District Court Judge Luis Aguilar files paperwork to withdraw from runoff election
243rd District Court Judge Luis Aguilar has submitted paperwork to remove his name from a runoff election ballot, the El Paso County Democratic confirmed Thursday.
Party chairwoman Iliana Holguin told ABC-7 the paperwork has been turned in to the Texas Democratic Party and the Secretary State and it should finalized by the end of the day.
On election night March 6, 2018, Selena Solis received about 47 percent of the vote while Aguilar came in second with about 24 percent of the vote.
Prior to the election, Aguilar had El Pasoans not to vote for him. In an ad in the El Paso Times, Aguilar said, “Please do not vote for me. I am not running for another term. I am eternally grateful to all my friends, family and supporters who have been with me my entire career.” At the time, Aguilar said he was unsuccessful in getting his name removed from the ballot.
Run-off or not, Aguilar will remain on the bench until the end of December. Monday, Commissioners Court decided to wait two weeks before making a decision on whether Aguilar will be allowed to travel out of town for required training. Aguilar had requested the County pay for a trip in June to San Antonio for the training seminar. Since his political future is uncertain, Commissioners didn’t know if Aguilar should attend and if the County should pay for the trip.
In 2017, Aguilar was reprimanded by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for his actions and behavior towards attorneys and jurors. In the space of a year-and-a-half, the commission received nine complaints against Aguilar.
Many of the complaints focused on Aguilar holding attorneys in contempt of court for failing to appear even though the attorneys had the right to have other lawyers represent them, or valid reasons for why they could not make it.
A Houston attorney was eight months pregnant and had a doctor’s order not to travel. Another attorney complained Aguilar failed to follow proper procedure when asked to recuse himself from a case and instead pushed ahead with the legal proceeding. A prospective juror claimed Aguilar treated a woman in the jury pool with disrespect and claims the judge said the woman could file a complaint with the commission, but such grievances did not concern him because “he knew how to handle them.”
Court documents state Aguilar contends the complaints against his demeanor were politically motivated or brought by people who simply do not like him. Aguilar was ordered, at his own expense, to take eight hours of instruction at a college for new judges in Austin. He was also ordered to participate in two hours of instruction in the area of contempt of court with a mentor chosen by the commission.
