RAUL SALAZAR, ERNIE'S ADM. ASST., INDICTED, ARRESTED

(For what it's worth, right before we published this post, we were notified that another local blogger, citing "very reliable sources" [the Cameron County District's Office?] had asserted that the grand jury had not issued an indictment against Commissioner Ernie Hernandez.)

By Juan Montoya
Courthouse sources indicate that Raul Salazar, Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner's Administrative Assistant,was arrested at his workplace today and taken into custody a day after a grand jury finished its probe into the alleged illegal hiring of the commissioner's brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel.
Hernandez was the last witness before the grand jury Thursday.
(Later in the day, the Brownsville Herald reported that "Raul Garza Salazar was indicted on one count of tampering with governmental records and two counts of abuse of official capacity, court records show.
The indictments pertain to a civil service test that Salazar is said to have ordered be taken on behalf of Robert Cadriel - Hernandez's brother-in-law - for a job with Cameron County.
The indictment also alleges that Salazar provided Cadriel with the answers to the civil service test.")
Salazar was issued $100,000 dollars in bonds for the abuse of officials capacity indictment but is expected to spend the night in jail to be arraigned for the tampering with a government record indictment.
It is instructive to know that all the the indictments handed down by the grand jury have not been released, possibly pending the arrest and booking of those who will be charged with offenses as determined by the jury.
Salazar, a longtime friend of Hernandez, was the Brownsville Fire Department Chief when Hernandez was a city commissioner. He left the department after he was indicted and convicted of abusing the power of his office to aid the fire department's fundraising efforts in 2002.
In a plea agreement with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, Salazar pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of theft by a public servant.

In return, the Cameron County's district attorney's office agreed not to oppose probation at Salazar's  sentencing and he was ordered to pay back $10,000 in restitution to the fire department's Christmas Charity Fund and agreed to testify truthfully in any upcoming cases.
Salazar was indicted Jan. 9, 2002, on 13 felony counts listed in four indictments ranging from bribery to official abuse of capacity. The count of bribery, to which Salazar pleaded guilty, was accepting or agreeing to accept money from Seunghoon Lee, manager of El Gran Mercado on 1232 E. Elizabeth St., in exchange for not enforcing fire codes at the store.

Evidence introduced by the district attorney's office at the plea showed that the bribery was discovered when Lee bungled delivering an apparent payoff to Salazar.
The investigation into the August 2011 hiring of Cadriel and the subsequent resignation  of former HR interim director Robert Lopez raised questions about the commissioner's possible involvement in placing his brother in law in the position in violation of Civil Service rules.
The county probe indicate that it may have been someone in the HR office who took the exam the third time instead of Cadriel in violation of Civil Service rules.
The case stirred suspicions that the civil service process had been subverted to allow Cadriel to get a job as a non-commissioned security guard at Veterans Memorial Bridge even after he had flunked the civil service exam miserably twice. Tallying scores in the middle 30s, Cadriel then supposedly took it again and the third time it was a charm with a score in the upper 90s. Nobody swallowed that piece of work and the heat got to be too much for Cardriel who resigned after one day on the job. Then Lopez followed up and left the county.
No one expect that this will be the only indictment handed down by this grand jury.
Cadriel is the brother of Ernie's wife Norma. Salazar is Ernie's assistant. Salazar does what his boss tells him. Salazar is a convicted felon thankful that Hernandez has hired him on as his assistant. It is highly unlikely that Salazar would take it on his own to fix it so that someone would take the Civil Service exam so that Cadriel will be given a job as a security guard at the county.
You connect the dots. Whoever Salazar's attorney is will doubtless advice his client that as a convicted felon he can ill afford to have another conviction and take the fall for someone else. Stay tuned.