PENA'S MINIONS ATTACKING THE MESSENGER

By Juan Montoya
If one is to believe some of the comments generated by our posting of several articles concerning the Cameron County Precinct 2 Commissioner's runoff election between former Brownsville city commissioner Ernie Hernandez and former Harlingen attorney Ruben Peña, ours is a dastardly plot against God , Motherhood and Apple Pie.
This knee-jerk reaction to us not following the party line reminds us of the communist purges in Stalinist Russia, Castro's Cuba and the Gang of Four's China.
For the record, let's review what we said about Peña, the silk stocking class's fair-haired boy.
We said that he was two months delinquent on nine accounts of his 2009 property taxes based on documentation provided by the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office. Until he ran the following Monday to the tax office and caught up with his payments, he was.
Did Hernandez have anything to do with Peña's procrastination that placed the burden of his nearly $10,000 tardy taxes on the backs of other county residents?
Did we?
Not really. Apparently, the 2009 tardy bill was nothing compared to his 2008 delinquent tax on his bill for a property in downtown Harlingen that is appraised at almost $200,000. He is still in negotiations with the tax man for that one.
Here, for your edification, are the details of the delinquency before Peña discovered that he'd been found out.

Acct. # 100002070005100 (Brownsville) Appraised Value: $10,500 Owed:$271.15

Acct. # 100002070006000 (Brownsville) Appraised Value: $36,000 Owed:$929.62

Acct.# 7928000280081200(Brownsville) Appraised Value: $134,874 Owed:$1,923.36

Acct.# 7928000280081400(Brownsville) Appraised Value: $1,669 Owed:$23.80

Acct.# 7928000280081700(Brownsville) Appraised Value: $126,000 Owed:$1,035.68

Acct.# 100900046309 (B'ville-inventory) Appraised Value: $60,866 Owed:$1,571.75

Acct.# 234600000007000 (Brownsville) Appraised Value: $49,235 Owed:$1,271.37

Acct.# 747990100010000 (Brownsville) Appraised Value: $55,183 Owed:$453.59

Acct.# 1500000680001000(Harlingen) Appraised Value: $199,969 (2009) Owed:$898.85

(2008) Owed:$1,165.94

Total owed: $9,545.11 (including 2008 delinquent Harlingen property tax)

Is it something we did?
Now, how about the Rex McGarr estate debacle where – through his direct role as co-executor and advisor to the other co-executor – the nephews and sister of the Los Indios farmer lost their inheritance and birthright?
You remember. Federal court documents are very specific on Peña's role in this debacle.

1. Peña assessed the value of the estate at nearly $1.8 million.
2. Peña – on the recommendation of co-executor Robert Pedraza – drafted the will of the elderly farmer, naming himself and Pedraza as co-executors.
3. Peña drafted a power-of-attorney naming Pedraza as McGarr's guardian.
4. Peña also petitioned the probate court to have McGarr declared incompetent and placing the estate in the co-executors' hands.
5. Pedraza – acting on the advice and counsel of Peña – borrowed heavily against the estate and then defaulted on the loans. As a result, between the time the time the farmer fell ill and the tiem he died (about four years) the estate was heavily encumbered and was ultimately lost to the banks by foreclosure.
6. The heirs – and Pedraza – sued Peña charging self-dealing and legal malpractice after the estate was gobbled up by the debt.
7. Peña never disputed that he had taking part in the legal and financial maneuvering that resulted in the orphans losing their inheritance. Instead, his defense then – and now – is that the statute of limitations had run out and therefore the plaintiffs should not be afforded the relief they sought from him, Pedraza and the banks.
8. The courts agreed with Peña's motion for summary judgment in denying the plaintiffs relief. In other words, tough titty. There's nothing they could do to regain their uncle's fortune.
Did we make all this up? Did the courts (state and federal)?
Blind allegiance – like blind patriotism – doesn't make for good citizens. If you find Hernandez despicable for his past actions, so be it. Ultimately, everyone who votes is alone with his conscience inside the booth.
But to turn a blind eye to the alleged misdeeds of his opponent simply because Hernandez has been chosen as the whipping boy by someone you like is like the lemming in the rear who runs after the rest heedless of the precipice awaiting him at the edge.
In his Sunday ads Peña claims he wants Pct. 2 to get its share of road funds. Does he know that as commissioner of Pct. 2 John Wood got far more than his fair share for the precinct? Does he know that Wood paved all of San Pedro, Olmito, and other county roads while crews were shifted from other precincts (notably clueless Sofia Benavides' Pct. 1) like no other commissioner had done before? Only Carlos Cascos' work for Cameron Park as Pct. 2 commissioner is comparable.
Is someone out of touch with county operations here?
And his statement published in the same ad on Sunday that he would command the violence to stop at the border make us wonder is he's pulling off a King Canute and making the tide stop at the shoreline.
As commissioner of Pct. 2, Peña can command all he wants. Unless he's got connections with the cartels or with the Zetas, this promise amounts to empty posturing that can only be believed by his most blindly ardent partisans.
Hernandez pays for his advertising here and that's it. Until someone can show us that we are taking shrimp plates or money under the table take those statements for what they are: red herrings from someone who can't refute the documented facts above.