SOLIS' FALL FROM GRACE A LONG STORY IN THE MAKING

By Juan Montoya
One of the first assignments that Tony Gray got in the world of border journalism was an interview with Jim Solis, who was making his first run at the state legislature.
Solis was then an unknown candidate to most county residents, and in fact, Gray was just beginning his own career in newspapers when he was sent to do the story. Tony, whose legendary acumen for remembering a half-dozen patrons' orders without the benefit of a pad, is still talked about in the local Italian bistros where he worked.
It was at the insistence of  Jerry McHale who had talked the Carretero sisters to run a Valle Section in English to crack the U.S. market that we brought Gray on board. Three reporters from the Spanish-language Bravo would cross the bridge daily and contribute their standard three paragraph stories which we had to flesh out to fit US newspaper standards. But at $5 a pop, it was their daily output.
Jerry had  run an article mildly critical of Solis a few days before and Gray went out to do his thing unaware of McHale's article.
He came back and said that one of Solis handlers – all appropriately dressed in black pinstripes – had sidled up to him and told him their boss wanted to talk to hi.
As Gray told it, it was a very mafia-like approach.
"I though you were my friend," Solis had told Tony.
Well, as usually happens with thin-skinned politicians, the color of the coverage of Solis just grew worse after that.
At his sentencing Friday, Solis was reported to have sobbed that he had made a mistake in aiding and abetting extortion for paying former 404th State District Judge Abel Limas for favorable rulings.
He had already been disbarred before federal Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced him to 47 months in a federal penitentiary.
After that initial victory in the polls way back when, the ex-lawmaker went on to serve seven terms representing the Rio Grande Valley in the Texas House before retiring in 2007
“After everything is over, I think Solis will be an active and productive part of society,” Hanen reportedly said in open court. “Solis is paying a greater price than they thought he would.”

Hanen also ordered Solis to pay $40,000 in restitution to Yolanda De Leon, Peter Zavaletta and Freedom Communication.The restitution payment was due to a defamation lawsuit in which Solis bribed Limas for a favorable ruling.

It's been a long and wild ride for the former lawmaker who is to turn himself over to a federal correction facility as soon as there is a place available to begin serving his sentence. Gray went on to work for the Brownsville Herald and then to become the administrative assistant for State Rep. Rene Oliveira. He now shuttles out of Austin, coming to the Valley for Charro Days and the the two-year reelection campaign cycle. 

Neither he nor any of us ever imagined that Solis – his first political interviewee – would end up that way. As a matter of fact, no one then would have predicted that Tony himself would end up working alongside Jim min the state legislature, either.