The ceremony for Associate Judge Natalie Banuelos and Presiding Judge John Sholden was a formal welcome by the Garland City Council that conducted interviews and made their appointments. The Honorable David J. Schenck, Fifth District Court of Appeals Justice, swore in both judges.
Judge Banuelos received her bachelor’s degree at Hendrix College and her juris doctorate from Texas Tech University. She and her husband Rudy have three children.
She has served as a municipal judge since 2011 in the cities of Murphy, Fate and Pilot Point. Prior to that, Judge Banuelos represented cities as a municipal lawyer in private practice. She has also served as a prosecutor, an assistant city attorney and as defense counsel for the Texas Municipal League Intergovernmental Risk Pool.
Judge Sholden is a graduate of Southern Methodist University and South Texas College of Law. He and his wife Ginger Hill Sholden are longtime Garland residents and their two children are graduates of Garland High School.
He has spent most of his career in various governmental roles, starting in the Dallas County district attorney’s office. As an elected justice of the peace, he served Garland, Sachse and Rowlett. Judge Sholden left his office in Garland when elected as State District Court juvenile judge. Most recently, he has served as a truancy magistrate and an appointed justice of the peace and in a second stint with the Dallas County DA’s office.
The Municipal Court, 1791 W. Avenue B, serves as the City’s judicial branch of government as well as a part of the state judicial system. Garland Municipal Court is a court of record that hears Class C misdemeanor criminal cases, including traffic violations, City ordinance violations and fine-only offenses.
Pictured: Associate Judge Natalie Banuelos, Municipal Court Assistant Fredda Doan and Presiding Judge John Sholden