Gonzales defended accepting the money in a tense interview with KSAT last month, saying there is no county rule that regulates or prohibits the amount of executive protection he has.
None of the individuals, however, have addressed the DA’s decision to continue collecting the car allowance for periods of time when he is not driving.“There’s some substance to be concerned about here,” Texas Public Policy Foundation policy director James Quintero said. “That’s a fairly healthy amount to spend on a car that I think ought to concern most taxpayers, a lot of whom can’t afford gas, groceries and rent right now.
A vast majority of the employees on the list work as DA investigators. Gonzales is the only employee eligible for a car allowance who earns an annual salary of over $100,000, the records show. A member of the DA’s security detail, who had moments earlier been engaging in horseplay with a second member of the security detail while standing near the parking lot, jumped into the passenger side of Gonzales’ vehicle and the DA drove off.
After we informed Gonzales that KSAT had not recorded footage of his home, Gonzales responded that Gallego’s letter was “based on an anticipation of the kind of stories” KSAT broadcasts about his agency.including a 2023 investigationThe investigation revealed some defendants given pretrial diversion repeatedly reoffended after landing dismissals, or in some instances, had their cases reopened after failing to complete the program.
Gonzales then steered the conversation back to KSAT’s coverage of his agency, claiming the station has not covered “the highest conviction rate on murders that we’ve had in 13 years” or the “highest felony DWI conviction that we’ve had in years.”