Elia Cornejo Lopez Reprimanded

Then-404th District Court Judge Elia Cornejo Lopez issued a 120-page order on October 6, 2020, recusing herself from a case — and used the order to make personal, disparaging remarks about family law attorney Reynaldo Garza, calling him "mentally ill and corrupt" and accusing him of violating attorney-client privilege. Garza filed a complaint, which the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct reviewed at a February 2024 meeting.

The Commission publicly reprimanded Cornejo Lopez for violating Canon 3B(4) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, which requires judges to treat everyone involved in court proceedings with patience, dignity, and courtesy. The Commission found she both failed to act with basic courtesy toward Garza and misused the judicial recusal process to air personal grievances against him.

Cornejo Lopez had already been voted out of office in the 2020 general election by the time the Commission acted in 2024.