ELECTION FALLOUT: WILL CHEEZMEH'S ALLURE FIZZLE AWAY?

By Juan  Montoya
We have seen him and his adherents smooching up to politicians of all stripes.
Whether it's City of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez, E3, Carlos Masso, Erin Hernandez Garcia, and perhaps even the congressional district candidates of both parties, he has parlayed a massive presence and manipulation of the social media to manufacture a persona that tends to dissipate under the glare of public scrutiny.
His name is Erasmo Castro, the self-styled Head Cheez of the group that once self-labeled itself the premiere community watchdog. Now, after many twists and turns and vacillations with the responsibility such a moniker entailed, its effectiveness has been put to the litmus test of local politics.
From all appearances, it has failed that test miserably and now has publicly aligned itself with the dregs of political corruption – the abuses of the elderly and gullible for the Hernandez political machine – and the manipulation of social causes for personal self-benefit.
What started out as a self-styled "community-based" enterprise turned out to have been a game of playing the rubes for their money using a number of legitimate social causes ostensibly for the public good that in the end have turned out to have been ruses to fleece the gullible of their money.
Who is Castro? And exactly why does he steer the group of Cheezmeh lemmings toward his chosen cliff?
That he once lived in Brownsville and practiced the Notary Public scam here until things go too hot is undeniable. Then he made his way to Mount Pleasant to ply his wares there as an assistant in a group home for the disabled is also true. Later, we learned he moved on to Austin. Along the way he found out that maybe tending to sheep and then fleecing them would provide him with greener pastures and he went after a theology degree.
But why exactly did he leave Brownsville?
To learn that we must go back down memory lane and look at the record.
Castro first came to the attention of the Brownsville Police Department and the Cameron County District Attorney's Office through his active participation in a fraudulent scheme to dispossess a Brownsville woman (Petra Aurora Floyd Mancillas) of a white 1984 BMW that her husband Alejandro Mancillas bought for her with $1,900 of her income-tax refund money in February 1992.
According to her statement to police, after she was using the car for about three weeks, she and her husband got into an argument and he threatened to kill her if he left her. She then left for California after he placed a gun between her legs and threatened to shoot her.
While in California, she learned that her husband had "sold" her car to Erasmo Castro for an unspecified amount and that Erasmo had done a transfer on the title to his name. She told them the car belonged to her and that she wanted it back. As a result of her complaint, police seized the car and when she arrived in Brownsville she found out that the car had been placed in the Cardenas Motors impoundment yard.
From there, statements by impoundment yard employees and police officers indicate that Erasmo Castro and Quesada attempted to get the car released but that they lacked a release form from the police department. After they got the money required by the yard, Castro returned with a form signed by an officer Daniel Y. Bennett authorizing him to get the BMW. Later, detective Mariano Gonzales determined that Castro had forged Bennett's signature.
During a hearing called by then Municipal Judge Kip Van Hodge to determine ownership of the vehicle at which Castro did not appear, the car's ownership was returned to the woman, although the car had by then been driven to Ft. Myers, Fla. by Quesada.
As a result of these criminal offenses (passing a forged instrument), Castro was charged with forgery and his trial was held in 138th District Court before Judge Robert Garza. After a bench jury, Garza found him guilty of felony forgery and sentenced him to 10 years in the penitentiary reduced to five years probation. His attorney was Angel Castro, now an Asst. U.S. Attorney. The prosecutor was Bruce Tharpe. The District Attorney was (drum roll) Luis Saenz.
Castro was sentenced to pay a fine and to report to probation. He asked that his probation be removed to Titus County (Mt. Pleasant) and two years later, asked that the court reconsider his sentence to deferred adjudication. The state objected to the reconsideration and a hearing was held on May 13, 1994.
During that hearing, Castro introduced a letter from his employer John DiFrancesco Jr., of Pleasant View, a facility that cared for handicapped children. In the letter, DiFrancesco pleaded with Garza to defer the sentence or else he could not employ Castro with a felony conviction.
"If necessary, I would appear before your court or even bring a group of mentally retarded clients with me," DiFrancesco wrote.
Castro, on his own behalf, also pleaded with Garza to grant him the deferrment stating his work in Brownsville with Lincoln Park School (with Linda Gill Martinez) as a coach with Special Olympics in Brownsville and his desire to make "great things happen for my children" in Mount Pleasant. He also told Garza he had "become active in my church and oversee a youth group" there.
Despite Saenz's objections, Garza granted the deferment. Yet, as of today, court records show that Erasmo still owes more than $500 on the fine assessed in 1994.
We wondered why (besides getting paid handsomely by Masso), Castro was so anti-Saenz during the recent Democratic primaries for Cameron County District Attorney. Castro chided Saenz for his extra-marital affair and a report by a grand jury criticizing his management style although no true-bills were ever issued. The fact remains, however, that it was Saenz who was DA when he was prosecuted for felony forgery and whose office objected to deferred adjudication.
His reappearance in Brownsville in his family's notary public office has also raised grave concerns from attorneys representing immigrants and their families who were advised to seek help from notaries to fill out their applications with the U.S. Immigration Department (ICE) for residence and eventual citizenship.
Currently, two complaints naming the Castros (including Erasmo) are on file in the U.S. Southern District Court accusing them of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise (a RICO) for continuing to fill out the forms without certification. According to the lawsuits, as a result of the inappropriate filling out of some forms, some petitioners lost their opportunity to get residency and even citizenship when their forms were rejected for a number of reasons, including filling out the wrong forms or missing deadlines.
We also wondered why Castro and his Cheezmeh adherents were so involved with the Linda Salazar campaign for Justice of the Peace. Now we find out that the attorney who filed the lawsuits against the Castros was none other than Marlene Daugherty, Salazar's Libertarian opponent in the Nov. 6 election. No, it would not do to have Linda beaten by Marlene when there are good things to be had by Salazar's referrals to local notaries (the Castro's bread and butter) on her web site.
Meanwhile, he has been able to ride the wave of social media and translate the facile acceptance of cyberchatter ("I'm going to the bathroom", "45 people like that") into an easy buck assuring readers that he is the point man of thousands at his behest ("I am Legion").
The results of this coming election Nov. 6 in all likelihood will put an end to this illusion.
Carlos Masso found out – as did other politicians who we won't embarrass by listing – that the legions didn't materialize as votes. And when potential donors to his causes innocently asked how much of their contributions would actually go to the stated causes, his imperious responses that as Head Cheez he didn't have to account to anyone but himself laid bare the base designs of the appeal.
In four days we will see the impact of Erasmo and his Chezz-Whiz invention. Until then, we'll see what new smoke and mirrors the Whizzard of Oz from Austin can come up with to salvage a deteriorating Emerald City.