Judge is often found at heart of contention
[ Email this Page] Sunday, June 3, 2001
The mind behind the sex controversy
Judge is often found at heart of contention
By Jeremy SchwartzCaller-Times
Paul Iverson/Caller-Times
Judge J. Manuel Banales defends his decision to order some convicted sex offenders to post signs in their yards and on their cars as an effort to promote neighborhood safety.In the past week, his mustachioed face has been beamed across televisions from Maine to California and his image has been reproduced in newspapers in London and Santiago, Chile.
He has become known nationwide as the judge who ordered the signs, the man who set off a chain reaction of controversy when he forced more than a dozen sex offenders to place warning signs in their yards and on their cars.
Outside the Nueces County Courthouse, little else is known about 105th District Judge J. Manuel Bañales, the product of a close-knit barrio in El Paso and the social justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
In 25 years of practicing law, and 14 presiding from the bench in Corpus Christi, Bañales has developed a reputation as someone unusually thoughtful about his legal deliberations, but something of a maverick when it comes to handing out sentences.
Douglas Tinker, a local attorney who has known Bañales since the judge was a greenhorn lawyer, said he was not surprised that, of eight Nueces County district judges, Bañales was the one who ordered the signs.
"He likes to try different methods, new things," Tinker said. "He doesn't mind the limelight. I think he has political ambitions, not that there's anything wrong with that."
Read all about the controversiesRead Caller-Times coverage of the sex offender signs stories, and the no-sex before marriage order.An activist streak
Since becoming district judge in 1986, Bañales, who is married and the father of five children, hasn't shied away from using his position to bring about changes, an activist streak that dates back to protests and sit-ins at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Shortly after moving to Corpus Christi after attending law school at the University of Houston, Bañales, then a defense lawyer, organized a demonstration against the light sentence given to three Houston police officers charged in the death of a Hispanic man.
A decade later, after finally winning election, Bañales became active in trying to stiffen drunk driving laws, drafting legislation that ultimately became the basis for today's punishments.
Retired District Judge Robert Pate said Bañales has never been just a clerk, moving cases along. "He's a person exercising independent judgment and discretion to make a difference," Pate said.
Safer neighborhoods
Mike Westergren, a retired district judge who defeated Bañales in the 1980 county attorney election, said Bañales has been an innovator on the bench for as long as he can remember.
"He's usually on the cutting edge, taking new approaches to things," he said. "He was the first to do a lot of things around here."
"I hope people don't remember me just for (the signs)," Bañales said.
But despite his hopes, Bañales' career could very well be defined by his May 18 order, something he says he can live with if people recognize why he did it.
Bañales has told news organizations across the country that his order was designed to protect the community. In a recent interview the judge gave more insight into his ruling, suggesting that he hopes the signs help in returning neighborhoods to the places he remembers from his El Paso childhood.
'Live with each other'
"I hope (the order) makes neighborhoods tighter, makes neighbors closer," he said. "By watching out for each other, we can learn to live with each other."
Bañales, 50, says many of his beliefs come from his childhood on the south side of El Paso, growing up in a one-story house a long football throw from the Rio Grande with eight siblings.
His father fed the furnace at the local smelting plant while his mother, born in Mexico, was a seamstress. He didn't learn English until first grade, and lived in an insulated world of Spanish speaking neighbors, baseball games and pranks at the railroad yard near his house. It was a neighborhood, he remembers fondly, where neighbors trusted each other enough to leave their doors unlocked.
When he was 8, Bañales joined the local Little League. "That first year I had the makings of a judge because I sat on the bench all season long," he joked.
But the baseball team, coached by a group of police officers, would prove influential on the rest of his life.
"What those officers taught us was respect for the law," he said. "We learned to play by the rules. In order to enjoy life you have to play by the rules."
Bañales remained on the south side until his family moved to the more Anglo central El Paso after his neighborhood was returned to Mexico as part of a government deal. He attended a majority Anglo high school, a big adjustment for Bañales.
