We've heard of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Case of the Purloined Letter."
But have you heard of the case of the missing affidavit by a county employee that implicates Cameron County District Clerk Aurora De la Garza of a possible cover-up and obstruction of justice?
The missing letter was gathered by county administrators in their attempt to ferret our facts related to the case of Melinda Gilman Gonzalez, the intake clerk at the district clerk's child support collection branch. Gonzalez was charged by the Cameron County Sheriff's Department investigators to have taken between $8,000 to $10,000 in payments made to the courts by parents making child support payments. A review of the collection system by the Cameron County Auditor's Office found that there was a serious flaw in the way that the system was set up that allowed for the issuance of handwritten receipts instead between 4: 30 and 5 p.m. that were not being entered into the computerized system, thereby eluding detection when accounts receivable and the receipts in the ledger were reconciled.
The payments made after 4:30 were kept in receipt books in the possession and control of the clerks working in the collections office.During the investigation into the whereabouts of these receipts, news reports indicated that some may have turned up missing, thereby making it difficult to learn just who made payments and whether the funds may have been included among those that Gonzalez is said to have taken for her personal use.
After the employees were interviewed and their statements taken, they were given to the care of the Cameron County Auditor's Office. County administrators assumed that those statements taken from the employees that indicated that De la Garza may have instructed some not to produce the missing receipt books would be turned over to the Sheriff Department investigators to assist in the prosecution of the clerk.
But, lo and behold, during an update into the case there was no mention of the letter and statements taken from the employees, thereby concealing any allegations of De la Garza's alleged complicity. Neither the sheriff's report nor the Asst. DA handling the case could explain why the letters that were placed in the auditor's office custody were part of the investigation.
Now, we know that the auditor's office comes under the control of the county's district judges per state law. And we know that they, as attorneys, would like to keep a cordial relationship between their courts and the administrator. Did they have a hand in keeping the letters related to De la Garza out of reach of law enforcement investigators?
And did the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. investigator know of their existence but for some reason did not make them part of his inquiry for some ungodly reason? Was it perhaps to protect Aurorita so that this alleged obstruction of justice and attempted coverup of Gonzales, who by the way, is the stepdaughter of Peter Gilman and his wife, who both work for the DA's Office, could be carried out?
We have come into possession of a October 12 email from the DA's Office to Bruce Hodge, the commissioners court counsel, that reads:
"Please allow this e-mail to memorialize our phone conversation yesterday, wherein you advised me that the County Auditor was in possession of a statement from a County employee relating to the reported theft of funds from the District Clerk’s Office, which occurred earlier this year. You further advised me that you would ask the Auditor to provide a copy of said statement to the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office, so that it can be made a part of the criminal investigative file."
So, the existence of the letter is no longer in question. Rather, it is now: Why is the auditor's office – which is under the direction of the district judges – not forthcoming in the handing of the incriminating document to the DA's Office?
It's been months since the crime was reported in July. We are now in November. Instead of a simple embezzlement charge, will there now need to be a cover-up and obstruction of justice probe into the same matter?
Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin, would have a field day with this one.
15 comments:
They are protecting Aurorita. They want Armando Villalobos to leave office and have Luis Saenz in so he can protect her. Same ole same ole.
The slime continues to flow from Aurora's office and the judges continue to turn the other way. We have no elected officials who have any honesty or balls. The culture of corruption in Cameron County prevails over honor, justice or common decency. We must assume that all the judges and elected officials are a part of this corruption.
Seems like her....hand written receipts after 4:30pm is a lot like her "special" consideration for attorneys who turned in the papers after 5pm....leaving the court assignment up to Aurora. Aurora may not be the entire corrupt element of our "mis-justice" system in Cameron County, but she is a symbol of all that is wrong here. Aurora makes it easy for the attorneys and the judges to be dishonest.....the culture of corruption is like a spider web...it catches them all eventually.
How she has not been involved in the Abel Limas case is beyond me. How she has not been indicted by the slap on the wrist to her thieving son Joey is beyond me. How the FBI has not looked into her office is beyond me. If she escapes this one, it will be beyond me again!.
I saw Aurora and Migdalia Lopez and Luis Saenz at Lotus on Boca Chica in a back room very secretive. I think you are on to something Juan.
I guess the Gilmans feel that Melinda should be able to get off as easy as Joey did. What is wrong is that our district attorney is worth for nothing and the new one coming in is related to Aurora de la Garza. As everyone now believes, Cam. County Law is corrupt and fruitful to all elected officials. Someone hit it on the head by saying that is why he doesn't bother to vote for crooks.
FBI, are you seeing this??? Time to clean up the District Clerk's office!!! HELP PLEASE!!!
despues de leer tanta corrupcion,yo le pederia a santa claus que llegara los texas rangers, f.b.i, los del i.c.e,y acabara con tanta rata, porque si seguimos asi la jente le va perder el respeto a la autoridad y si esto pasa, esto ya valio madre.
folks come on aurora and luis sanez are relatives, how would or could luis prosecute his tia? come on folks its not going to happen, need the texas rangers or feds to do this right.
with Luis Saenz the next DA you can forget about anything happening to Aurora. she is going to continue to run cover for herself and her friends the Judges.
aurora and luis saenz are relatives and he wll not prosecute her, get the texas rangers or better yet have the feds come into this picture, the public trust has been violated at her office for a long long time. time for her to go and be put out to pasture. moo moo moo
I have been told by a bail bondsman, " for $500.00 we can make it like it never happened. " Of course this was during the time of Judge Limas. But I wonder if it is still in effect or a variation of it. It's not rocket science people. If you want to clean this up, quit re-electing the same folks over and over and over...
Nov. 6, 2012 at 5:16 P.M.
If indeed that true? Go to the Feds with it! I think the Feds would find it interesting since they got to be looking into Aurora's office on how some of these cases that have resulted in convictions in the Limas fiasco wound up in his court back then? Put up or shut up with info like this! If you look the other way, it will only continue!
If the feds would simply gather the arrest records and bondsman records, then follow the paper trail. Allot would be uncovered. Several, if not more bondsman would get cases dismissed through Aurors office very frequently without retaining an attorney. The local attorneys should be pissed! The bondsmen are stealing money from them by fixing cases and making them go away thru Auroras office
luis saenz nuevo abogado distrito que chinga nos arrimaron. residentes del condado de cameron ya se les olvido el caso de joey fisher, por culpa de este pendejete bigoton la vieja cisneros salio del bote por una cuestion tecnica que este pendejo cometio, ahora el caso de pat ahumada con todas las camaras del banco donde deposito el dinero que se robo de la cd. de brownsville y no pudo convencer al jurado. a que le estamos tirando. en otras palabras si te ponen unos chingasos, o te violan, con este pendejo te vas atener quedarte con los chingasos, pero tambien con el gordo no habria mejorado en nada.
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