WHY WAS DWI SUSPECT DRIVING RENE OLIVEIRA'S CAR? AND WHY DID COMMISSIONER MELISSA ZAMORA INTERVENE AT ARREST?

By Juan Montoya
For weeks now, the rumors surrounding a shadowy incident involving a UTB-TSC media employee and her relationship with State Rep. Rene Oliveria have been swirling around town.
Now, as the facts come to light, the issue has been raising troubling questions regarding Oliveria's apparent lapse in judgement and the propriety of a city commissioner (Melissa Zamora) showing up at the accident scene to advise the accused woman as she sat in the back of a City of Brownsville police cruiser.
Accident and arrest reports filed on Nov. 9 by arresting officer Everardo Longoria (city commissioner Rick Longoria's brother) indicate that at about 9:48 p.m. police were called to a serious accident involving two cars on the frontage road next to Charlie Clarks' Nissan.

The reports indicate that a 1999 Ford Windstar van with two passengers was struck from behind at a high rate of speed by a 2009 Chrysler PT cruiser operated by one Guadalupe Molina, identified as an employee at the college media department.

When officers arrived at the accident scene, they found the van with heavy damage to the rear parked in the grassy area between the expressway far right lane and the frontage road in front of the Nissan dealership. A woman passenger complained that she was hurting as a result of the impact, but did not require ambulance transport.  After ascertaining that the passengers in the van were not seriously hurt, officers walked over to the Chrysler and found an the driver was uncooperative and refusing to emerge from the car merely stating that she "knew her rights."

After getting her license information, officers bodily removed her from the wrecked car which had traveled over the curb, knocked down a fenced at the dealership and almost struck a demonstration car on a ramp inside the car dealer's.

A check of the vehicle's VIN indicated that the car belonged to State rep. Rene Oliveira, who was not in the vehicle. And apparently, it was not insured.

That was not all. As the officers investigated the crime scene and attempted to elicit information from the obviously intoxicated driver, a woman identifying herself as a "city commissioner" showed up on the scene.

"As I was documenting my report I heard officer (Alfonso) Garcia yell to someone outside my patrol unit. I then heard a female voice yell out 'I'm a city commissioner.' I then observed that there was a female dressed in gray sweat pants standing next to my police unit by the back door where Ms. Molina was. I heard officer Garcia tell her that the female was in custody and that she could not talk to her. The female walked away onto the grass of the Nisssan dealership," Longoria's report reads.

Despite the verbal warning that she was not to speak with Molina and being informed that the woman was being very uncooperative and highly intoxicated, Zamora merely answered that "I know," and went back to her car to speak with someone on her cell phone. However, that was not the end of her involvement in the Molina arrest.

Longoria writes that "I informed her (Zamora) that the minimum confinement was four hours because it was an intoxication charge and she told me she was already arranging that. She then walked away and got back on her phone...I walked down the road to the van and heard yelling coming from the area of my patrol unit. I then observed the same female standing by the back door of my patrol car unit yelling at Ms. Molina through the closed door. Officer Garcia then stepped towards her once again but I was not able to hear what was said."

Once Molina was transported to the jail she was held overnight until her arraignment in the morning.

In the wake of the event that unfolded that night, several questions come to mind:

1. Why was Molina driving Oliveira's car in an apparent highly intoxicated drunken state?

2. Was this instance just a case of lapse in judgement on Oliveira's part?

3. Is Rene allowing his personal relationships to interfere with his good judgement?

4. And why was city Commissioner Melissa Zamora interfering with the police and disregarding their orders not to speak with Molina?

5. We know that Ms. Zamora is in charge of Oliveira's re-election campaign. Was this a part of her duties at damage control? And how appropriate is it for an elected official to interfere with the duties of the local police?

6. Was Melissa there at the request of Oliveria that she do what she could to assist his girlfriend?

7. And, if indeed, Oliveira's car lacked insurance, what does this say about his own observation of the law? After all, Rene has been the darling of the insurance companies in their efforts to deny their clients' victims compensation. And he is, also, on retainer to delinquent tax collection giants Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP (Linebarger Goggan) to keep tax payers current in their obligation. Are there rules for elected officials and different rules for the rest of us, then?