Nearly 30 years as the district attorney in El Paso led Jaime Esparza to a conclusion that may shock some.
Esparza oversaw the prosecution of criminal cases in the state’s 34th Judicial District from 1993 until 2020, when a presidential appointment and a U.S. Senate confirmation made him the chief federal law enforcement officer for the Western District of Texas — one of the state’s four federal districts.
Though he now prosecutes federal crimes, challenges at the state level left a lasting impression on him.
“I can tell you, from my experience, it is much easier to try a murder case than it is a routine domestic violence case,” Esparza said Tuesday in Dallas. “It’s much easier sometimes. Not always, but some people would be surprised to hear that.”
Esparza and his three federal counterparts met Tuesday to discuss efforts to address domestic violence-related crimes in Texas, including how a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a Dallas-Fort Worth area case is shaping how federal prosecutors can pursue charges when firearms are involved.
The discussion followed a recent report by the Texas Council on Family Violence, which identified 205 people killed by their intimate partners or stalking perpetrators.
Across the state, Dallas and Tarrant counties rank second and fourth, respectively, in the highest number of deaths, according to the nonprofit’s report. Harris County, where Houston is located, is ranked first, the report shows.
Roughly one in five fatalities identified by the nonprofit were in Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Collin and Rockwall counties, according to a review of the nonprofit’s findings by The Dallas Morning News.
The victims identified by the nonprofit range in age from 15 to 88. Female-identified victims make up about 87% of the total, while nearly 13% identified as male, according to the report.
The state’s U.S. attorneys described the nonprofit’s findings as harrowing, but Gloria Aguilera Terry, the CEO of the nonprofit, said the report’s focus on people killed by “intimate partners or stalking perpetrators” is conveying only a fraction of the issue.
The nonprofit is exploring how to broaden its parameters for its annual report to include survivors, she said.
In their discussion, the state’s four U.S attorneys frequently cited the “Rahimi” case — a ruling by the Supreme Court this summer in a case brought by Zackey Rahimi, an Arlington man who challenged his arrest for gun possession while under a protective order.
U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton, who oversees the state’s Northern District, which includes the Dallas-Fort Worth area, said the Rahimi case was the result of increased attention by her office on domestic violence-related offenses.
Rahimi’s attorneys argued his arrest violated his Second Amendment right. While the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had agreed and ruled the arrest unconstitutional, the Supreme Court overturned that decision.
Simonton said the outcome of the Rahimi case would change how federal prosecutors handle domestic violence cases that involve firearms.
“When the Fifth Circuit ruled it was unconstitutional, we went ahead and kept pursuing other types of statutes that we could use in that space, but that was a hindrance,” Simonton said.
“Now, it’s full steam ahead,” she said of the Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision.
Roughly 69% of fatalities last year that were identified by the Texas Council on Family Violence were the result of gunshot wounds, according to the nonprofit’s findings.
During the discussion, U.S. Attorney Damien Diggs, who oversees the Eastern District, announced his office was launching an initiative like the one in the Northern District. The initiative, named “Operation Purple Ribbon,” is a result of the favorable outcome in the Rahimi case, he added.
Federal prosecution is just one tool in how to address domestic violence, the state’s four U.S. attorneys said. They praised the efforts of organizations like The Family Place, a Dallas-based nonprofit that provides survivors of family violence with services, including emergency shelter, counseling and education,
“We won’t be able to prosecute our way out of this problem,” Diggs said while outlining how he would roll out Operation Purple Ribbon in his district.
In the U.S., about 41% of women and 26% of men report experiencing contact sexual violence, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State-level prosecutors handle the bulk of those cases, said Esparza, the U.S. attorney for the Western District.
In Texas, the number of reported family violence offenses peaked in 2022 at more than 250,000, according to Texas Department of Public Safety data. Last year, the figure dipped to nearly 248,000, the data shows.
Generally, Esparza added, federal prosecutors handled the more complicated “tip of the iceberg” cases, so the decisions made at the state level are key to ensuring cases do not lead to a homicide.
Regardless of whether it’s the state or federal prosecutors on a case, Esparza said, the work by organizations like The Family Place is one of the most important in addressing domestic violence.
“We’re the prosecutors,” Esparza said. “And frankly, my role as the U.S. attorney and my role as a state prosecutor — it’s minimal compared to the service providers and the work that the centers are doing and the work that law enforcement is doing when the case comes to us.”
The National Domestic Violence Hotline offers free, confidential support 24/7. Call 1-800-799-7233, text “START” to 88788 or visit www.thehotline.org.
