutional rights to attorneys without having been required to do a reasonable and thorough examination of the defendant’s expenses and actual ability to afford an attorney.

Texas Supreme Court to Rule on #FreeJoshJaros - Constitutional Rights to Attorney at Stake

I recently helped file a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus before the Supreme Court of Texas regarding the egregious constitutional violations of Judge Patrice McDonald in Montgomery County, Texas. Hopefully the SCOTX will stand up for the Constitution and Free Joshua Jaros. Specifically, Judge McDonald refused to allow Joshua Jaros to have an attorney in a criminal proceeding, and then threw him in jail for a debt that he could not afford and without the chance to have an attorney to represent him and present his case as the Constitution requires.

The Joshua Jaros Habeas Corpus petition Supreme Court case number is 19-1101 IN RE JOSHUA LEROY JAROS. 

If the name Judge Patrice McDonald sounds familiar, it is because she has been in the headlines recently by Investigative Reporter Wayne Dolcefino. Wayne has been exposing Judge McDonald after she threatened to throw a man in jail for not paying for an attorney and for spousal support for his bigamist ex in a divorce proceeding.

The man, Mark Athans, filed for divorce after he found out his wife of 5 months was already married. The woman was a fraudster and charged with Felony Bigamy. The marriage between Mark and woman was voided in the state in which it occurred. That didn’t stop Judge McDonald though who proceeded with the divorce case and refused to consider that there is no marriage due to the fraud and felony behavior of Mark’s ex, and even was going to jail the victim Mark if he did not pay his con artist ex’s attorney fees.

The latest victim of Judge McDonald is Joshua Jaros, who now sits in jail after having his Constitutional rights tossed out the window. The situation with Josh Jaros reveals a bigger issue with the horrible family law system in Texas in which good parents, mostly fathers, get separated from their children which causes a ripple effect of harm to the children and society as a whole. Reducing incentive for parents to fight over children should be a priority in Texas. Equal Shared Parenting laws overwhelmingly and on a bi partisan basis passed out of the Texas House this past session but never made it to the floor. Children should be able to have access and love from both fit parents, and parents should not have incentive to fight with their children’s lives and instead have to practice equal shared parenting. This would reduce the factual devastating effects on children that this fighting and parental alienation causes because parents will be forced to share costs and parenting instead of parents using their children as pawns to get a little more parenting time to hurt their ex or to be able to get more child support or be awarded legal fees for their lawyers.

Josh Jaros was jailed in Montgomery County Texas after he received no jury trial and after he was denied an attorney which is a basic constitutional right and is even Texas Law. There were other issues as well such as fatal flaws in the notice and pleadings. Josh Jaros is a great father who supports and takes care of his kids but could not pay the several hundred dollars a month to his ex-wife each month after Josh already pays to take care of his kids half the time and provides a roof over their head and food for them to eat etc. Both parents should always be able to equally be with their children if there is no threat of harm or violence etc, and supporting children in Texas means both parents taking care of the children equally. Texas needs to pass equal shared parenting laws so that children get to have both of their parents in their lives, and it would exponentially cut down on the fighting and tearing apart and bankrupting of families in the court system of fit parent had no choice but to share their child equally instead of being able to go to court and fight for more time or more money. #FreeJoshJaros

The Texas and US Constitutions require that any criminal defendant has a right to an attorney and even the right to have one appointed for them if they are unable to afford one. Seems pretty straight forward right? Unfortunately, the Court systems in Texas (and in the Nation) do not always follow the Constitution and are in need of serious reform. The Constitutional rights we all hold dear frequently get tossed out the window in courtrooms where judges can virtually do whatever they want with immunity. There are many good and great Judges who follow the law and the Constitution, but there are also Judges who do not. There is very little oversight when clear laws and rules are violated by judges. There is even less method of reprimanding a Judge, and even less of an adequate way to reverse a Judge who clearly violates the law or the Constitution. If the Law or the Constitution says a Judge has to do something specific, and the judge simply refuses, then what recourse does someone have? Just because the law says it MUST be done does not mean a judge has to follow it because there is NO reason for them to. They won’t be disciplined. They MIGHT be overturned if you can get an appeals court to take interest in the case but that could take years on appeal. Mandamus is the appropriate form of demanding that a Judge follow the law or constitution when it is clear they have not during the pendency of a case, but mandamus is rarely taken up even if the judge is completely wrong because the appeals court does not have to take them up and can just say they don’t have time to rule on the mandamus. Texas must create a better system of immediate and mandatory review when there is a question of whether or not a judge in a case is not following a clear and mandatory law or rule that must be followed. People’s lives and time and money should not have to wait for years of appeals to overturn a bad judge when there is a clear violation of law or rule by a judge. The clear violation by a judge should be resolved quickly so the underlying case moves forward and gets resolved in a fair and unbiased manner. Judges should be more strictly required to follow mandatory laws and procedures or face real consequences. As it stands now, Judges have no incentive to actually follow mandatory requirements if they know they will not get in trouble.