Watch the Video: Judge Caught on Camera Stealing Political Opponent's Sign

Democratic challenger Marlene Gonzalez said she's upset that Judge Laura Strathmann took her political campaign sign. But Strathmann countered that she took the sign from her neighbor's property because he was upset that Gonzalez put up the sign without permission.

July 01, 2020 at 06:49 PM

4 minute read

By Angela Morris

A video circling on Facebook on Wednesday shows Judge Laura Strathmann of El Paso hopping out of her SUV and taking a political sign belonging to her election runoff opponent.

Although Democratic challenger Marlene Gonzalez said she's upset that Strathmann took her sign, Strathmann countered that she took the sign from her neighbor's property because he was upset that Gonzalez had put up the sign without permission.

In the video, posted to Facebook by Becky Gonzalez, the videographer sits in a car in a parking lot and zooms in the camera on a white Audi SUV pulling over to the side of the road. Strathmann hops out of that SUV, walks to the trunk and opens it, and then pulls Gonzalez's sign out of the grass.

Smiling broadly, she turns around, tosses the sign in her trunk and closes it, and then jogs back to sit in the driver seat. The SUV then drives away out of sight.

Watch the video:

"This video clearly shows Strathmann stealing her opponent's campaign signs. What a shame and embarrassment to the community of El Paso for a sitting District Judge to engage in misdemeanor/larceny-type behavior," Becky Gonzalez wrote on Facebook.

'I am clearly being followed'

But Strathmann tells a different story.

"My neighbor had called. He was upset that Ms. Gonzalez put a sign up on his property. She didn't ask if she could have his permission. He was upset," said Strathmann. "That road is a dead-end road. My house is a couple of houses from there. I was right there, so I pulled over and took it out."

Strathmann emailed Texas Lawyer a video statement by her neighbor.

In the video, a man in a cowboy hat and blue button-up shirt said, "No one has permission to put political signs up on our property, and I wanted it taken down. And any other ones that show up will be taken down. I gave no permission to anybody."

The judge said the video of herself taking the sign is disconcerting.

"I am clearly being followed, all the time," Strathmann said. When asked who took the video, she replied, "I have no idea, which makes it even creepier. I am being followed and i don't know who is following me."

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Troy Brown, a lawyer who represents Gonzalez, said that he has no idea if it's true that someone is following Strathmann. He thinks it's curious that Strathmann's neighbor would call her to remove Gonzalez's sign. He felt shocked when he saw the video, he added.

"I find it curious that he would call her and asked for a sign to be removed from his property when he seemed like an able-bodied individual," said Brown. "She hasn't contacted Marlene saying, 'Oh, by the way, I have a sign someone asked me to remove from his property. Would you like to come get it?'"

Gonzalez said she is upset about the incident because she feels that Strathmann took her property. Instead of taking the sign, she said either Strathmann or her neighbor should have called her, and she would have picked it up.

"I'm very disappointed in what I saw this morning," Gonzalez said. "It's unfortunate that this is happening."

Strathmann and Gonzalez's race for the 388th Family District Court of El Paso County has been fraught with dirty campaigning for some time.

Strathmann has alleged that Gonzalez is behind a Facebook page that she says has defamed her during the campaign. But Gonzalez denies creating the page, and has filed a petition to do a pre-lawsuit deposition of Strathmann for an email that the judge sent about the Facebook page and a related website.