REQUIEM FOR JORGE BRIONES

By Juan Montoya

He was a scamp, a Mr. Fix-it, a erudite con man, and an endearing bandido all wrapped in one.
If you went to Jorge Briones’ home when he was still in Brownsville, he would show you boxes full of photographs and clippings depicting him with the cream of Texas and Cameron County political elite: U.S. Representative Solomon Ortiz. State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr., Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, Gov. George Bush, in short, a veritable Who's Who of local, Texas and even Mexican dignitaries.
There he is with former Tamaulipas governors Tomas Yarrington and Manuel Cavazos Lerma, La Kina, the PEMEX labor leader for El Mante, etc.
That’s was just a sampling of the politicians pictured embracing Briones, an acknowledged political operative in Cameron County. Dig a little deeper in the box and you’d find local justices of the peace, navigation, county, city, and school district commissioners and trustees.
Word reached us earlier this year that the wiry Tampico native had succumbed to cancer in Alabama surrounded by his immediate family. All it took was a month for the disease to finish off Briones, a chain smoker, cognac savorer, chess fanatic, and all around bon vivant.
Briones went to Alabama after he fell from grace with local politicians, especially Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio, who was trying to persuade Jorge to support him in the race he lost against Conrado Cantu.
In fact, one of the prominent pictures in Briones' home was one showing him embracing the county's top lawman.
And yet, despite their friendship, Lucio took the stand along with his administrators and investigators to turn state’s evidence against his former ally on three counts which could have sent Briones to 10 years in the penitentiary.
What happened?
How did it come about that a man to whom Lucio had entrusted with an honorary deputy sheriff’s badge and granted full access to the county’s correctional centers as an attorney’s representative and bail bondsman suddenly became the target of the power of the state?
“I have opened my home to many local elected officials and candidates,” said Briones. “Cameron County Judge Gilbert Hinojosa kicked off his campaign at my home and many others have visited there and broken bread at my table with my family, including Sheriff Lucio. I never thought things would come to this.”
If anyone knew the ins and outs of the byzantine political currents of southern Cameron County, Briones was the man. And Lucio needed Brownsville if he was to win.
“That was the beginning of the end for me,” Briones said at the time.
Undaunted, Lucio continued to seek Briones’ support. He issued the honorary deputy’s sheriff badge bearing his signature to the bondsman and said he could arrange to have him attend civil process serving classes in Austin – at the department’s expense.
Again, Briones declined the offer.
On July 3, 1999, Briones received a call from local mechanic Jesus Ayala that there was a prospective client he had met while he was fixing the man’s car. The man – Jose Garcia Arizmendi – was trying to bail out his wife Maria Pulido who was in the Cameron County Jail charged with felony possession of marijuana (actually, about 700 pounds stacked in the couple's bedroom).
When Briones filled out the bail form and handed it to the deputies at the jail, they returned it to him citing several errors in it. A bilingual friend, Tony Guerrero, then helped him to correct the errors and the jailers then accepted the document.
What nobody noticed – not Briones, Guerrero, or the three sheriff department deputies who reviewed the document – was that the surety carried a $5,000 limit while the woman’s bond was for $75,000. Also, Briones wasn't authorized to sign a power of attorney.
Nonetheless, no one noticed and the woman was let out and rejoined her husband later that night. She hasn't been seen in the county since.
The ensuing scandal involving the signing of powers of attorney being signed by others besides the owners of the bond companies filled reams of newsprint. Briones went to get guidance from bail bond board chairman Eddie Gonzalez, and before the dust settled, hundreds of powers of attorney signed by unauthorized personnel had to be replaced by local bond companies.
“That was the only power of attorney I have ever signed and suddenly I get prosecuted while the hundreds of other invalid powers of attorney are replaced and no one gets prosecuted,” Briones complained at the time.
The result of the Briones episode was that the man who brought the shortcomings of the
bail bond operation to the authorities was tried for three felony counts involving the release of Pulido. Assistant district attorneys made out Briones to be an accomplice with a band of drug dealers who conspired to release Pulido. A car that Arizmendi-Garcia gave Briones in gratitude for his wife’s release was depicted as a reward for defrauding Sheriff Omar Lucio and handing in a fraudulent document.Detective Javier Reina and his brother – Chief Deputy Major Gus Reyna – both heavily involved in Lucio’s reelection campaign, testified that Briones had lied to them about the events surrounding the case. Lucio said Briones’s acts had cost him personally and the taxpayers of Cameron County money, even though Castañeda Bonds replaced the $5,000 surety with one for $75,000.With those convictions, Briones could no longer vote, run for office, or even issue bonds to get people out of jail. He was effectively silenced and elbowed out of the political process. The jurors who heard the case never got to learn the political context surrounding the charges against Briones. But afterward, Briones said he had a box full of photographs and proclamations where federal, state, county and city officials hailed him as an honorable and civic-minded citizen.
“I just happened to choose the wrong candidate the wrong time and paid the price,” he laughed. “The only consolation I have is that I know they may have the power now, but I had the reason. Upon his death, Jorge was cremated and – as per his wishes – his ashes taken to his native Tampico.

Rest in Peace, Jorge.