More families file against ‘spanking judge'

A petition against Gustavo "Gus" Garza grew by two on the eve of a temporary restraining order hearing against the Cameron County Pct. 6 Justice of the Peace.

The parents of two minors came forth Tuesday, asking 404th state District Judge Abel C. Limas to prevent Garza from ordering, encouraging or allowing spankings in his courtroom as punishment.

"I wouldn't hit a child with a paddle, particularly one with physical problems," plaintiffs' attorney Mark Sossi told The Brownsville Herald late Tuesday. Sossi was referring to one of the two children, who suffers from a muscular-development birth defect and allegedly was spanked in Garza's court.

The child with the disability is a 14-year-old boy who used profanity toward a school bus driver. The second is a 14-year-old girl who skipped class, Sossi said, shortly after filing his amended petition in district court. The respective parents are Leroy Garcia and Rosa Valdez.

This morning, Limas will hear the request for a temporary restraining order against Garza first brought last week by Mary Vasquez and her husband Daniel Zurita, who filed a lawsuit against the justice of the peace, a former state district attorney and special prosecutor.

They allege that Garza compelled Zurita to spank his teen stepdaughter under threat that she would be found guilty of a criminal offense and fined $500 for not attending school unless spanked.

The same allegation is forwarded in the amended petition that Sossi filed late Tuesday, including the other minors.

Garza rebuts that he didn't spank the teen girl and that Zurita, her stepfather, did. Garza also claims that the law permits this as an option to paying a fine.

Sossi disputes the assertion, contending among numerous arguments that it is not an option when the child or parents can't afford the fine and that spanking, tantamount to "caning," is not a punishment allowed by law or in the courtroom. Sossi also maintains that spankings are painful, degrading and humiliating.

The parents also seek Garza's removal from office.

After parents feel compelled to spank their children, they claim, Garza orders the children to bend over a chair placed directly in front of the bench. They are ordered to put their elbows on the arms of a chair with the buttocks facing Garza.

"(Garza) has long engaged in this kind of corporal punishment under the authority of his office. Ten years ago when the defendant was a district attorney in Willacy County, he used the color and authority of his office to threaten criminal prosecution unless the parents struck their children with a wooden paddle he owned," Sossi states in the amended petition.

The initial petition alleges Garza directed Zurita to repeatedly strike his stepdaughter on the buttocks with a large, heavy wooden paddle fashioned from a thick piece of lumber in open court and in the presence of other adults and juveniles.

Zurita stated in an affidavit that, "I did not feel that I had a choice but carry out the orders of the judge. When I was finished, Judge Garza told me that I had not struck (my stepdaughter) hard enough..."

Zurita and Vasquez also claim that they were in Garza's courtroom when he ordered the paddling of other minors.

Garza said Friday that he has not kept count on the number of children paddled in his court.

eperez-trevino@brownsvilleherald.com