JUDGE NIXES BEGUM VOTER FRAUD CASE, NO EVIDENCE HEARD

By Juan Montoya
It happened, appropriately, on the same day, in the same judicial building where the sheriff was auctioning tax-foreclosed properties taken from county residents to the highest bidder.
A visiting judge – deciding that Erin Hernandez Garcia's right to appeal the case in the event she lost  the voter fraud case filed against her by her opponent Yolanda Begum – said there would not be enough time for the voting process to begin late September and dismissed the case against the Democratic nominee for Justice of the Peace 2-2.
She faces Republican nominee Raul Lopez in November.
Senior Judge J. Bonner Dorsey granted Garcia’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit after considering the argument by Garcia’s attorney Horacio Barrera who said that there was just not enough time for a contest to take its course all the way to the appellate process without interfering with timetables required by Texas law regarding the November General Election.
"Tell Yolanda she can pick up her signs now," gloated Erin in front of the courthouse against the din of the tax-delinquent property auction.
As a consolation, Dorsey told the parties that the issues in the case should be made public. How, he did not say.
There was not one ounce of evidence heard on the massive fraud that took place before the public's eye. There was not one witness called of those elderly subpeonaed to testify that their votes were cast for them by politiqueras in the employ of the candidates.
There was not one of those elderly who took the time to go to the courtroom  who was allowed to tell the court – and the public – how she or he had been led along by Hernandez's politqueros and politiqueras to fill in the ovals for their candidates locked up in a van after the Cameron County Elections Office personnel allowed the ballots to be taken to them and the politiqueros directed them how to vote.
In fact, when the witnesses arrived to testify at 10 a.m. they were met by a female bailiff at the entrance who told them to leave and comeback at 1 p.m.
In the case of one elderly couple, when Begum's supporters tried to induce them to stay until the 1 p.m. hearing, they were forcefully separated from them and sequestered in a room until the case was dismissed and they were told they could go.
"The whole courthouse is filled with Erin's supporters," said a Begum campaign worker. "They wouldn't even let us talk to our own witnesses. And when the case was postponed until 1 p.m., the female bailiff ordered them to leave and come back then even as we were trying to get them to stay and wait."
There is till the possibility that the voluminous trove of evidence and documentation of voter fraud compiled by the Begum camp will make its way to state and federal authorities here and in Austin. However, that is still to be decided.
"We're disappointed," said Cowen's, Begum's attorney, noting that in the end, the judge could have allowed the trial to take place in 2 to 3 days. Then the loser could have petitioned the appeals court to have an expedited appellate review.
The case precedent, according to attorneys in the case, was TAYLOR v. NEALON et al, heard in the Supreme Court of Texas and decided Nov. 2, 1938.