Junior LULAC president
In 1965 Bañales attended his first Junior LULAC meeting with his older brother. He was immediately attracted to the order and organization of the group. "These were kids who were arguing in a civilized way. It was organized, controlled and I liked that," he said.
Three years later he became national president of Junior LULAC, a position that allowed him to travel around the country and meet influential people, most of whom were lawyers and sparked his interest in joining the legal profession. That year he enrolled in the University of Texas at El Paso, just as the movement for Chicano rights was catching fire.
He soon switched from engineering to pre-law and joined several Hispanic organizations. Most of the protests were attempts to bring more Hispanic professors and administrators to the university.
At one point, Bañales was among a group of students planning to take over the student union and get themselves arrested to draw attention to their cause. On the day of the sit-in Bañales rushed to bring his mother lunch and return to school. "I went back and it was all over, everyone was in jail," he said. "So much for my protest. I had a guilt trip for the longest time."
After graduating from the University of Houston law school in 1974, Bañales joined La Raza Unida party leader Ramsey Muñiz, who was starting a practice in Corpus Christi. Muñiz later went to prison on drug charges and Bañales moved on, working in various law firms before striking out on his own in 1981.
"He had a reputation for being very hard working and being very knowledgeable," said local attorney Jorge Rangel of Bañales, who specialized in criminal defense law.
"He was a good lawyer, not exceptional," said former District Judge Joaquin Villarreal, before whom Banales practiced before joining the bench.
Tinker remembers Bañales as a capable and well-prepared attorney, but not one who particularly stood out. "No question he was very bright," he said.
'I liked the action'
Bañales made a couple of unsuccessful forays into politics before winning election in 1986. In 1980 he ran against Westergren for county attorney, in 1982 he ran for the 148th District Court and the next year tried for the newly created 347th District Court.
"Public service was an attraction for me," Bañales said. "I loved the courtroom, I liked the action. I felt I could make a difference as a judge."
In his 14 years on the bench, Bañales has been no stranger to controversy. Two years after his election, he became entangled with then District Judge Max Bennett, who fought to have his retaliation and official misconduct charges moved from Bañales' court. Bennett accused Bañales of harboring personal animosity toward him and the case - which was eventually dismissed - was reassigned from Bañales' court.
In 1990 Bañales became the first district judge to allow television and newspaper cameras in the courtroom, a move that riled some of his colleagues.
Effect of other rulings
Two years later, Bañales entered the complex world of Corpus Christi Independent School District politics, ruling that the school board must post the names of superintendent candidates they were interviewing. That ruling returned to the news recently when CCISD officials attempted to conceal the names of candidates to replace Abelardo Saavedra.
Also in 1992, Bañales set defense attorneys' teeth on edge when he sentenced a drug smuggler caught with 54 pounds of marijuana to 54 years in prison.
Pablo Diaz had been offered a plea agreement by the prosecutor for 10 years' probation but couldn't come up with $2,000 cash of the $5,400 fine that would have accompanied it.
Bañales said at the time his goal was that would-be drug traffickers realize the consequences of their crimes. That ruling was overturned on appeal.
'He runs a tight ship'
And in 1997, Bañales, whose district includes Kleberg and Kenedy counties, was sued by Kleberg County over having to pay for the salary of a roving court reporter.
Bañales has drawn generally favorable reviews from attorneys in his court. "I like trying a case in his court," Tinker said. "He knows what he's doing and that's important. He runs a tight ship."
Bañales has been known to upset attorneys by setting dozens of cases for the morning.
David Diaz, a local attorney and former district judge, said Bañales can be too set in his ways. "He's highly opinionated," said Diaz, who has known Bañales since the 1970s. "He sticks to his guns, right or wrong."
Several colleagues and friends agreed that a distinguishing characteristic of Judge Bañales is the thought he gives to each ruling.
"I guarantee he grieved over (the sign decision) a long time," said Bañales' former partner Dan Alfaro.
Despite the backlash from his ruling, Bañales says he's going to stick by his guns once again. He has denied several motions to rescind his order and unless an appeals court overturns his ruling, the signs will remain up across the city.
