WHERE DID RUBEN PENA GO DURING MANDO'S TRIAL?

By Juan Montoya
Something there is about special prosecutor appointments in Cameron County.
Remember back in 2005 when Armando Villalobos had just become the new Cameron County District Attorney after defeating Yolanda de Leon in a runoff in the 2004 Democratic primary?
At the time former Sheriff Conrado Cantu was under indictment after de Leon had presented evidence in February 2004 to a grand jury that Cantu had abused his official capacity to force county workers to campaign for him against current Sheriff Omar Lucio.
The indictment was handed down three weeks before the March 9 Democratic primary and Cantu pleaded not guilty and was released on a $15,000 bond. 
"It’s all politically motivated,” he told the press afterward, his white cowboy hat in hand. “I am innocent.”
Nonetheless, Villalobos recused himself from prosecuting the case and Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra was appointed to prosecute him.
During the trial, the defense argued that the indictment was defective because it did not clearly state in which Cameron County jail facility the violation took place.
Faced with amending the indictment or dropping the case, Guerra conceded the issue and dropped the matter, leaving it up to Villalobos to decide whether to pursue the matter.
However, Villalobos – who ran in tandem with Cantu during the runoff – knew that Guerra had advised Cantu and his lieutenant Romaldo Rodriguez on their lawsuit to remove de Leon as county DA for releasing a grand jury report critical of the sheriff's management.
That Guerra was appointed special prosecutor after his role in advising Cantu was, if not suspect, then a downright "fix."
Fast forward to the recently concluded Villalobos trial where the former DA and congressional candidate was tried and convicted for racketeering and taking bribes. During the trial, it was learned that the DA's former campaign worker Justin Ramos had filed a motion to expunge his criminal record. Villalobos appointed attorney David Sanchez – now a district judge – to represent the people. In his affidavit and statements to U.S. attorneys, Ramos charged that he had paid Villalobos $3,000 on the side, and Sanchez $1,000 apart from his fee from the county, not to object to the expungement.
Unfortunately for them, the Texas Attorney General did not agree and the motion was denied. Nonetheless, Sanchez, as special prosecutor for the county, did his part and did not object.
Fast forward even more.
One of the cases in the Villalobos pantheon of shame was the one involving the murder charge against Pepe Villarreal, accused of shooting his son-in-law (and father of his grandchildren) for a perceived slight to his daughter. After numerous payoffs detailed in the testimony from the Villarreal family to prosecutors, Villalobos assigned Ruben Peña as special prosecutor to represent the state against the alleged murderer in his motion for dismissal of the case.
When Villalrreal's case was heard in district judge Leonel Alejandro's court, government witness and San Benito attorney Oscar de la Fuente testified that he used signing off on the agreement regarding the money seized from the Villarreal family home as “leverage” to get a murder charge dismissed against Villarreal. De la Fuente testified that Villalobos had appointed Peña as special prosecutor on the Villarreal murder case to distance himself from possible backlash for having dismissed a murder charge.
The murder case – as arranged – was dismissed March 22, 2011 by Alejandro. 
Last week, before the conclusion of the Villalobos trial, several process servers and government investigators were trying to serve Peña with federal subpoenas to testify during the trial. He was nowhere to be found. The story was that he was out of town on family business, but eyewitnesses say they saw the former county commissioner candidate and San Benito school board member shopping at the Harlingen Dillard's store at the time of the trial.
 This raised some salacious comments from a courthouse observer who remembered when Peña was trying to overturn the Precinct 2 commissioner's race after accusing Brownsville businessman Ernie Hernandez of paying politiqueras to harvest mail-in and walk-in votes to steal the election.
"I remember when Ruben was knocking on doors trying to serve the subpoenas on old ladies to go testify in court and now he is the one avoiding being served," they said. "But it's not over, we understand that Ruben has some problems with his role in a scandal in the San Benito school district that won't be as easy to dodge."