by Jim Barton on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 at 9:58am
  

     "Four jail guards and a sergeant beat my son at Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center" stated Brownsville resident Mary S. Rey.  "He was taken to the hospital for his injuries.   We have the hospital reports detailing his injuries in what the sheriff's department describes as an 'altercation'.  Established protocol had been ignored as the guards and sergeant entered the cell with cameras turned off.   Once I started asking for answers from Sheriff Lucio through certified letters, two guards came forward claiming injuries.  My son was then charged with two counts of assault, but it was simply the sheriffs department covering their asses."
      Will Ripley, former reporter for TV Channel 5 spoke to an eyewitness to the beating.  "Rick", a former jailer claimed the attack on Ms. Rey's son was unprovoked.  He also said her son was shackled and could not move, let alone attack anyone.  Sheriff Lucio said at the time that he didn't know what happened but his staff did nothing wrong.
     Aggravating matters for Ms. Rey's son was a spinal injury suffered in military service.   While at Brooke Medical Center in San Antonio, her son received injections of what Ms. Rey thought were cortisone.  On November 5, 2010, the day the Will Ripley report aired, Sheriff Lucio transferred her son to Willacy County.   Although detained in Willacy,  all medical services had to be approved by Cameron County.  According to Ms. Rey, those necessary medical services have been denied by Cameron County.

     The above is a small part of the backdrop that led Ms. Rey to approach political activist Carlos Quintanilla, the president of Accion America, a group headed by Quintanilla that claimed to promote civil rights for hispanics similarly to the work of the NAACP for blacks.  Quintanilla, a Dallas resident was in Brownsville to influence BISD.    Mary Rey thought maybe Quintanilla could help her deal with what she felt were extreme violations of her son's civil rights.  She was not seeking help with the criminal allegations, just the civil rights issues.  If you fault Ms. Rey for being fooled by Quintanilla's con artistry, please recall that the calabaza promising pied piper easily seduced our previous mayor and some in the city commission with his snake oil salesmanship with unknown promises that led them to fall hook, line and sinker for the Fly Frontera scam.
     According to Ms. Rey, in return for help with her son's civil rights issues, Quintanilla wanted help from Rey in getting rid of "bad candidates" for the BISD school board, namely Cortez and Zayas.  A DefeatZayasCortezPowers PAC would be formed.  Interestingly, Quintanilla, working in tandem with Patrick Lehman, suggested political newcomer Mary S. Rey be President of the PAC and Argelia Miller be treasurer.  Rey states that neither her nor Miller were every involved in handling or depositing funds.  That was all done, she thinks by Quintanilla, Lehman or both.  When she and Miller asked what was going on they were simply told they would brief them later.  They never got that briefing but were kept out of the loop.
     Unfortunately for Quintanilla, Mary S. Rey and Argelia Miller were not the naive tools he may have anticipated.  Both are strong-willed women, unaccustomed to being used.  Ms. Rey fulfilled her end of the bargain, working extremely hard in the BISD campaign as agreed upon, but after two years, Quintanilla had not moved a finger on the civil rights issues regarding her son.  Mary Rey confronted Quintanilla.  He said he was doing all he could, but it was difficult.  He had attended "several" meetings to bring up the issue of her son's treatment.  He was working on civil rights issues in the broader sense, trying to recover 5,000 cars seased in the Dallas area, mostly from minorities.  All of this was evasive double-talk to Mary S. Rey.  She preserved most of these conversations and emails including a thinly veiled threat with Quintanilla insisting Rey cease communication with certain negative people verbally attacking him on the internet.  If Rey refused to curb this communication, Quintanilla might choose to visit with the victim's family in her son's murder case, assisting them to pursue the harshest penalty for her son.  Rey has this threat recorded too.
     While we did visit with Mary Rey last night, getting her story, I understand she has now released the videotape of her deposition.  It is an hour, 41 minutes.  It is already downloaded on my Facebook page, but will be included in the Mean Mister Brownsville portion of this story.  I will stop writing so we can all view the tape, gleaning the pertinent facts.  Then, I will write a supplementary review.