Subplots Just Below the Surface of Pat Ahumada Gaming Arrest

Former Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada

If Pat Ahumada or his fellow investors thought having a readily identified name associated with their new internet cafe would be good for business, they may have been wrong.

More likely, the name "Ahumada" on the Certificate of Occupancy just issued April 24, 2013(although the business had been up and running several months) made newly elected DA Luis Saenz see red.  Saenz, after all, had been the prosecutor of record who lost the seemingly slam dunk case of Ahumada's deposit into his bank account of a $26,000 check intended for a city vendor.

Mean Mister Brownsville published this comment on March 29, 2012:

I'm only concerned with his two inept, ineffectual prosecutions of Pat Ahumada in the check theft case, because I think that was slam dunk case if clearly articulated to a jury. I'm told that at the time of Ahumada's depositing of the $26,000 from a vendor into his own personal bank account, his account was $180 in arrears. He proceeded to a trip to Tampico to "promote Brownsville" immediately after the deposit. When approached by the Brownsville Police Department, Ahumada stated that the money had already been returned to the city. That was a lie. It was returned later that afternoon. That timeline and sequence of events was not clearly presented to either jury. Instead, Saenz got tangled up in arguing whether or not Ahumada had his glasses when he made the deposit.(It was later learned that Ahumada spent $6,000 of the money before finally returning the amount in its entirety.  Does anyone with a bank account really think Ahumada was not aware of spending money not his own, especially when his account was in arrears at the time the deposit was made?)

Kori Marra

Yes, I think Saenz wants Ahumada, and, as they say, wants him bad.  Note how as soon as Saenz took office he went after former Harlingen City Commissioner, Kori Marra, a case he had once prosecuted, but was overturned by the 13th Court of Appeals on a technicality.  Saenz has a good memory.

Another name surfacing after this most recent chapter of the Operation Bishop saga is that of Juan Angel Guerra.  He is the former Willacy County Ditrict Attorney who once indicted Vice President Dick Cheney on organized crime charges and conducted county business outside the courthouse surrounded by goats and chickens. Guerra also appeared before Judge Banales in 444th District Court in Brownsville, seeking to have the indicted DA Armando Villalobos removed from office.  He brought along with him Trinidad Salinas, a 68 year old Combes resident who had his 8-liner business shut down by Villalobos.  So, is Guerra an 8-liner, gaming specialist?  Watching him in Banales' court, his lawyering seemed ineffective.  Judge Banales gave hime some time to "cure his affidavit," then finally ruled against him.  Seemingly, Guerra's elevator does not

Trinidad Salinas

go all the way to the top.