Hidalgo County Courthouse solicitations?
Are some Hidalgo County court-at-law judges abusing the system? Soliciting weddings inside the Hidalgo County Courthouse because it personally benefits them financially?
The Oct. 17, 2024, agenda for the Hidalgo County Board of Judges, presided over by state District Court Judge Noe Gonzalez, had this item listed for discussion: “Discussion and possible action on marriage solicitation.”
This same topic was news back in 2015 when The Advance published a story about it Aug. 5, 2015, which carried this headline: “More Wedding Bell$$$.”
That story had to do with Hidalgo County Court-at-Law #6 Judge Albert Garcia and the question as to whether or not he was taking advantage of the courthouse marriage process by unfairly padding his own pocket — a charge he denied in that published piece.
In that story dated nine years ago, judges at the county courthouse conducting a wedding were charging $100 a pop, and they got to keep all the money even though the nuptials were being performed on public property.
In that 2015 story, one woman, Fern McClaugherty, who’s a longtime member of the grassroots group, the OWLS, claimed that the practice of some judges trolling for weddings was nothing new: “Been going on for years,” she said. “When they used to have the commissioners court meetings right across the street from the courthouse, we’d go over there during the breaks and see all of the bailiffs sitting on a bench right by the elevator. And when one couple came out with a marriage certificate, one bailiff would hop up and grab them, and the rest of the bailiffs would simply scoot up, moving their bottoms along the bench. Like taxi cabs moving up in line at an airport.”
In that same story, McClaugherty claimed that she had records to back up her claim: “Every year, we’d get the records of how many (weddings) the various judges were performing. More than several were making more than a hundred thousand dollars a year just performing weddings. And instead of being in court where they belonged, they’d have their bailiffs down by the elevator, all of them trolling for marriages.”
Judge Garcia Responds
In a story published prior to the August 2015 story, Hidalgo County Court-at-Law #6 Judge Albert Garcia agreed to an interview and denied that he had any bailiffs trolling for marriages, as it were. In that story, he said it was simply a matter of time and presence: “I’m here. I’m the only one, and you can ask around to all the attorneys, anybody…I’m the only one that’s here Monday through Friday from 8 to 5. If you come in on Friday, you’ll find that it’s me. Maybe one or two other judges that are here on Fridays.”
The process may have changed since 2015, but here’s how it worked back then, and based on the fact that it made it onto an Hidalgo County Board of Judges agenda earlier this month, not much has changed, or so it seems: People show up at the county courthouse and go to the county clerk’s office, step up to the marriage window, show the required documents to the clerk and get their marriage license. Both applicants must be present with proper ID. To find out more about the particulars of what’s needed, people may do an online search — requirements to get a marriage license in Hidalgo County Texas, which will direct them to the county clerk’s website – or they may call 318-2100.
Once the marriage license is in hand, the happy couple has to wait 72 hours to get hitched unless they can find a district judge or a county courtat- law judge who has the authority to waive the time restriction.
That’s where, allegedly, a judge or two has placed a bailiff or a “wedding- runner,” if you will, to approach the happy couple and say, “Hey, I can get you married sooner…follow me,” and to the judge’s courtroom they proceed.
Nine years ago, court records showed that during a span of 17 months, Judge Albert Garcia performed 924 marriages compared to 14 state district and court-at-law judges, all of whom, combined, only performed 1,158 marriages on county property.
In that Advance story published in 2015, Judge Garcia, on the bench since 2007, an Alamo municipal judge for 12 years prior, had this to say about the disparity: “The reason that that happens, is that (a judge) has got to be in (his or her) office in order for the weddings to be performed. If (the other judges) are not here, how do they expect to get any weddings? And by the way, I do claim all that extra money on my tax returns. That was another rumor going around: that I wasn’t (claiming the money and simply pocketing the money).”
According to a source who was in on the Oct. 17 Board of Judges meeting, Judge Noe Gonzalez didn’t call any judge out by name — You know who you are, he reportedly said.
But he did say that some people are complaining about the trolling for weddings, if you will, and it needs to stop.
Besides Judge Albert Garcia, the other court-at-law judge allegedly trolling for weddings, more than the rest, is Judge Rodolfo “Rudy” Gonzalez