Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales’ reelection campaign is crying foul over attack ads from his opponent accusing the incumbent of failing to prosecute cases involving hard drugs like meth and fentanyl.
“Gonzales won’t work with police, won’t prosecute property crimes or possession of heroin, meth and fentanyl,” a voiceover by Republican DA candidate Marc LaHood states in the new TV spots, which have run on at least two local stations.
LaHood’s ads suggest Gonzales, a Democrat, has allowed crime to run rampant by promoting a cite-and-release program for minor offenses such as pot possession.
Despite LaHood’s claim that Gonzales “won’t work with police,” that cite-and-release program was developed in cooperation with the San Antonio Police Department.
Further, the blanket claim that the DA isn’t prosecuting hard drug cases is a falsehood, said campaign manager Laura Barberena, who sent emails to TV stations KSAT and KABB asking that they pull the spots.
So far, neither station has responded to the request. Neither immediately returned the Current‘s calls requesting comment.
While Gonzales’ drug declination policy applies to trace amounts of hard drugs such as heroin and meth — less than a quarter of a gram — his office prosecutes all fentanyl cases, Barberena said.
Gonzales promoted the cite-and-release program as a way to avoid filling the jail with nonviolent offenders by letting police write citations for minor offenses.
LaHood, a career criminal defense attorney who’s painted himself as a law-enforcement ally, has publicly said he opposes such a policy. He’s also the younger brother of former Bexar County DA Nico LaHood, whom Gonzales bested in the 2018 Democratic primary.
LaHood campaign spokesman Craig Murphy defended the claims in the TV ads, saying they’re based on paperwork signed by Gonzales in which the DA laid out the class of drugs and amount covered under the cite-and-release program.
“He specifically put it in writing,” Murphy said. “We don’t have to make it up.”
Murphy said he would email the referenced paperwork to the Current. He hadn’t done so at press time.
Barberena said the documents don’t excuse the claims in the ads, which are offered with no qualification about the amount of drugs to which the paperwork references. The trace amounts covered under the program are so tiny they’re often not worth the lab expense to test, she added.
“[The LaHood campaign] made a blanket statement,” Barberena said. “There’s nothing printed onscreen to qualify it. That makes it completely false.”
In its email to the TV stations, Gonzales’ campaign attached court filings showing that the DA’s office prosecuted recent heroin, meth and fentanyl cases. Further, it attached paperwork showing that LaHood represented some of the people prosecuted for those drug offenses.
“Marc LaHood actually has served as the criminal defense attorney on several of these cases, so we are a bit shocked that he would make these claims when he has firsthand knowledge to the contrary,” the campaign said in the emails.
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This article appears in Oct 19 – Nov 1, 2022.
