Professional Misconduct by Nico La Hood
On March 4th the State Bar of Texas determined that ex-D.A. Nico La Hood was guilty of professional misconduct when he threatened a defense attorney.
Nico La Hood and Attorney Joe Gonzales were co-workers in the same law firm. Nico La Hood ran against D.A. Susan Reed and won. Once La Hood became the new District Attorney the façade began to crack. The most public issue came during a trial in which the defense attorney was Joe Gonzales, the attorney La Hood used to work with.
During the trial the District Attorney’s Office did not give the defense team the information that the star witness had, had a sexual encounter with one of the prosecutors. Attorney Gonzales’ team found out about the intimate relationship after the trial had just barely begun. It has been reported that Nico La Hood became furious with Gonzales and made statements that Judge Valenzuela felt were threats and could even possibly be viewed as official oppression.
The KSAT 12 article, which can be viewed here, has the following threat that Nico La Hood was accused of making, that he would “destroy and shut down the defense lawyer’s practice and make sure they never got hired on another case again in Bexar County.” This incident, along with accusations of La Hood yelling at people during his campaign events and various other issues, led to the defeat of Nico La Hood by none other than Attorney Joe Gonzales.
You may wonder why this article is being posted. I want to remind everyone that Sheriff Javier Salazar frequently accompanied Nico La Hood when Nico was running for re-election. The two seemed to have formed a fairly close bond. There was an alliance between the two even during the incident with Lucy Adame-Clark. Remember, she was the one who had lied on a sworn statement but Javier Salazar and Nico La Hood, both of which she campaigned extensively for, made that problem go away.
Again, we recommend that you read the KSAT 12 article about Nico to see what kind of man Sheriff Salazar felt comfortable with.