Gonzalo Barrientos, Jr.
is a former Democratic

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 member of the Texas Senate

Texas Senate

The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing 31 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 672,000 per constituency. There are no term limits, and each term is four years long. The Senate meets at the...

 representing the 14th District

Texas Senate, District 14

District 14 of the Texas Senate is a senatorial district that currently serves a portion of Travis county in the U.S. state of Texas. The current Senator from District 14 is Kirk Watson.-2006:-2002:-2000:-1996:-1994:...

 from 1985 to 2007. He was also a member of the Texas House of Representatives

Texas House of Representatives

The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

 from Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 from 1975 to 1985.

2002

2000

1996

1994

1992

Lawsuit

In 1994, State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, William Hale (then executive director of the Texas Commission on Human Rights), and Josephine Segura (then director of administration of the Texas Commission on Human Rights) were sued by John Thomas Serrato, an employee of the Texas Commission on Human Rights, for wrongful termination based on civil rights violations. Mr. Barrientos was accused of conspiring with Mr. Hale & Ms. Segura to terminate Mr. Serrato for comments Mr. Serrato made critical of Mr. Barrientos in a letter to the editor of the Austin Chronicle. Mr. Barrientos was dismissed from the lawsuit, but Mr. Serrato won a jury verdict for damages against the Commission in 1996.

DWI arrest

In November 2001, Barrientos was arrested and charged with DWI, a class B misdemeanor in Texas. He later pled no contest, paid a fine, did community service and had his license suspended.

External links

• Official Biography on the Texas Senate website.