State lawmaker out of jail 6 days after DWI sentencing

By Jon Cassidy | Watchdog.org

State Rep. Naomi Gonzalez, D-El Paso, was released from Travis County Jail at 5:19 a.m. Thursday, less than six days after she was sentenced to 15 days in jail for driving while intoxicated.

Roger Wade, a spokesman for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, said that under state law, any day in custody without a rules violation is rewarded with another day of credit toward time served, unless the judge orders otherwise.

“In this case, she was given one day credit from the day she was arrested and she was given good time credit,” he said.

Any portion of a calendar day spent behind bars, such as the night of her arrest, the afternoon she started her sentence, and Thursday morning, counts as a full day – or two, actually.

In the early morning of March 14, 2013, Gonzalez was arrested after her BMW rear-ended another vehicle, which in turn struck a bicyclist, who had to be taken to the hospital. Gonzalez’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit of 0.8.

The police report might as well have been her political epitaph, as the officer wrote, “Never once did Ms. Gonzalez ask how the other people involved in the crash were doing, but she cried about how she had worked so hard to get where she was.”

Afterward, she gave a speech on the floor of the House about the incident, which Texas Monthly called, “inappropriate,” “unseemly,” and “awkward,” in naming her one of the worst legislators of the year.

Gonzalez will end her term in January, after finishing third in the Democratic primary.

She will be back at work Monday when a legislative committee meets to decide whether to recommend the impeachment of University of Texas Regent Wallace Hall.

Contact Jon Cassidy at jon@watchdog.org or @jpcassidy000. If you would like to send him documents or messages anonymously, download the Tor browser and go to our SecureDrop submission page: http://5bygo7e2rpnrh5vo.onion