FOR MANDO, LANDMINES EVERYWHERE HE TURNS, NOW ERNIE

By Juan Montoya

In a classic case of political dodge ball, Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos now finds himself thrust squarely in front of a hot potato involving the possible violation of Civil Service laws related to the alleged subversion of the county's hiring system in the hiring of Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Herandez's brother in law.

The commissioner court on Thursday decided to call upon the services of the good Don after Chief Carlos Garcia of the Brownsville Police Dept. decided to pass up on the investigation of the hiring of Roberto Cadriel as a noncomissioned pedestrian toll-gate security guard at the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

After that rebuff, the commissioners decided to call upon the services of the county DA to determine whether – as it is commonly believed – illegal acts were performed in the hiring of his ne'er-do-well bro-in-law.

The last thing Mando wants is for a political hot potato to be handed to him just as he's grooming himself for a congressional run. Getting involved in anyway with Hernandez, always a polarizing figure in local politics, is a no-win proposition that mMndo can hardly afford. 

He stayed out of the Brownsville Navigation District "Bridge to Nowhere" $21 million scam until there was something to be gained, like a $1 million penance paid to his office by Dannenbaum Engineering for a clean slate in Cameron County.

He dodged the bullet of the Amit Livingston scandal by asserting he had protested the 60-day release of the convicted murderer by his benefactor District Judge Abel Limas "in chambers." Who could qauestion that? No one but he, Limas, and the defense attorneys were present.

The fact that his former law partner, one Eddie Lucio (not one of our sucios), split the $500,000 cash bond with the family of the murdered teacher was just an unfortunate circumstance that caused him not a little embarrassment.

Then came the hurried arraignment, trial, conviction, and deferred adjudication of District Clerk Aurora de la Garza's son Joey for stealing more than $80,000 (some say much more than that) from a hospice in Olmito – all done in one after noon at (you guessed it) Limas' court in one afternoon.

That none of the victims were told that the arraignment and judicial process was going to take place was just one more embarrassing little oversight on his part.

We are still wondering where the investigation of the death of the assistant DA whose body was found in his car in Matamoros and the suspicious "suicide" ruling from the Mexican authorities have ended, or whether it was also conveniently shelved.

And now, as the Limas investigation is continuing and lawyers, county employees, bail bondsmen and even some of the DA's personnel have been caught in the federal snare, the last thing Mando needs is to be dragged into a situation where he'll be damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

However, if he chooses to hand off the hot spud to a special prosecutor, he cannot allow the same thing that happened when he appointed Willacy County DA Juan Angel Guerra to prosecute his buddy Conrado Cantu based on an indictment issued by a grand jury under his predecessor Yolanda De Leon.

Guerra, who had been coaching Cantu on a lawsuit trying to remove De Leon prior to Mando's victory over her in the Democratic primary, decided there was nothing there to prosecute and the world spun merrily on.

This time, it might not be so easy.