Judge in One of the County’s Busiest Courts to Be Appointed This Month
In Travis County, the Justice of the Peace for Precinct 5 runs one of our busiest courts, handling evictions, bond conditions, certain Class C misdemeanors, and more.
It’s a court where many defendants have their first experiences in the criminal justice system, and where an empathetic judge can spot people in need of urgent mental health care.
Judge Nick Chu has been presiding over that court since his appointment in 2017 (followed by an election in 2018), but with the creation of a new Probate Court which Chu will preside over come Oct. 1, the next justice of the peace for Precinct 5 will be appointed by the Travis County Commissioners Court. The county has been pretty quiet about this process since the commissioners court agenda noted open applications for JP 5 in early August, but it’s a big deal. Incumbent judges tend to win elections in Travis County, so whoever the commissioners court appoints to JP 5 will likely run the court for years to come. That decision will come very soon, with commissioners interviewing the final candidates Thursday, Sept. 7.
Chu’s tenure has been notable for a few reasons. He presided over the first fully virtual criminal jury trial during the pandemic in August 2020, but he said he’s most proud of the work he did to divert people out of jail, to increase access to justice for people who are indigent and to protect Austinites from eviction – especially during the pandemic. “I would say throughout the years, JP 5 has been a progressive leader,” Chu told the Chronicle. “Whoever continues after me I hope will carry on that mantle.”
So whose hats are in the ring? Commissioners have narrowed down the list to three. Two are local judges and one is director of the Criminal Trial Division at the Travis County Attorney’s Office.
First up, Tanisa Jeffers, who has 23 years of experience as a criminal defense attorney. For the last six years, she’s served as an associate judge of the city’s municipal court and as a Travis County magistrate judge. She has direct experience as a visiting judge in Travis County’s JP courts, where she’s heard eviction and collection cases. (One of her priorities for JP5 would be ensuring access to an Eviction Diversion Court.)
“My work as a Travis County magistrate judge mirrored Judge Chu’s work in a lot of ways,” Jeffers told the Chronicle. She wants to continue providing a diversion avenue for people with DWLI (Driving While License is Invalid) charges. “It is a similar type of work that I provided as Travis County Drug Court defense attorney, where we helped clients obtain a license and become ‘street legal.’”
She also wants to continue her cite-and-release approach for low level nonviolent offenses to avoid jailing people unnecessarily, and says that that model is especially appropriate for misdemeanor marijuana charges.
She said she’d keep an “eagle eye for our citizens who may be suffering from a mental illness and self medicating with drugs and alcohol, since often those issues can manifest in different ways – an eviction, a pending criminal case, et cetera.”
Next up, Rick Olivo has direct experience in busy JP 5 as a visiting judge. He’s served a combined 20 years as both a municipal court judge (in Austin and El Paso) and as a visiting judge for the JP courts. He’s a generalist with experience in a lot of areas – family law, probate, real estate, transactional and personal injury cases. “I can tell you that anybody can be physically present and ready to do the job on October 1,” he told the Chronicle. “The difficult part is to be able to make the decisions that have to be made without having to train to be able to do that.” He’s also fluent in Spanish and says being able to explain what’s happening to Spanish speaking defendants is important.
He sees efficiency as a top priority for the court that handles more cases than any other precinct. Making sure people have quick access to personal recognizance (PR) bonds – meaning they don’t have to pay bail to get out jail – will prevent unreasonably long jail stays, Olivo says.
“What I bring to the court is a judicial temperament that understands not just that I’m wearing a robe,” Olivo said, “but that the people before me are afraid, they’re nervous, they’re confused, and you have to take that into account not just in how you make the decision but how you explain it.”
Erin Shinn Sreenivasan is the only candidate without experience presiding over Travis County JP courts, and without experience as a judge. At the same time, she points out, “I am the only candidate who has extensive experience as a criminal defense attorney representing indigent clients and as a prosecutor working to ensure justice at a leadership level.” She has 15 years of criminal and related civil experience as a defense attorney and prosecutor. As the trial director in the Travis County Attorney’s Office, she collaborated directly with Chu’s court to expand diversion programs to redirect people away from the criminal justice system for low-level offenses like theft and drug possession.
Sreenivasan said one of her top priorities would be increasing the number of attorneys volunteering to work pro bono during eviction proceedings. She’d do that by working with community groups and the Austin Bar Association, she told the Chronicle. To expand technology access for defendants, she would work with the Commissioners Court to make computer kiosks available so Travis County residents “are not excluded from justice because they cannot afford to purchase a computer or internet.”
Through her work at the county attorney’s office, managing almost 100 attorneys and staff, she says she’s gained unique experience leading a governmental office. “Justice of the Peace courts are the people’s courts, and I aim to foster an environment where every person feels heard and can get access to justice,” she told the Chronicle.