“Complete shoddiness”: Legal professionals for Houston-area midwife accused of unlawful abortions blast state’s investigation

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When the Texas Lawyer Basic’s workplace introduced its first arrest underneath Texas’ abortion legal guidelines, the courtroom filings and press statements painted a surprising image.

Maria Rojas, a Houston-area midwife, was portraying herself as a physician and utilizing untrained staff to carry out unlawful abortions for money, pushing unwitting girls into terminating wished pregnancies, the data stated, citing a monthlong investigation involving surveillance, search warrants and first-hand witnesses.

However at a courtroom listening to Thursday, Rojas’ attorneys acquired their first alternative to inform their facet of the story. They described an above-board telemedicine-based medical observe that supplied a variety of providers, together with maternal well being care applicable for a midwife, and argued the state’s investigator has no first-hand information of Rojas performing the acts of which she is accused.

The investigation was marked with “complete shoddiness and lack of thoroughness,” and the arrest affidavit was full of “conjecture,” “wild conclusions” and “rank speculation,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel with the Middle for Reproductive Rights, advised the choose.

Legal professionals for Rojas even have raised issues about irregularities within the prison case, together with that she was held on an arrest warrant, fairly than a prison criticism, which is way more frequent. She has not been indicted but by a grand jury.

“I would believe if the attorney general had a solid case, they would have filed charges,” stated Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube, who’s representing Rojas in her prison case. “They have yet to do so.”

Rojas posted bond Wednesday, however was held till at the moment, her attorneys say, for causes that have been unclear to them. After some backwards and forwards on the listening to, she was launched with a monitoring system.

Thursday’s listening to was on a slender authorized query about whether or not Rojas’ clinics may reopen. Waller County District Choose Gary Chaney sided with the state, granting the short-term injunction to maintain the clinics closed.

Chaney additionally will hear the prison case if and when the state brings formal fees. He stated he would transfer as quick as potential, however indicated that this complete course of may take a very long time to be resolved.

“I assume this won’t be a short trial,” he stated, apologizing upfront for any scheduling delays. “I might get to your case in three years.”

“Just joking,” he added.

A contentious, drawn-out struggle

In some methods, Waller County appears an unlikely place for this primary main prison conflict within the abortion wars. A rural county of lower than 65,000 folks, it is best recognized for Prairie View A&M, and, this time of 12 months, the stunning wildflowers you drive previous on U.S. 290 between Austin and Houston.

There are indicators of the county’s progress, fairly actually, as commercials for brand spanking new subdivisions, land on the market and enticements to Construct On Your Lot litter the facet of the freeway. However it retains the informalness of a rural group, evident within the household home-slash-dentist’s workplace, the double-wide trailers transformed into church buildings and the storefront providing tax and salon providers.

Amongst this crowd, Clínica Waller Latinoamericana doesn’t stand out. It’s a boring grey constructing, standing alone alongside 290, with a small shingle hanging out entrance promoting the vary of medical providers supplied.

Rojas and her husband opened this clinic, and several other others throughout the Houston space, in keeping with courtroom paperwork. Rojas has stated she was a licensed physician in her house nation of Peru, and in the USA, grew to become a midwife in 2018.

Earlier this 12 months, somebody filed an nameless criticism with Texas Well being and Human Companies, alleging that she was performing abortions in violation of the state’s abortion ban. The OAG investigated, and in early March, arrested Rojas and considered one of her staff on fees of practising medication with no license. Just a few weeks later, they arrested them each once more, this time on the abortion fees.

In Texas, the lawyer normal doesn’t have impartial prosecutorial authority and should be invited in by a neighborhood district lawyer in the event that they wish to carry prison fees. And that is the place Waller County begins to make a bit extra sense.

Whereas a number of district attorneys within the state’s largest counties have stated they don’t intend to carry prison abortion fees, Waller County DA Sean Whittmore is a former worker of the Workplace of the Lawyer Basic who beforehand labored within the regulation enforcement division that investigated this case. He was appointed to the Waller County function by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2023, and gained reelection final 12 months.

