Ex Parte Martin Marcos-Callejas v. the State of Texas

Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 15, 2024·No. 04-23-00327-CR·Published

Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals

San Antonio, Texas

OPINION

No. 04-23-00327-CR

EX PARTE Martin MARCOS-CALLEJAS

From the County Court, Jim Hogg County, Texas Trial Court No. 1034C

Honorable Greg Perkes, Judge Presiding

Opinion by: Liza A. Rodriguez, Justice

Sitting: Rebeca C. Martinez, Chief Justice Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice Liza A. Rodriguez, Justice

Delivered and Filed: May 15, 2024 REVERSED AND REMANDED Appellant, Martin Marcos-Callejas, appeals the trial court’s order denying his request for habeas relief. For the reasons stated below, we reverse the trial court’s order denying habeas relief and remand the cause to the trial court with instructions to discharge Marcos-Callejas from bail and dismiss the information in the underlying proceeding with prejudice.

BACKGROUND

On March 6, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) to initiate Operation Lone Star (“OLS”) and “devote additional law enforcement resources toward deterring illegal border crossing and protecting [] border communities.” He further directed “DPS to use available resources to enforce all applicable federal and state laws to

prevent criminal activity along the border, including criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking, and to assist Texas counties in their efforts to address those criminal activities.”

As part of OLS, Marcos-Callejas, a noncitizen, was arrested on October 10, 2022, in Jim Hogg County and charged by information with the misdemeanor offense of criminal trespass. See TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 30.05(a). The case was filed in the County Court in Jim Hogg County and assigned cause number 5875.

Marcos-Callejas then filed a pretrial application for writ of habeas corpus, seeking dismissal of the criminal charge based on alleged violations of his state and federal rights to equal protection. 1 Specifically, Marcos-Callejas argued the State of Texas had engaged in selective prosecution by choosing, as part of OLS, to prosecute men for criminal trespass but not to prosecute similarly-situated women for the same offense, thereby violating the United States Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the Texas Constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment. See U.S. CONST. amend. XIV; TEX. CONST. art. 1, § 3a.

On February 9, 2023, the trial court held a hearing on Marcos-Callejas’s habeas writ. In support of his habeas application, Marcos-Callejas called Trace Segundo, an assignments coordinator for the Lubbock Private Defenders’ Office, as a witness. Segundo testified that, as of October 11, 2022, there had been 550 criminal trespassing cases in Jim Hogg County related to OLS. She further testified that, although women had been found on private property with men who were later charged with criminal trespass, no women had been arrested for or charged with criminal trespass, and there were no “women defendants for criminal trespass.”

1 Marcos-Callejas also sought dismissal of the criminal charge based on the State’s alleged violation of his Sixth Amendment rights to trial and to counsel. Marcos-Callejas does not, however, argue his Sixth Amendment claim in his appeal and specifically states, in his appellate brief, that he “is not pursuing this claim on appeal,” so we will not consider it.

Marcos-Callejas also called DPS Trooper Saul Leal, Jr. as a witness in the hearing. The trooper testified that, in OLS cases as of October 2022, women who were found in groups of persons alleged to be trespassing were released to Border Patrol. He further testified that on October 10, 2022, he encountered six persons on private property in Jim Hogg County, including five males and one female. The five males were arrested and transported to the Jim Hogg Detention Center, but the trooper did not get any contact or identifying information for the female, who “was given to Border Patrol custody.” Finally, the trooper testified that, as of October 2022, it was DPS policy as part of OLS to arrest men, but not women, for the offense of criminal trespass.

Upon the conclusion of Marcos-Callejas’s evidence, the trial court inquired whether the State had any witnesses to call. The State did not call any witnesses at the hearing.

After the hearing, the trial court denied Marcos-Callejas’s request for relief. Specifically, the trial court issued an order stating, “Having considered the application and the evidence presented, this Court holds that Mr. Marcos-Callejas is not entitled to relief.” The trial court did not make specific findings of fact.

Marcos-Callejas timely appealed.

DISCUSSION

On appeal, Marcos-Callejas argues the trial court erred in denying his requested relief because (1) he properly raised his equal-protection challenge to his prosecution in a pretrial writ of habeas corpus, (2) he established a prima facie claim of selective prosecution in violation of his right to equal protection, and (3) the State failed to justify its discriminatory conduct.

A. Standard of Review When reviewing a trial court’s decision to grant or deny a habeas applicant’s request for pretrial habeas relief, we defer to the trial court’s assessment of the facts and will uphold the trial court’s ruling absent an abuse of discretion. Ex parte Vazquez-Bautista, 683 S.W.3d 504, 510 (Tex.

App.—San Antonio 2023, pet. filed) (citing Ex parte Perusquia, 336 S.W.3d 270, 274–75 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2010, pet. ref’d); Ex parte Quintana, 346 S.W.3d 681, 684 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2009, pet. ref’d)). Specifically, we “defer to the trial court’s implied factual findings that are supported by the record.” Ex parte Wheeler, 203 S.W.3d 317, 325–26 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006). “We afford almost total deference to the trial court’s determination of historical facts that are supported by the record, and to mixed questions of law and fact, when the resolution of those questions turn[s] on evaluations of credibility and demeanor.” Perusquia, 336 S.W.3d at 275 (citing Ex parte Peterson, 117 S.W.3d 804, 819 (Tex. Crim. App. 2003), overruled in part on other grounds by Ex parte Lewis, 219 S.W.3d 335, 371 (Tex. Crim. App. 2007)). But “[i]f the resolution of the ultimate question turns on an application of the law, we review the determination de novo.” Id. (citing Peterson, 117 S.W.3d at 819). Finally, “[w]e will uphold the trial court’s judgment as long as it is correct on any theory of law applicable to the case.” Ex parte Evans, 410 S.W.3d 481, 484 (Tex. App.—Fort Worth 2013, pet. ref’d).

B. Marcos-Callejas Effectively Presented a Selective-Enforcement Claim While courts—including, at times, this court—deploy the terms “selective prosecution”

and “selective enforcement” interchangeably, “selective prosecution” and “selective enforcement” are distinct claims. United States v. Sellers, 906 F.3d 848, 852 (9th Cir. 2018) (“Selective prosecution is not selective enforcement.”); United States v. Washington, 869 F.3d 193, 214 (3d Cir. 2017) (stating that courts “sometimes deploy [these terms] interchangeably” and recognizing they are distinct claims); Kuiken v. Cnty. of Hamilton, 669 F.Supp.3d 119, 126 n.3 (N.D.N.Y. 2023) (“A selective enforcement claim is also referred to as a selective prosecution claim.”). “Selective prosecution occurs when, from among the pool of people referred by police, a prosecutor pursues similar cases differently based on” an impermissible consideration. Conley v. United States, 5 F.4th 781, 789 (7th Cir. 2021); see Washington, 869 F.3d at 214 (“‘Prosecution’

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