"I'm comfortable with it," the judge said. "I can sleep at night."
The mind behind the sex controversy
Judge is often found at heart of contention
By Jeremy SchwartzCaller-Times
Paul Iverson/Caller-Times
Judge J. Manuel Banales defends his decision to order some convicted sex offenders to post signs in their yards and on their cars as an effort to promote neighborhood safety.In the past week, his mustachioed face has been beamed across televisions from Maine to California and his image has been reproduced in newspapers in London and Santiago, Chile.
He has become known nationwide as the judge who ordered the signs, the man who set off a chain reaction of controversy when he forced more than a dozen sex offenders to place warning signs in their yards and on their cars.
Outside the Nueces County Courthouse, little else is known about 105th District Judge J. Manuel Bañales, the product of a close-knit barrio in El Paso and the social justice movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
In 25 years of practicing law, and 14 presiding from the bench in Corpus Christi, Bañales has developed a reputation as someone unusually thoughtful about his legal deliberations, but something of a maverick when it comes to handing out sentences.
Douglas Tinker, a local attorney who has known Bañales since the judge was a greenhorn lawyer, said he was not surprised that, of eight Nueces County district judges, Bañales was the one who ordered the signs.
"He likes to try different methods, new things," Tinker said. "He doesn't mind the limelight. I think he has political ambitions, not that there's anything wrong with that."
Read all about the controversiesRead Caller-Times coverage of the sex offender signs stories, and the no-sex before marriage order.An activist streak
Since becoming district judge in 1986, Bañales, who is married and the father of five children, hasn't shied away from using his position to bring about changes, an activist streak that dates back to protests and sit-ins at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Shortly after moving to Corpus Christi after attending law school at the University of Houston, Bañales, then a defense lawyer, organized a demonstration against the light sentence given to three Houston police officers charged in the death of a Hispanic man.
A decade later, after finally winning election, Bañales became active in trying to stiffen drunk driving laws, drafting legislation that ultimately became the basis for today's punishments.
Retired District Judge Robert Pate said Bañales has never been just a clerk, moving cases along. "He's a person exercising independent judgment and discretion to make a difference," Pate said.
Safer neighborhoods
Mike Westergren, a retired district judge who defeated Bañales in the 1980 county attorney election, said Bañales has been an innovator on the bench for as long as he can remember.
"He's usually on the cutting edge, taking new approaches to things," he said. "He was the first to do a lot of things around here."
"I hope people don't remember me just for (the signs)," Bañales said.
But despite his hopes, Bañales' career could very well be defined by his May 18 order, something he says he can live with if people recognize why he did it.
Bañales has told news organizations across the country that his order was designed to protect the community. In a recent interview the judge gave more insight into his ruling, suggesting that he hopes the signs help in returning neighborhoods to the places he remembers from his El Paso childhood.
'Live with each other'
"I hope (the order) makes neighborhoods tighter, makes neighbors closer," he said. "By watching out for each other, we can learn to live with each other."
Bañales, 50, says many of his beliefs come from his childhood on the south side of El Paso, growing up in a one-story house a long football throw from the Rio Grande with eight siblings.
His father fed the furnace at the local smelting plant while his mother, born in Mexico, was a seamstress. He didn't learn English until first grade, and lived in an insulated world of Spanish speaking neighbors, baseball games and pranks at the railroad yard near his house. It was a neighborhood, he remembers fondly, where neighbors trusted each other enough to leave their doors unlocked.
When he was 8, Bañales joined the local Little League. "That first year I had the makings of a judge because I sat on the bench all season long," he joked.
But the baseball team, coached by a group of police officers, would prove influential on the rest of his life.
"What those officers taught us was respect for the law," he said. "We learned to play by the rules. In order to enjoy life you have to play by the rules."
Bañales remained on the south side until his family moved to the more Anglo central El Paso after his neighborhood was returned to Mexico as part of a government deal. He attended a majority Anglo high school, a big adjustment for Bañales.
Junior LULAC president
In 1965 Bañales attended his first Junior LULAC meeting with his older brother. He was immediately attracted to the order and organization of the group. "These were kids who were arguing in a civilized way. It was organized, controlled and I liked that," he said.