Whittmore advised The Texas Tribune that the OAG introduced him this case and he agreed to deputize them to prosecute it. The case can be heard in Waller County, and as Chaney is the one choose, he’ll hear each the civil and prison circumstances.

If this primary listening to is any indication, each are anticipated to be contentious and drawn out battles.

The all-day listening to began slowly, with Chaney stepping away to learn last-minute filings, pulling out books to seek the advice of courtroom precedent and refereeing fights between long-time adversaries from the OAG and the Middle for Reproductive Rights.

Assistant Lawyer Basic Amy Hilton referred to as just one witness, Rojas, grilling her for hours. To every query, the midwife pleaded the Fifth in a lilting Peruvian accent, generally quicker than her attorneys may object to the query.

“You perform abortions, correct?”

“I invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment.”

“You have ended pregnancies, haven’t you?”

“I invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment.”

“You’re not a physician, are you?”

“I invoke my rights under the Fifth Amendment.”

The one interruption to the barrage got here when Hilton requested Rojas about whether or not she’d used forceps to carry out an abortion and, her voice rising to a crescendo, alleged the midwife was smiling on the stand, and “seems to be enjoying herself.”

Rojas’ lawyer leapt up and snapped an objection, and the normally affable Chaney set free a sigh.

“Y’all are playing theater here,” he stated, including a plaintive, “Let’s play nice.”

After almost an hour, Chaney referred to as a 90-minute lunch break. He had a stack of case regulation either side had requested him to evaluate, and, frankly, he had higher locations to be.

“My wife will kill me if I don’t eat lunch with her,” he stated.

Questions on bond and fees

Rojas was dropped at the courtroom from the jail Thursday morning in a pink jumpsuit and orange slide sandals, a lot to the shock of her attorneys, who stated they didn’t notice she can be in attendance.

Throughout the listening to, she was knowledgeable she might be discharged on bond, and her attorneys requested if she may return to the jail to be processed out. When she returned to the courtroom after lunch, she had become a blue tracksuit. After the questioning from Hilton, she was escorted house by her lawyer.

Rojas had been held on a $1.4 million bond, which is surprisingly excessive, stated Eric Davis, chief of the trial division on the Harris County Public Defender’s Workplace.

“Somebody with no prior criminal history, on a non-homicide case or a non-child sex assault case, it’s really unusual,” Davis stated. “It signals to me they may be thinking about charging her with something higher. That bond we’d expect with murder or a high charge like that.”

Davis has labored as a protection lawyer for 30 years, and stated the excessive bond isn’t the one uncommon factor about this case. He has hardly ever, if ever, seen somebody arrested and held solely on an arrest warrant, as Rojas and her affiliate have been.

It’s commonplace observe for a prison criticism to be filed, laying out what somebody is charged with and permitting the protection to start requesting discovery. It’s so unusual to carry somebody on simply an arrest warrant, a number of protection attorneys stated they couldn’t even speculate on why Paxton’s workplace could be taking this path. Davis stated it may imply they’re gathering extra proof or deciding precisely what fees to carry to a grand jury, however he couldn’t make sure.

“It doesn’t take much to file a complaint, so why are they waiting?” he stated. “It’s standard practice.”

DeBorde Hochglaube advised reporters this lack of readability has made it onerous for her and fellow attorneys to start getting ready their protection.

“We don’t even have the charges you would ordinarily have in a criminal accusation,” she stated. “It’s simply an arrest warrant, nothing more.”

Thursday’s listening to was solely on the civil case, and whereas her attorneys stated they have been disenchanted by the end result, they famous it was an interim step and wasn’t determinative of the end result of the bigger case.

Chaney appeared to agree, noting after his ruling that if her attorneys introduced witnesses or different proof, the case “might have a different result.” He appeared keen to remain out of the fray on this hyper-politicized, intently watched first prison abortion cost.

“Y’all are really worried about the abortion issue,” he stated, however added, “I’m more worried about someone out there being a doctor that shouldn’t be a doctor.”

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