Sergio De Leon will be recognized with the 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award at this year’s medal awards ceremony. Sergio is a Tarrant County judge and previously served on the alumni board. Sergio emceed the Medal Awards ceremony in 2016 and has a great sense of humor! 

Judge Sergio L. De Leon has been a community leader and advocate for voter education and participation, law enforcement and criminal justice reform, education and policy development for nearly three decades. As an elected judicial officer, his vision for serving both the court and community has produced many successful partnerships bringing together neighborhoods, schools, community-based organizations and law enforcement agencies.  

In 1992, he led the effort to coordinate, then Governor Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, in Tarrant County. After successful completion of this task, he returned to Little Rock, Arkansas and worked in the national campaign headquarters for the Clinton-Gore Campaign and volunteered in the National Voter Registration Office of the Democratic National Committee.    

In November 2000, Sergio L. De Leon was elected Tarrant County Constable - Precinct 5. As Constable, he is credited with transforming the law enforcement agency into a professional county law enforcement department that created partnerships with neighborhoods, schools, and surrounding law enforcement agencies. Through his community advocacy and leadership, he successfully developed, implemented and executed multiple community initiatives, such as, Warrant Round Up’s for Child Support Enforcement efforts, the development of the Special Response Team (SRT), a team which consisted of highly trained deputy constables called out to make forcible entry on any barricaded subjects along with arresting any subject deemed to be dangerous, as well as, providing a security detail for visiting dignitaries. He led a security detail for former Mexican President Vicente Fox and First Lady Marth Fox, Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. 

In November 2012, Sergio De Leon was elected Justice of the Peace - Precinct 5, where he serves as the Chief Legal and Executive Officer enforcing adherence to legal guidelines and in-house policies maintaining the court’s lawfulness and business ethics. A testament to his exemplary leadership, he created a partnership with then Texas Wesleyan University Law School which facilitated a legal internship program and spearheaded a Peace and Constable Town Hall Meeting to address community needs. 

Within his jurisdiction and realm of landlord-tenant cases, Judge De Leon recognized that one family eviction was one too many. Immediately after taking office, Judge De Leon partnered with Tarrant County Human Services Department and the Fort Worth Neighborhood Office to supply litigants with information on rental assistance. To create a comprehensive community response, he also formed an alliance with Tarrant County Workforce Solutions to provide job training opportunities and job placement for litigants whom were either unemployed or underemployed. 

In December 2016, Judge De Leon’s Court received the “Best Practice Award” for Innovation by initiating the “Honorary Jurors Program” from the Texas Association of Counties (TAC). Since the program was initiated, over 400 hundred students, traversing 20 Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) schools, have participated. The program invites students to serve as honorary jurors and observe live court proceedings. The program has been a tremendous success and featured in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Texas Association of Counties Magazine. 

Judge De Leon is the former President of Texas Justice of the Peace and Constables Association of Texas (JPCA), Board member on The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) and Alumni Board Member at Texas Wesleyan University (TXWES). He is also a past Board Member of the Fort Worth Police and Fire Memorial Board and Visions of My Health My Resources of Tarrant County.  

Judge De Leon received his Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Texas Wesleyan University (TWU) and a Master of Arts degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Currently, Judge De Leon serves as an Adjunct Professor on the American Judicial System at the University of Texas at Arlington. 

Judge De Leon is happily married to Frances Granados De Leon and they have four children, Alexis, Jake, Alena, and Leila, and three beautiful grandchildren. They are members of St. Andrews Catholic Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He and his wife are heavily involved with the church, children’s school PTA as Board Members and their favorite past time is hosting their children and grandchildren for weekly Sunday dinners. 

About the Alumni Medal Awards 

Each year, Texas Wesleyan University honors distinguished alumni and friends. Their achievements and contributions are amazing reflections of the University, and we are honored to celebrate and recognize them each year.

This year’s Alumni Medal Dinner will be held at the Fort Worth Club on Friday, Nov. 1. The reception begins at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and program at 7 p.m.

The event is open to all alumni, friends and faculty and staff, and tickets are $75 per person. Register online to reserve your seat, and be sure to check out other homecoming weekend activities as well.

Questions? Contact the Office of Alumni Relations at 817-531-6548 or alumni@txwes.edu.