Lamar De La Cruz Admonished

The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct publicly admonished Justice of the Peace Lamar De La Cruz of Precinct 6, Starr County, on August 28, 2025, after finding she used her judicial office to resolve a private dispute outside any actual court case. According to the Commission's order, a Starr County resident, Jesse Clarke, asked De La Cruz for help recovering a 1980 Chevrolet pickup truck that had been at Feliberto Bazan's auto shop for roughly a decade. On or about June 3, 2022, De La Cruz telephoned Bazan and summoned him to immediately appear in her courtroom to discuss the dispute. Bazan believed he was being officially summoned and showed up that afternoon, where De La Cruz, a constable, and Clarke were already waiting.

De La Cruz then facilitated a mediation between the two men — at times contentious — that ended with Bazan turning the truck over to Clarke and paying him $500 for services that were never performed. When Bazan later asked for a copy of the summons he'd been ordered to appear under, none existed: no case regarding the dispute had ever been filed in her court.

The Commission found this conduct violated six separate provisions of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct and the Texas Constitution, including lending the prestige of judicial office to advance a private citizen's interests, engaging in improper ex parte communications, and failing to give Bazan an opportunity to be heard before summoning him. De La Cruz was ordered to complete two additional hours of judicial education, focused specifically on those two areas, within 60 days of being assigned a mentor.