ERNIE: THE LIE THAT NOBODY BOUGHT; "I KNOW NOTHING"

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

By Juan Montoya
Does Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez really think that the people believe him when he says he never knew that his administrative assistant Raul Salazar had manipulated the county's Civilk Service process to give his brother-in-law, his wife Norma's brother, a job as a security guard at Veterans Memorial Bridge?
To bring people up to snuff, Salazar is accused of directing an employee on March 1 through Aug. 1, 2011, to take the Cameron County Civil Service test for Roberto Cadriel, a convicted felon on probation and brother-in-law of Hernandez. Cadriel, 55, who resigned a short time later.

In an interview with a reporter from the local daily, Hernandez squirms his way through the obvious questions. Did he know about his assistant's intervention on behalf of his brother-in-law?

Ernie, who confirmed he had been subpoenaed as a witness before the grand jury that indicted Salazar, said he had learned about it from The Herald’s website and called the indictment astonishing and did his best .
“I’m very surprised and shocked that he was indicted and I don’t believe he had anything to do with it,” Hernandez said. “There is a lot of finger-pointing. I can tell you I haven’t seen any concrete evidence that he did anything wrong, and I do believe he should have his day in court to clear himself before he gets thrown under the bus.”

Now, Ernie knew that his buddy, who was in the Brownsville Fire Department when he was commission in the late 1980s had pleaded guilty to bribery and theft by a public servant and was sentenced to eight years probation. His theft conviction stemmed from the money he had stolen from the Brownsville Fire Department’s Christmas Charity Fund, which he headed for about eight years.

He also knew what a lot of people didn't know at the time that the reason that Salazar had received such a lenient sentence was because the judge – Roberto Garza – happened to be Salazar's cousin. 

When politiquera Margarita Ozuna pleaded no contest to a state charge of voter abuse in the handling of the mail-in votes that brought Hernandez to victory in the Pct. 2 commissioner's race in 2010, Hernandez breathed a sigh of relief. It meant she wouldn't have to answer who she was working for or who paid her to harvest the votes of the elderly and the infirm.
It was her votes that not only put him over the top in the race against Ruben Peña, but also put his daughter Erin in the position of Justice of the Peace in the race against Yolanda Begum. The next time around Ernie won't have a Margarita Ozuna or a Herminia Becerra to help him manipulate the elections anymore. And anyway, the stench of corruption and self-dealing that seems to follow the Hernandezes around has become too much even for the apathetic voters of Cameron County to endure.
Until then, Ernie should know that no one believes him when he does his best Sgt. Schultz impression of "I know nothing!"