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IV. Defendants Dominate Continuances

Thirty-two lawmakers reported a remarkable 431 legislative continuances during the two years studied. Criminal cases account for 63 percent of these continuance filings largely due to the work of hyperactive criminal-defense attorney Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas) (see below). Lawmakers filed 29 percent of their continuances in civil cases, which would far outnumber criminal filings were it not for Rep. Alonzo’s prolific criminal filings. Finally, family-law cases accounted for 8 percent of all continuances cases.

Criminal Defense Attorneys
Filed the Most Continuances

 

No. of

% of

Case Type

Cases

Cases

Criminal

272

63%

Civil

126

29%

Family

33

8%

TOTAL:

431

100%

Defendants Dominate
Civil Continuance Filings

Continunace Filings

No. of

% of

In Civil Cases

Cases

Cases

For Defendants

88

70%

For Plaintiffs

30

24%

NA or Unclear

8

6%

TOTAL:

126

100%

In theory and in practice, defendants seem to have a greater interest in delaying both civil and criminal judgments. Defendants accounted for the vast majority of all legislative-continuance filings in both criminal and civil cases. In non-family civil cases, defense attorneys accounted for the vast majority of the continuance filings, outnumbering continuance filings by plaintiff attorneys almost three to one. Such corporate giants as Farmers Insurance, Ford Motor Co., Wal-Mart and Wyeth Pharmaceutical all retained lawmakers who filed legislative continuances.

Continuances By Big Corporate Defendants

 

 

Continuance

Corporate Client

Continuance Filer

Filing Date

Clayton Homes

Rep. Jim Solis (D-Harlingen)

2/24/2005

Farmers Insurance

Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville)

4/22/2005

HEB Grocery

Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville)

4/22/2004

Ford Motor Co.

Rep. Vilma Luna (D-Corpus)

3/18/2005

Wal-Mart

Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville)

4/22/2004

Wal-Mart

Rep. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio)

1/14/2005

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Rep. Ruben Hope (R-Conroe)

8/14/2003

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals

Rep. Ruben Hope (R-Conroe)

9/12/2003

Rep. Veronica Gonzales (D-McAllen) filed the boldest continuance request. Although legislative continuances only apply to state court cases, Rep. Gonzales sought one in federal court in McAllen in June 2005. Rep. Gonzales filed this unusual request soon after she was assigned to defend alleged marijuana dealer Israel Jose Juarez, Jr. The federal judge in this case does not appear to have ruled on this continuance request. 10

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10. One possible reason is that the judge granted a non-legislative continuance motion that Rep. Gonzales had filed three days prior to her request for a legislative continuance. See case 99-CR-00580 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, McAllen Division.