SAN ANTONIO – A longstanding dispute between the Bexar County Commissioners Court and a county probate judge boiled over this week when the judge filed a lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed by attorneys for Probate Judge Kelly Cross (pictured below), claims Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, commissioners and county staff eliminated an associate probate judge position and created a new position with a similar title and then defunded the position.
The dispute appears to have started in mid-July.
Citing repeated complaints against associate judge Oscar Kazen from mental health professionals, county departments and law enforcement personnel, Cross terminated Kazen on July 15, according to the lawsuit.
Cross has never publicly discussed her reasons for terminating Kazen. The lawsuit claims Cross was advised not to discuss the personnel move by the Bexar County District Attorney's Office.
When reached by telephone Friday, Kazen described himself as a "pawn in her ego game" and said he was "tired of being victimized."
Kazen stated that he never received a single formal complaint during his nine years as associate judge. He was appointed to the position in 2007 by Cross's predecessor.
Kazen and Cross divided up the county's mental health hearings from January 2015, when Cross took office until Kazen's dismissal 18 months later.
Cross appointed her staff attorney, Arthur Rossi, to replace Kazen after his termination.
A month later, the lawsuit contends a county budget memorandum eliminated the associate probate judge position and replaced it with a newly-created associate mental health judge position.
The lawsuit contends the position was created without being discussed by commissioners during an open meeting and without consulting Cross.
"I will not supervise your appointee, nor will I refer or appoint cases to an illegal appointee," Cross said to commissioners during a public budget session Sept. 1.
Probate Judge Tom Rickhoff also took issue with the move and implied during the same session that a lawsuit was forthcoming.
In November, the Commissioners Court voted to defund the newly-created mental health judge position.
The move came after an attorney for the county said he believed Wolff and the commissioners had the authority to do so.
Buck Wood, an attorney representing Cross, told The KSAT 12 Defenders on the telephone Friday that the lawsuit aims to make clear that the commissioners court doesn't run the probate courts.
County officials declined to comment on the lawsuit since it's still pending.
It remains unclear who, if anyone, is currently hearing county mental health cases besides Cross.
More than 4,500 new mental-health cases were filed in Bexar County in 2015, leading to more than 8,000 hearings, according to the lawsuit.