Cameron County's Next District Attorney Inherits A Challenge

  by Jim Barton

 

      Speaking with Republican candidate for district attorney Gus Garza recently, I reminded him that the statute of limitations had not run out on much of the political corruption in our county.  He agreed, but likely will not get an opportunity to reverse the climate of corruption so insidious in our county.  Our next district attorney will face the conundrum of a lifetime and his political career:  to prosecute obvious, blatant violations of law or look the other way to get along. 

 

    

      Armando Villalobos was totally disinterested in protecting the interests of Cameron County.  It interfered with his career plan to seek higher office.  So, he deferred, recused himself, looked the other way, while, according to reports, utilizing his taxpayer furnished staff to work on his congressiional campaign. If the scales of justice were truly blind,  his next job assignment should be in the prison laundry, not congress.

     Waiting on the next DA will be the pernicious fake activist, but very real RICO convicted con artist,  Carlos Quintanilla.   He has sniffed around the $500,000,000 yearly budget of BISD for several years now, helping elect puppet candidates Lucy Longoria, Cata Presa-Garcia and Enrique Escobedo,  while perjuring himself on depositions about such basic matters as his address.  We haven't even mentioned his stellar work in persuading the BISD board of trustees to dismiss the $14,000,000  lawsuit for overcharges against his friend and benefactor Ted  Parker, former owner of HealthSmart.  

   

       While Armando Villalobos himself is a likely candidate for prosecution. with the Feds pursuing him for involvement in the Abel Limas case, the next DA needs to interview all his current staff to ascertain if their taxpayer wage hours were devoted to prosecution support or the next Villalobos campaign.  Based on what I've been told, that might be an easy slam dunk case.

     Ernie Hernandez, Jr. does not fear prosecution.  Why should he?  He's operated largely unabated while allegedly stealing elections, illegally businessing with the city and county and, more recently, blatantly orchestrating the county's hiring of his convicted felon brother-in-law.  There's enough on Hernandez to keep a conscientious district attorney and staff occupied for months.  

    

     Luis Saenz is the DA candidate supported by the tiny remnant that is Brownsville Cheezmeh.  But, wasn't he the special prosecutor in the Pat Ahumada check case who fumbled that case miserably?  I remember thinking at the time that if someone could just articulate clearly the alleged facts of the case, it should be a relatively easy prosecution:  Ahumada was overdrawn by $180 when he deposited the check just before he went to Tampico to "promote Brownsville."  By the time BPD caught up with him he had spent $6,000 of he $24,000 check.  No adult does that unknowingly. Furthermore, when approached by BPD, he claimed the money had been returned.  Not true at that point and time.  He returned it AFTER being approached by police.   None of that was spelled out clearly to the jury by Saenz.  He was in a fog.  He is clearly not our man as DA.

     Maria De Ford and Chuck Mattingly, of course, are both candidates for DA, both working currently in Villalobos' office.  If elected, will they dramatically change the way that office is run?  That's exactly what our county needs.  To paraphrase the civil rights lament, without an effective DA, "A Change Is Not Gonna Come."