ERNIE GETS THE PERFECT JUDGE
Judge Rudy Delgado, a Hidalgo County District Judge, pictured at the left, will never be confused with Thurgood Marshall. His checkered career is tainted by felony charges for which he was indicted twice, finally being given some judicial relief by a friendly visiting judge from Brownsville.
Here is the bulk of the article dated 6/07/07 from The Monitor:
EDINBURG — Criminal charges against Judge Rudy Delgado were dismissed this afternoon, five years after his initial arrest.
A Nueces County judge made the decision after hearing pretrial motions alleging the prosecutors presented improper evidence before a grand jury.
Delgado, who once presided over the 93rd state District Court, was arrested in 2002 after a police officer suspected he was driving while intoxicated. He was charged with DWI and evading arrest. A grand jury dropped the evading arrest charge in 2003.
A visiting judge from Brownsville then dropped the DWI charge in 2005, but Delgado was re-indicted on evading arrest and misuse of information charges later that year.
District Judge Joaquin Villarreal agreed Thursday with Delgado’s attorney, who argued that several witnesses who testified before the grand jury for the second indictment provided no new information in the case.
Perhaps those charges and subsequent developments speak somewhat to Delgado's character, but also to a chronyism that persists in the judiciary. More telling and more relevant to the Hernandez/Pena election results contest is the chummy relationship between Rudy Delgado and Brownsville lawyer and Democratic Party official Gilberto Hinojosa.
Hidalgo District Judge Rudy Delgado ruled in favor of Gilberto Hinojosa, representing those wishing to block a special election in Hidaldo County. Here is an excerpt from The Mid Valley Crier dated 8/13/10:
— A special election to fill a vacant seat for county commissioner cannot go forward as planned, a judge ruled Thursday.
State District Judge Rudy Delgado granted an order that temporarily stops Hidalgo County from having a special election to replace former Precinct 1 Commissioner Sylvia Handy.
Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra immediately appealed the judge’s order to the state’s 13th Court of Appeals in Edinburg, arguing that the lower court doesn’t have jurisdictional authority to stop the special election.
But the judge’s order put the onus on the district attorney to find any statutes that directly state the county can conduct a special election to replace Handy, said Gilbert Hinojosa, the attorney who filed suit against the county. Hinojosa repeatedly challenged Guerra in court to point out where in the Texas Election Code it states that a special election can be used to replace a county commissioner.
So, how fortuitous it was for the Hernandez side of this suit to have a judge in this case with ties to Gilberto Hinojosa, someone who also ruled against a special election in Hidalgo County. Attorney David Hockema, representing Hernandez, was confident enough in the final ruling to allow Erin Hernandez Garcia, Ernie's daughter to mop up. Yes, Hockema left early!
WITNESSES HERNANDEZ, BECERRA, RODRIGUEZ AND OZUNA GO INTO HIDING
As we mentioned in Part I of this series, Ruben Pena won the primary vote, the runoff vote, but got beaten severely in the mail-in vote, 240 to 34. The mail-in vote holds the potential for fraud. Four prominent Brownville politiqueras were identified and received trial subpoenas: Norma Hernandez(Ernie's wife), Herminia Becerra, Amadeo Rodriguez and Margarita Ozuna (not to be confused with political activist Maggie Ozuna). All four went into hiding! Three process servers and one detective could not locate the witnesses so critical to the trial.
Here are Ruben Pena's opening remarks:
:Herminia Becerra, Norma Hernandez, Amadeo Rodriguez and Margarita Ozuna. . . . we immediately issued out trial subpoenas for them, and through today we have not been able to find a single one of them They are not to be found. They, as I predicted, are hiding . . . . . . These individuals are very critical to this case. They are the individuals who, for the most part, obtained almost a majority of the mail-in ballots, along with the applications. Without their presence, without their testimony, our case is going to be very hampered and very limited
Of course, these four can be seen around town prominently at many political events. Certainly, Ernie Hernandez knew where his wife was. But, the four politiqueras had no interest in the truth or having their day in court and cowardly went into hiding. In a way, it made perfect sense. If you have absolutely no respect for the election process, why would you respect the judicial process?
IN THE NEXT SEGMENT: HOW MANY MAIL-IN BALLOTS DID EACH POLITIQUERA INDIVIDUALLY BRING IN? WHAT ARGUMENTS DID ATTORNEY DAVID HOCKEMA MAKE? HOW DID JUDGE RUDY DELGADO RULE?