Three years later he became national president of Junior LULAC, a position that allowed him to travel around the country and meet influential people, most of whom were lawyers and sparked his interest in joining the legal profession. That year he enrolled in the University of Texas at El Paso, just as the movement for Chicano rights was catching fire.
He soon switched from engineering to pre-law and joined several Hispanic organizations. Most of the protests were attempts to bring more Hispanic professors and administrators to the university.
At one point, Bañales was among a group of students planning to take over the student union and get themselves arrested to draw attention to their cause. On the day of the sit-in Bañales rushed to bring his mother lunch and return to school. "I went back and it was all over, everyone was in jail," he said. "So much for my protest. I had a guilt trip for the longest time."
After graduating from the University of Houston law school in 1974, Bañales joined La Raza Unida party leader Ramsey Muñiz, who was starting a practice in Corpus Christi. Muñiz later went to prison on drug charges and Bañales moved on, working in various law firms before striking out on his own in 1981.
"He had a reputation for being very hard working and being very knowledgeable," said local attorney Jorge Rangel of Bañales, who specialized in criminal defense law.
"He was a good lawyer, not exceptional," said former District Judge Joaquin Villarreal, before whom Banales practiced before joining the bench.
Tinker remembers Bañales as a capable and well-prepared attorney, but not one who particularly stood out. "No question he was very bright," he said.
'I liked the action'
Bañales made a couple of unsuccessful forays into politics before winning election in 1986. In 1980 he ran against Westergren for county attorney, in 1982 he ran for the 148th District Court and the next year tried for the newly created 347th District Court.
"Public service was an attraction for me," Bañales said. "I loved the courtroom, I liked the action. I felt I could make a difference as a judge."
In his 14 years on the bench, Bañales has been no stranger to controversy. Two years after his election, he became entangled with then District Judge Max Bennett, who fought to have his retaliation and official misconduct charges moved from Bañales' court. Bennett accused Bañales of harboring personal animosity toward him and the case - which was eventually dismissed - was reassigned from Bañales' court.
In 1990 Bañales became the first district judge to allow television and newspaper cameras in the courtroom, a move that riled some of his colleagues.
Effect of other rulings
Two years later, Bañales entered the complex world of Corpus Christi Independent School District politics, ruling that the school board must post the names of superintendent candidates they were interviewing. That ruling returned to the news recently when CCISD officials attempted to conceal the names of candidates to replace Abelardo Saavedra.
Also in 1992, Bañales set defense attorneys' teeth on edge when he sentenced a drug smuggler caught with 54 pounds of marijuana to 54 years in prison.
Pablo Diaz had been offered a plea agreement by the prosecutor for 10 years' probation but couldn't come up with $2,000 cash of the $5,400 fine that would have accompanied it.
Bañales said at the time his goal was that would-be drug traffickers realize the consequences of their crimes. That ruling was overturned on appeal.
'He runs a tight ship'
And in 1997, Bañales, whose district includes Kleberg and Kenedy counties, was sued by Kleberg County over having to pay for the salary of a roving court reporter.
Bañales has drawn generally favorable reviews from attorneys in his court. "I like trying a case in his court," Tinker said. "He knows what he's doing and that's important. He runs a tight ship."
Bañales has been known to upset attorneys by setting dozens of cases for the morning.
David Diaz, a local attorney and former district judge, said Bañales can be too set in his ways. "He's highly opinionated," said Diaz, who has known Bañales since the 1970s. "He sticks to his guns, right or wrong."
Several colleagues and friends agreed that a distinguishing characteristic of Judge Bañales is the thought he gives to each ruling.
"I guarantee he grieved over (the sign decision) a long time," said Bañales' former partner Dan Alfaro.
Despite the backlash from his ruling, Bañales says he's going to stick by his guns once again. He has denied several motions to rescind his order and unless an appeals court overturns his ruling, the signs will remain up across the city.
"I'm comfortable with it," the judge said. "I can sleep at night."
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