By Juan Montoya
The day the news broke about Texas State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra admitting in a deposition to being “intimately involved” with a wealthy (and married) land developer from South Padre Island, a few of us were chugging down some cold ones at the Palm Lounge in downtown Brownsville.
The story, recounted in sordid detail in the normally staid Valley Morning Star, depicted the affair (both are still legally married) of millionaire developer Clayton Brashear, 49, with freshman legislator Rios Ybarra, 37.
The South Padre Island Democrat admitted in a she had been involved with Brashear since February. Brashear raised thousands of dollars for her state legislative campaign. Rios Ybarra is running for re-election in Texas House District 43. The district includes Cameron, Willacy, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kenedy and Kleberg counties.
She told the daily she doesn’t expect that the publicity generated by her deposition will hurt her chances of re-election.
Sitting in one of the booths at the watering hole, an elected county official said he wasn’t so sure that the voters would forgive the wayward lass for her dalliance with a married man.
“People are still conservative down here, man,” he said. “You’ve got to watch your butt or out you go.”
At about that time, a Market Square regular showed up at the booth and asked if she could join the group.
“It’s lonely in the corner,” she said, and took a seat by the wall. We all knew Mary (not her real name) turned tricks downtown to feed the crack monkey on her back. She recently gained notoriety in the police blotter when the car she was riding in was stopped by police and the John spilled his guts before the cops even asked him anything.
“She said she’s going to do everything for me for $20,” he blurted. Rummaging through her purse, the cops turned up a crack pipe and it was off to the clink for Mary again. After giving it a few days for the situation to cool off, Mary was back on the street chasing the dragon.
The talk turned again to the Rios Ybarra story and as she listened to the details, Mary grew visibly disturbed. Then she got livid and said:
“Let me get this right. This bitch gets together with a married old guy who gives her lot of dough, and she is running for the legislature? I take $20 bucks from that old son-of-a-bitch and I get thrown in jail? What the fuck’s the difference?”
Brashear’s wife Sabrena is an eighth-grade history teacher at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville. She filed her divorce petition on Oct. 10, 2008. The marriage had lasted 22 years. Besides being a against real estate developer, Brahear is also the town’s Planning and Zoning commissioner.
Court records indicate that the land developer owns property in Brownsville and on the Island appraised at $11.3 million. The flagship property is a parcel at 7200 Padre Blvd. valued at $6.6 million.
Rios Ybarra is a dentist with a practice in Brownsville. She said in her Aug. 7, 2009 deposition that she and Clayton Brashear began an intimate relationship last February after she had filed for divorce Dec. 17, 2008 from her husband, Richard Joe Ybarra, a doctor.
“Wow, they’ve been going at it for more than half a year,” said Raul, who also works for the county. “I guess the chemistry is right.”
“That reminds me of a joke Benny Ochoa told me about a case involving a high school girl and teacher at Port Isabel,” I chimed in against the background of cheers as the Chula Vista, Calif., team made its comeback against the Taipei Little Leaguers. “Benny asked her why she didn’t put a stop to it and she asked him if he ever had a loose tooth. She told him that even though it hurt a little bit, she didn’t want to have it taken out.”
The Texas Legislature members have a long history of lust and debauchery. Stories abound about legislators being caught in fragrante in cloak rooms and closets. And the attraction of older Anglo males infatuated with young señoritas date back to the arrival of Zachary Taylor to the shores of the Rio Grande.
Bernard De Voto, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, John S.D. Eisenhower, Jack K. Bauer, and David Clary are but a few of the writers who recount how lonely U.S. soldiers were lured to the river bank by the sight of young Mexican women bathing in the nude on the Matamoros side.
The lure got so irresistibly bad that Old Zach had to issue orders that deserters be shot by sentries as they swam across the river.
“It didn’t stop them then, and this won’t stop them now,” crowed in Ray Avalos, a Brownsville native down from Houston who was sitting in a table within earshot. “The stuff’s good.”
Meanwhile, the recrimination from the couple’s mates has already begun.
Dr. Ybarra, the solon’s disgruntled mate, told the daily that he won’t vote for her when she seeks re-election to the Texas House and will actively support a challenger "with integrity."
Sabrina Brashear told the Valley Morning Star that throughout her 22-year-marriage to the developer she helped him to become successful. She said his sudden change in political philosophy took her by surprise,
"This woman doesn’t deserve to be a representative," she said. "He went on trips to Mexico (with Rios Ybarra) while I taught summer school to pay our daughter’s (college) tuition because he wouldn’t pay it," she said.
At the time of Rios Ybarra’s deposition, she said that she first met Brashear while she was an alderwoman at South Padre Island, and that he was a supporter and contributor to her re-election campaigns. She estimated that he donated between $20,000 and $25,000 for her state election campaign and raised thousands from other contributors.
However, while she admitted that she and Brashear had jetted to Disney World and Cabo San Lucas, they did not sleep together when her children were present.
“That reminds me of a joke that the late Stet Rep. Henry Sanchez used to tell about a guy who went to visit the dentist,” I shouted at the group above the din of the Palm Lounge crowd as the Chula Vista nine piled up on the screen to celebrate their victory over Taipei. “When the patient saw the dentist with the long needle, he grabbed the dentist by the short ones and asked him, ‘We’re not going to hurt each other, are we?’”
Meanwhile, Mary turned her head quizzically and said: “Twenty to 25,000? Man, I’m working in the wrong city. Austin sounds like a city that appreciates a working girl. Gimme another Bud, de puro coraje, ese.”
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