AUSTIN >> El Paso attorney Theresa Caballero's law license is headed for probation after she won a motion in the Eighth Court of Appeals.
A divided appellate panel on Wednesday granted Caballero's request for a writ of mandamus, which orders a judge to sign a disciplinary order he had refused to sign. The court ordered a visiting judge to sign an agreement putting Caballero's license on probation for nine months and charged her $1,000 in fees.
Two members of the three-justice panel ruled that the judge, George D. Gilles of Midland, did not have the discretion to reject a 2012 punishment agreement between Caballero and the State Bar of Texas' Commission for Lawyer Discipline.
Caballero and her co-counsel, Stuart Leeds, faced punishment stemming from their behavior in a 2011 trial in which their client, 448th District Judge Regina Arditti, was acquitted of bribery.
Caballero was accusing the judge, Steven Smith of College Station, of racism even before the trial started. In 2012, Caballero and Leeds were convicted of criminal contempt after a weeklong long trial of charges Smith filed against them.
During the Arditti trial, Caballero improperly accused the judge and the prosecutor of being in cahoots and she intentionally impeded the trial, the judge in the contempt case ruled. Caballero was fined $900, but the judge probated the fine.
After the trial, the disciplinary commission filed civil complaints against Caballero and Leeds that could have resulted in their suspensions or disbarment.
Leeds entered into an agreement that would have put his law license on probation for six months, but the visiting judge in his disciplinary case rejected the agreement, hinting in his order that the punishment was too light. Leeds got the judge removed and argued that the order showed that the judge was prejudiced against him.
The judge who was subsequently appointed signed the agreement. Leeds was placed on six months' active suspension last year after a third judge ruled that he was guilty of contempt in a separate case.
Caballero's discipline case has been stalled as the appellate court, which sits in El Paso, considered her request that it order Gilles to sign the agreement with the disciplinary commission.
Gilles never gave a reason for refusing to sign the order, but he didn't have the discretion not to, two of the appellate justices — Ann Crawford McClure and Richard Barajas — ruled.
"We have found no cases in holding that a trial court has discretion in every civil case to approve or reject a settlement agreement entered into by the parties," McClure wrote in the majority opinion.
In her dissent, Justice Guadalupe Rivera wrote that it was a misnomer to call the document signed by Caballero and the disciplinary commission a settlement. It was merely a proposal, she wrote.
"The Texas Supreme Court has determined that a judge who presides a disciplinary proceeding possesses broad discretion to determine appropriate sanction or sanctions for professional misconduct," Rivera wrote.
All three justices made it clear that they did not agree with Caballero's behavior in the Arditti trial.
"While we disagree about the resolution, none of us should be heard as condoning the conduct alleged," they wrote.
Marty Schladen may be reached at 512-479-6606.