WITH ALL THAT BAGGAGE, IS ERIN SERIOUS ABOUT RUNNING?

By Juan Montoya

Word has reached us that former Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 2 Erin Garcia Hernandez is telling everyone within earshot at the Cameron County Courthouse that she will be a candidate for the soon-to-be-created County Court-At-Law #4 in 2016.

The creation of the new court has been in the works for years as the judges in the other three courts-at-law struggle to handle the crush of cases that are generated yearly in the county.

What some people find amazing is that Garcia Hernandez, after failing to make the runoff in the JP 2-2 race in 2014 can still be considering running a countywide race for the position. Already, there has been talk of former County Court-a-Law Judge Daniel T. Robles, who lost to County Court-at-Law #1 Arturo McDonald in the Democratic Primary March 2014, throwing his hat in the ring as well.

In that race, Robles' links to Jim Solis and Austin attorney Mark Rosenthal led to his resounding defeat by McDonald. Both Solis and Rosenthal were convicted of bribery and racketeering and sentenced to federal prison

But what surprises many people is that Garcia-Hernandez, who has been linked to various criminal prosecutions of staff members of her court implicated in cash-for-favors schemes, would believe she can be elected, especially in a countywide race.

During the 2014 Democratic primary for JP 2-2, Garcia came in third behind Jonathan Gracia and Yolanda Begum. Gracia eventually won the race in a subsequent runoff.

 “I can’t imagine anyone from Harlingen voting for her after the indictments of some of her staff members and her implication in the politiquera indictments of main-in vote fraud and vote harvesting,” said a local courthouse observer. “The cases aren’t over.”

Garcia Hernandez was identified as the main beneficiary of fraudulent mail-in ballots harvested by many women associated with what has been called the Hernandez vote-harvesting machine headed by her mother Norma and her father Ernie Hernandez. Hernandez was the county commissioner for Pct. 2 but agreed to resign in return for the Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz dropping six official misconduct charges stemming from the illegal hiring of his brother in law Roberto Curiel. Curiel is his wife Norma’s brother.

Hernandez pleaded to a charge of coercing a public servant in an unrelated case and was given deferred adjudication for his plea.

Just within the last few months, there has been movement seen in the local courts as the Texas Attorney General's Office prosecutors move against politiqueras who have been associated with different politicians to harvest votes.

In March, Facunda Banda Garcia pleaded guilty to Unlawful assistance of a voter and fined $233 and sent to a three-day jail sentence with one day credit. She served her time and was released.
Yet, still waiting in the wings is Sara Perales, a politiquera closely allied to the Ernie-Norma and Erin Hernandez vote-harvesting machine. Perales was indicted on two counts of a mail-in vote offense for handling a carrier envelope by a person other than the voter.
She attended a pre-trial hearing in Judge David Gonzalez's Cameron County Court-at-Law 3 and her case was moved to August 19 after her attorney Enrique Juarez failed to show. Her alleged offenses date back to the 2012 elections.
Alongside her was Vicenta Guajardo Verino who is charged with 10 counts of the same offenses as Perales stemming from the 2012 Democratic primary and runoff. Her attorney is Rey Cisneros, who also failed to show and her case was reset to Aug. 19 also.
Sources close to the AG's Office and the local chapter of Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA) indicate both women are prepared to enter guilty pleas and accept at least a year's probation plus fines on the charges.
Sources say that as part of their pleas, they have agreed to give a full disclosure of their vote-harvesting activities to the AG's Office, including the names of he candidates who paid them to manipulate the votes on their behalf.
"This is not over by a long shot," said source. "Prosecuting the perpetrators – the people who paid them – is a little more difficult. But more is coming."

Politiquera Margarita Ozuna is fighting the indictments against her stemming from the 2012 election. She has been  historically aligned with the Hernandez machine. The current charges date to the Erin Hernandez-Yolanda Begum runoff election in 2012.She was charged with seven counts stemming from allegations she committed mail-in fraud by handling the carrier envelopes of voters without their consent.

In her defense, court-appointed attorney Richard Nuñez filed a special plea of double jeopardy in Judge Laura Betancourt's County Court At-Law 2 because he claimed that the offenses arose out of the same criminal act, and therefore Ozuna could not be tried again.
In response, Asst. Texas AG Jonathan White countered that Ozuna was not entitled to the protection because "each instance of 'ballot harvesting is a separate and distinct criminal act, the prior offense occurred more than two years prior to the current offenses charged, in a different election, involving different candidates; and the prior offense involved different victims."
Additionally, White told the court that "even within the same criminal episode (which Ms. Ozuna's 2010 and 2012 offenses are not), the same criminal offense can be committed multiple times, without invoking double jeopardy."
"Here," continues White, "the voters were different, the places where the ballots were harvested were different, the dates were different. the elections were different, the candidates were different, the potential victims (voters, candidates, and populace) were different, and the Election Code statutes violated were different."
Judge Betancourt agreed with White and denied Nuñez's motion and the case is set to go to trial on August 10.

As if that wasn't enough there have been charges of bribery against three women who prosecutors claim were involved in a cash-for-favorable decisions scheme in Garcia-Hernandez's court. Tape recordings introduced into the case of Maria Velia Silguero indicate that she claims that the JP was paid to rule favorably in a case involving a couple. Another tape recording indicates that Garcia had participated in the scheme. Garcia-Hernandez has never been charged.
Silguero was the sister of Iliana Cantu, a clerk in Garcia's office.
Those cases are also pending.
"With all that hanging over her head, why on earth is Erin running?" asked a county staffer. "Doesn't she think that her opponents will comb the court files and bring it out?"