He was appointed by the former majority on the Brownsville Independent School District to dig up dirt to justify the termination of Special Needs department director Art Rendon.
According to sources who saw the reports, the work product delivered consisted of district-authorized audits that were warmed over and packaged for the board. Unconvinced that the material amounted to a smoking gun, the new majority agreed to settle with Rendon on his whistelblower lawsuit and gave him a one-year contact at his previous salary.
An Open Records request to the BISD indicates that Ric Navarro, of the Harlingen law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal, P.C., was paid almost $400,000 for his role in the "investigations." In the end, with Rendon getting reinstated as part of the settlement with the BISD, all that laborious process gathering the "evidence" seems to have been all for naught.
"All we got was the work of our district auditor warmed over," said a BISD administrator. "There was no smoking gun anywhere to prove the allegations that were being made by the board majority then.That was an expensive exercise in futility.""Ric was the biggest winner in that case," said an attorney acquainted with the case.
Well, for some reason or other Navarro has again been assigned to defend the City of Brownsville in the ongoing investigation of the police shooting of Javier Gonzalez Jr. in a Cummings Middle School hallway.
So far, the Navarro strategy has consisted of trying to throw a blanket over the surveillance tape and investigative documents of the shooting. The city has resorted to the time-honored delay strategy of requesting an opinion from the Texas Attorney General's office. The city claims that because the tapes and documents are part of an ongoing investigation, it is within its right to prevent them from public access.
That comes on the heels of the firm defending the decision by Brownsville Fire Chief Lenny Perez to terminate firefighter and firefighter union representative Marco Longoria who Perez charged with insubordination after the firefighter refused to go to a particular clinic to have a drug test after a fender bender between his department vehicle and a woman in a parking lot.
Well, even though the city lost that one, too, Navarro's firm pocketed a cool $21,969.11 for its attorneys' brilliant defense of Perez's actions.
Notoriety has also dogged Navarro who was counsel of record for the city of Weslaco. The investigation into corruption in the Weslaco PD includes tape recordings obtained by the FBI and several media outlets indicating that Navarro counseled members of the city commission on how to get around personnel guidelines to promote Cpl. Baudelio Castillo above other higher-ranking officers.
Once Castillo was promoted to the position of assistant police chief, he is accused of selectively sending officers to patrol elsewhere and protecting the activities of specific drug dealers. The investigation into the drug running is said to be continuing.
In the Weslaco case, sources told a local television station that Castillo craved power and that members of the city commission were looking for a way to give him a high position within the police department. Tapes made available to the station indicate that then-city manager Frank Castellanos talked to Navarro about making this possible.
In the Weslaco case, sources told a local television station that Castillo craved power and that members of the city commission were looking for a way to give him a high position within the police department. Tapes made available to the station indicate that then-city manager Frank Castellanos talked to Navarro about making this possible.
"I think what they want with Baudelio, and the commission. They want a police chief that will then put Baudelio in a position where Castillo can get more money and have more influence."
The city commission apparently wanted legal help on the matter and turned to their attorney Navarro to find a way.
A taped recording caught commissioners meeting in executive session to discuss how to put Castillo in charge of the police force."I think I understand what you guys want, and based on this I’ll follow the process to get you there. But, I’m thinking to get what you guys want, I think you guys need to advertise for three days," says Navarro.
The commission eventually decided not to make Castillo chief because he wasn’t qualified and they created an assistant chief position.
In June of 2009, Catellanos laid off five top city leaders including the police chief.The layoffs cleared the way for Castillo to rise to power at the department.
CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported that once Castillo took over he dismantled the narcotics department and opened up a smuggler’s highway through the mid-Valley.
"There were certain known drug traffickers who were pursued and other traffickers who were left alone," a source told the station.
That allegation has the attention of current city leaders and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the station reported recently.
10 comments:
It seems like everyone but the taxpayer gets the benefit of tax dollars in Cameron County and BISD. "Other People's Money" could have been made in South Texas with a bit different theme....public corruption. In any event, the public loses and down here corrupt lawyers seem to be prolific and eager to steal from the ignorant public. Public officials down here are arrogant and have have giant egos. They eagerly use public dollars to defend their egos. Too often our local political duels are fought in the courtrooms, using tax dollars. We would be better off if local politicians had the huevos to just use dueling pistols.
And the current 4 mamadoras y mamador ?? When are they supposed to pay back the millions they have stolen??
Ric, the "under taker" is about as corrupt as they come. Juan why don't you as rick zayas and ruben cortez how much money did they receive from the "under taker". With all that is going on in cameron county corrupt politics..ric navarro may be one of the dirtiest lawyers in the county. what will he try to cover up in the cummings shooting?
To the FBI, you guys need to look into the shenanigans at the Port and start that rock that runs down hill? There is so much money being ripped off that it will make the Limas fiasco look like little kiddie stuff? Armando Villalobos supposedly investigated the stolen $21 million and came up with retrieving $1 million? What a joke! You know that he did that only to try and save some face? You know that he made deals with them in getting their support when HE knew that he was going to run for Congress! Look at his contribution sheet! No wonder we taxpayers get the shaft because of these dirty politicans!
democRATA COUNTRY = CORRUPTION.
Folks have you notice from the national to local level where ever democRATS are in charge corruption occurs? When are we going to rid ourselves of this CANCER?????? WE HAVE TO VOTE THESE PARASITES OUT OR WE ARE DOOMED FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
The easiest solution I can foresee is if the they are democRATS vote for the opponent. That will be a start and if the new kid on the block don't pan out we'll either RECALL THEM OR VOTE THEM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sorry that in your pathetic life you make minimum wage, drink cheap beer and believe that going honky tonkying to Winks is a night out on the town. If you have a complaint call 1-800-kissmyass.
Blood suckin lawyers and their compadre politicos, raping us stupid tax payers.
Some smart man named Thomas Jefferson once said, THE GOVERNMENT THAT GOVERNS LEAST, GOVERNS BEST.
Lets just privatize and put out to bid, the BISD, BND, BRG, GBIC, BEDC, The Sports Park, Brownsville Country Club, BUS, the airport, the Events Center, our international bridges, etc, etc, etc. Not one of our politico compadre's have any experience running a big business.
The older I get, the more republican I begin to think. Or perhaps Dr. Ron Paul.
anon of January 28, 2012 12:09 PM
DITTOS DITTOS DITTOS "RIGHT" ON
rats with opm other peoples money, just the taxpayers no one else
so do they call rick navarro "el cool arrow"
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