SAN ANTONIO – A new software system that Bexar County rolled out almost two months ago is still causing issues and stalling the justice system, local judges told KSAT Tuesday.
Odyssey Case Manager was rolled out on May 30 and replaced a 50-year-old court management system.
The upgrade was a mandate the state of Texas required for aging systems.
The new software should allow all departments involved in a criminal case to access a case file and update and input information as the case develops.
Since the first day it came online, problems quickly emerged at the Bexar County jail, the magistrates and inside courtrooms.
Almost two months later and judges tell KSAT that those problems haven’t been resolved.
“We don’t have any information as to when there’s an end in sight,” Bexar County Court 13 Judge Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez said.
226th District Court Judge Velia Meza echoed the same complaints.
“It’s very frustrating because defendants nor victims are not getting resolution to their cases,” Meza said.
The judges said the main issue they’re seeing is a big slow-down in day-to-day workflow.
“It’s slowed down to a crawl,” Meza said. “Before I could hear 60 to 70 cases on a Monday and now we’re doing about half of that,” Meza said.
“I think the most frustrating part of this whole ordeal has been no one’s returning emails, no one is returning calls,” Speedlin-Gonzalez said. “It’s kind of, how it is here at the county, there’s a lack of communication.”
Speedlin-Gonzalez went further and said they’ve even been threatened about their complaints.
“Don’t make a big stink. Don’t talk to the media, because we’ll remember you at budget time, that’s the message that’s been given to us, which I find completely unprofessional, very thuggish,” Speedlin-Gonzalez said. “How dare you threaten the safety of our community? Because we’re raising concerns about a system that isn’t working.”
Recently, KSAT obtained the contract between the county and the creator of Odyssey, Tyler Technologies. What we learned is the contract was approved by the county on April 23, 2019, and it cost the county $20.3 million.
We reached out to the county about the issues that the judges brought up and a spokeswoman said they are looking into the problems and are working on a response to our questions.