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I remember before my mother died five years ago, she used to go to one of the TLC centers for older adults. There was a gentleman and his wife that used to go to that center and ask for people that were registered voters. I really dont remember if he or his wife would ask the old folks to bring their mail in ballots and tell them who to vote for or if they brought the ballots themselves and told the people that they would mail in the votes. Either way it is illegal because NOBODY has the right to tell you who to vote for; you make your own decision. These people were manipulative. I remember telling my mother "I dont do that to you (tell you who to vote for), dont allow anyone else. YOU make your decision, YOU fill out the bubbles." Five years later, I wonder how many of these votes from the adult centers made the difference in an election, and how many of these so called helpers are still doing that.
ReplyDeleteJim, can you post the pictures of Erin and Hermina Becerra? Every time I go to any political event, these two are always together. If Erin was at the trial and heard all the fraud that was committed, why would she parade around with these people? I am neutral as to who wins the JP race, I just don't want another Hernandez in office. If Erin Hernandez is willing to hang out with these politiqueras who have placed untold numbers of corrupt politicians in office, what's to say she will stop being corrupt after she wins? Once a thief............
ReplyDeleteJim, if I recall correctly, Ruben Pena did not come in firt in the primary. Ernie came in first. Have you looked into that as I do believe what you are posting is inaccurate information.
ReplyDeleteThat is incorrect. Pena won the primary:
DeletePena 910
Hernandez 866
No Jim. You are incorrect. I was involved in one of the candidates races that did not make the run off. Mr. Hernandez Came in first place on in the March 2nd primary. The numbers were 1206 for Mr. Hernandez and 1121 for Mr. Pena. All you have to do is a simple search on the Herald.
Deletehttp://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/tuesday-109272-precinct-continues.html
Jim, do you even know the difference between a primary (which was held on March 2nd) and a Primary Run-off held on April 3rd? I was involved in the Hernandez campaign and Ernie came in first place in both the primary and the primary run-off. You are mistaken.
DeleteJim is correct, Ernie did not get the most Early Votes or Election Day votes in the runoff. Ernie lost Election Day and Early voting. Ernie only won the mail-in vote.
DeleteWhat is really sad and frustrating is the small turnout for this election and the recent mayoral contest. A healthy turnout makes the few bad votes meaningless.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course. A large turnout could sort of undue the effects of fraudulent votes. But, it's sort of catch 22 in that the corrupted elections are a factor in low voter turnout.
DeleteJ
Check out the Brownsville Herald 03/03/2010 page 2 of the onlone article. If you are going to bash someone get your numbers straight. the primary was won by Hernandez 1151 to 1116. This did not include the mail ballots of 5 for Pena and 55 for Hernandez Final total for the primary was Hernandez 1206 to Pena 1121.I hope you are not giving false info on purpose to support your position.
DeleteThe runoff is what decided the election and Hernandez lost both the early and election day vote. That means the real voters did not want him, only the mail ins decided the election. El Rrun Rrun posted an interview with one of these mail in voters who alleges that the Hernandez family took her dead husband's mail in ballot so he could vote for Ernie "from heaven". The numbers as reported may be slightly wrong on the election first round, but who cares. Jim can correct it. The stories of the voters speak volumes, and the relationship between Gilberto Hinojosa, Judge Rudy Delgado, and the Hernandez attorney and father of Gilberto Hinojosa's assistant Jared Hockema, who is now running for Cameron County Democratic party chair, is disturbing to say the least. Thank you Jim for reporting this, looking forward to Part 3.
DeleteMy figures come from the Citizens Against Voter Abuse website.
ReplyDeleteJim
CAVA is wrong A good journalist checks out info before posting!
Deletethey made a slight error in the primary election numbers, but their Primary Runoff results and Mail in results are correct. Hopefully they will change it soon.
DeleteDavid Hockema is Jared Hockema's father. Erin Hernandez Garcia is Norma & Ernie Hernandez' daughter. Sylvia Garza Perez is the niece of Herminia Becerra.
ReplyDeleteErin Hernandez Garcia was a defense attorney for her father in the election contest trial. She knew her mother and politiqueras were in hiding.
This whole lot of thieves should be flushed down the toilet where they belong.
The bottom line is that Ruben Pena and the people of Cameron County were robbed.
ReplyDeleteBrownsville Courts are corrupted, what can you expect.
ReplyDelete