About Justice Velia J. Meza
Justice Velia J. Meza was raised in El Paso, Texas. She attended the women's college at Columbia University in NYC where she earned her degree in Economics. She worked briefly for Merrill Lynch in NYC, but quickly found herself working in the Criminal Justice System. Justice Meza worked for the New York City Criminal Justice Agency where she wrote release recommendations for the arraignment Judges in Manhattan Criminal Court. She returned to Texas to attend St. Mary's University School of Law. After her first semester in law school, Justice Meza was inducted into P hi Delta Phi Legal Honor Society for ranking in the top 20% of her class. Justice Meza was also selected to serve as an intern for Judge Fred Biery in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Justice Meza also worked as a summer associate at Jackson Walker in Dallas, Texas after her second year in law school. In her third year, Justice Meza was one of ten students selected for the Criminal Justice Clinic to serve as a Student Attorney with a third-year law license.
After law school, Justice Meza started her own practice focusing on criminal law, family law, and other civil matters. She practiced law in all South Texas for 17 years prior to being elected to the 226th Criminal District Court.
When Justice Meza took the bench, she demonstrated her commitment to the rule of law by conducting thorough. hearings, applying the correct law, and exercising sound judicial discretion. She presided over that court for 6 years where she disposed of over 10,000 felony cases. During her time as a District Judge, both in 2019 and 2021, Justice Meza was nominated by the United States Secret Service, San Antonio office to attend the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) training for judges on cyber and electronic crime.
In 2020 when the pandemic shut down in-person court proceedings, Justice Meza trained defense attorneys and their clients (including inmates) how to transition to virtual proceedings on Zoom. She developed and presented CLE opportunities for Bexar County attorneys on the Ethical Considerations of the Zoom Plea Process (2020) and Courtroom Technology (2021). Justice Meza also helped develop an alternative to incarceration program in 2020 in collaboration with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Justice Meza helped implement the "Bexar County Gives Back" program which is fully operational today and has saved Bexar County over a million dollars.
Justice Meza has served as a former Co-Chair of the Firearms Transfer Subcommittee for the City of San Antonio's Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence and many other District Court Committees as the Local Administrative Judge assigned during her tenure there. Justice Meza was elected to the Board of Directors for the Texas Center for the Judiciary where she served three years. She currently serves on the Judicial on the Judicial Administrative Advisory Committee for the Texas State Bar and the Nominations Committee for the Texas Center for the Judiciary.
Justice Meza is an adjunct professor of advocacy at St. Mary's University School of Law where she works with the National Trial Team. She also teaches pre-law courses at the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
Justice Meza has been married to her husband Cesar Canizalez for 24 years. They have three boys together and enjoy the outdoors and traveling together.
In all her endeavors, Justice Velia J. Meza gives honor and glory to God for the great privilege of serving her community. During her time as a Criminal District Court Judge, she encountered thousands of people facing uncertainty, confusion, chaos, and worries at home because of a felony accusation. Where possible, Justice Meza exercised her judicial discretion not only to ensure our community's safety, but also to structure felony punishment in a way that resulted in renewal and hope. In other cases, where the circumstances required a hefty sentence, Justice Meza delivered it swiftly.