Two officials employed with a publicly-funded entity are discovered using the organization's credit card to make thousands of dollars in illegal personal purchases.
In one case, one of them is slapped on the hand and continues to draw his $80,000-plus salary and perks while the other is pressured to resign, charged with theft, forced to pay restitution and placed on seven-year deferred adjudication.
The first official's name is Jason Hilts, now executive director of the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation. First hired in March 2002 and installed as the city's top economic development guru after what a sham "nationwide" search, he was given a $80,000 annual salary coupled with benefits and a $500 monthly gas allowance. Additionally, Hilts had access to a BEDC credit card that he used totaling up to more than $1,000 monthly.
Before he was given the cushy job, Hilts was an administrator for a molding manufacturing corporation from Wisconsin with a plant in Brownsville. He had absolutely no economic development experience and did not even possess a college degree. The second was Mike Gonzalez, a Brownsville native who after getting his college degree and a long career in local television news broadcasting, was named as the chief executive officer of the Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau. Gonzalez was a well-known face on local television screens before 2005, when he was appointed as the CEO at BVCB.
Like Hilts, Gonzalez had access to his organization's credit card.
Hilts, before he was pegged for the BEDC's CEo, had been "disciplined" for admitting to making large personal purchases on BEDCs credit card such as jewelry and clothing when he was vice president of the BEDC.
Among some of the expenditures he needed to attract new jobs to Brownsville were included "necessities" such as:
– clothing from Mervyns in Los Angeles and Mission Viejo, Calif.
– slacks, shirts and men's coordinates from Dillards in Brownsville
– more clothes from the Burlington Coat Factory in McAllen
– a diamond ring from J.C. Penney in Brownsville
– goods from Stein Mart in San Antonio
– general merchandise and jewelry from Target in Brownsville
– jewelry/repair/sales from Golden Time in Brownsville
– and a $1,077.09 silver clock from the Jewel Gallery in Brownsville
The Brownsville Herald reported that Hilts liked to live in the lap of luxury when traveling on behalf of the people of Brownsville.
It stated that: Brownsville Herald: "Records turned in by Hilts show that he...went to Cancun for a business meeting. There he had lunch for one costing $57, and dinner for two the same day for $95. Records also show that he had meals costing $42 and $24 on subsequent days."
Gonzalez and his office manager admitted using more than $280,000 through unauthorized credit card purchases.
Lopez is accused of using the BCVB credit cards to purchase home appliances at Home Depot and to pay for family trips. Gonzalez is accused of writing personal checks to himself using a BCVB checking account, police said.
Hilts said he was sorry, repaid the thousands he spent illegally using the cards, and then was appointed CEO at his current salary.
"I'm being singled out, but you know, everyone in the organization at one time or another at that time was making personal purchases and then reimbursing, OK? They had some loose controls," Hilts told the Herald's indefatigable Emma Perez-Trevino. "Everyone, you know, we got, you get your hand slapped. I'm not a real smart person, but I am not stupid and I learn from mistakes. We all make mistakes every day."
And that was the end of that. He was never arrested, charged, or given run through the judicial gauntlet.
Yet, in the case of Gonzalez and Lopez, the results were radically different.
After being charged, Gonzalez and Lopez had to pay an attorney to defend them, go through the legal process, and eventually accepted guilty pleas for their actions.
Gonzalez appeared before state District Judge Leonel Alejandro, who handed down a seven-year deferred adjudication sentence on the charge of theft, as well as an order to pay $25,000 in restitution and a $1,500 fine.
Lopez, his office manager, was sentenced to 10-years deferred adjudication after she pleaded guilty to a theft charge. She was also ordered to pay restitution.
Now, aside from the different ethic-origin of their surnames, didn't they all commit the same offense? So why were the outcomes so completely different?
6 comments:
You, like Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, are eager to play the race or ethnic card...and here is another case of that. Its not about the rack of Hilts, its his supporters stupid. Hilts is closely linked to and supported by Downtown Brownsville groups who are willing to "dismiss" his pecadills to save their own face around town. Like Mike Gonzalez, Hilts is a thief and should be treated like one....but when he goes to court, who else in BEDC or the community might look bad. Several years ago there was a museum director who had used the credit card for personal expenditures....the board of that museum did not prosecute because it would have made that board's oversight and its board's members look bad. So, they pissed the loss off to save face. Gonzalez had no political insulation and had to bite the bullet...for stealing from the city. Hilts has political insulation and is protected so his bosses can save face. He is still a thief....It's like Aurora de la Garza's son Joey.....He stole over $150,000 from a local hospice and his mother's influence made the Sheriff refuse to arrest Joey, then led to Armando Villalobos putting Joey on Judge "Disable" Limas calendar and then prosecuting the case without notifying the victims (We can only wonder how this case got to Limas's court), then Joey was given deferred adjudication (agreed to by the DA of course) by a Lame Duck judge and then his case was dismissed when Limas left the court. And, Juan, all these thiefs have Hispanic names and most are deeply linked to various versions of stealing from the public. So, one might ask if this is favortism due to Hilts ethnicity or is this situation just another day at the office for Cameron County politics and corruption. Your bad Juan for making this a two horse race and not looking at the bigger problem of corruption inherent here.
There is no double standard here...this is the way of Brownsville. You forget the many other officials accused of corruption of some kind....most of whom are Hispanic. We don't just accept corruption....we demand it. And that corruption includes far more thieves than Gonzalez and Hilts.
Wow ! The PORT was going to hire J.Hilts as deputy director at $110,000 ............Eddie&John Reed
GUILTY, of being Mexican!! What a crime !!!
Trouble, oh we got trouble
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "B"
And that stands for Brown
That ends in town
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in the river city,
Gotta figger out a way
To keep the appointed ones moral, yes I said MORAL.
Why do they think it is okay to splurge on the poor man's
dime and once caught, one slap on the wrist and all is
fine, fine. It is a disease here in the river city. A plague.
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...
This kind of special treatment really sucks, unless I'm getting some of it. Right, Juan?
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