Judge Will Fight Charges He Solicited Sex, Money For Influence

EL PASO, Texas — A county drug court judge is out on bond after being arrested Thursday morning, but he will be back in court soon to fight charges that he used his position to solicit sex and money.

Not only does he deny that he offered special treatment in exchange for sex, but only a few hours after FBI agents arrested Barraza at his home, the judge left the federal courthouse on bond.

“I’d rather get an attorney and let him deal with all these issues,” Barraza told ABC-7.

When asked if he hopes to be back on the bench, he said “I think I can.”

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct put a stop to that, suspending Barraza without pay.

“What do we do in the future? That court has a very busy docket,” said District Attorney Jaime Esparza.

Esparza’s office had more than a hundred cases in front of Barraza during the three months he has been in office.

“We will review all of those cases just to make sure they were in order,” Esparza said.

But Barraza is not without his supporters in the legal community. Attorney Teresa Caballero came to the federal courthouse Thursday to support him.

“I have nothing to say but good things about Judge Barraza…he’s much loved in the legal community here — and that’s for his fairness,” Caballero said.

Barraza’s bond is contingent on his staying in El Paso County and keeping a job. It is still not clear if this suspension from the bench will change that.

If Barraza is convicted he could face up to 20 years in federal prison and more than a quarter million dollars in fines.

Hewas arrested on two counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of making false statements, FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said. Barraza’s arrest is not related to the ongoing public corruption investigation, she said.

Shortly after being elected in November, the federal government alleges that Barraza promised to intervene in a felony case in exchange for monetary bribes, according to the indictment.

Then after being sworn in in January, he is accused of asking a defendant if she would exchange sex for preferential treatment on her case. The defendant was actually an undercover FBI agent.

The federal government believes that continued into February when Barraza allegedly also asked for money. They say Barraza lied to other federal investigators as recently as last week.