BWC'S RIGHT: ERIN ONLY ONE SELLING FRAUDULENT WAIVERS

By Juan Montoya
It's not often that we err (humans that we are), but when we do, the manly thing to do is to fess up and admit it.
It happened today in our post on the non-suit against Cameron County Justice of the Peace 2-2 Erin Garcia-Hernandez when we mentioned that no JP was mentioned in the request by District Attorney Luis Saenz from the Texas Attorney General's Office where he asked whether JPs are authorized to issue waivers to the 72-hour state-mandated waiting period between the issuance of the marriage license by the county clerk and the performance of the ceremony by a priest, rabbi, a justice of the peace, or any of the other handful of judges or officials who can perform the ceremony.
We said that "There is no mention there of any particular justice of the peace or specific circumstance."
We were basing that statement on the conversation we had over a cold brewsky and a cold drink at a San Benito hangout with the DA on Saturday.
At the time we had not seen the actual request written Friday, and Saenz told us over the sound of the fabulous performance of traditional conjunto classics performed by accordion virtuoso Fruity Villarreal that he was not interested on which justice of the peace was involved.
What he was interested was for guidance by the AOG on whether Garcia-Hernandez could actually issue a waiver, whether she could charge for it, and where the money was to go if she did.
That, in a nutshell, is the core of his request.
We thank eagle-eyed blogger Bobby Wightman for being the document-driven stickler for facts and for pointing out our mistake. Saenz's letter does indeed  specify who was issuing the fraudulently-produced, issued and sold waivers. He says in his request:
"The Justice of the Peace for Precinct 2, Place 2, (Erin Garcia-Hernandez, Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez's daughter), of Cameron County, Texas, has on several occasions, signed and issued waivers of the 72-hour waiting period after the issuing of a marriage license. Those waiver shave been granted with the justice of the peace also conducting marriage ceremonies immediately after the execution of a waiver.
"Additionally, the justice of the peace charged a $25 fee for the signing and issuing of said waiver, together with the $150 fee for conducting each marriage. None of these fees have been submitted to the county treasurer."
In  fact, Ms. Garcia-Hernandez did this not one time, not two times, but would you believe, some 13 times as far as we have been able to ascertain?
From the documentation we have, it appears that the JP 2-2 judge
* February 8 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On May 3 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On May 9 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On May 28 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On June she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On June 10 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On July 1 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On August 9  she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*Also on July 2 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On July 8 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
*On July 26 she issued a fraudulent waiver (and pocketed $25, according to Saenz), married a couple who did not fit the waiver requirements (and pocketed another $150, according to Saenz).
Now, when we talked to Luis in San Bene he said that our old friend and Chief DA Assistant Rene Gonzalez had been entrusted to draft the request for the OAG's opinion. Maybe we're being indiscreet in this, but we know Rene and his work has always been of the highest caliber and integrity and we are willing to take the DA at his word.
We thank the sagacious BWC for pointing out our oversight. By now we have gotten used to have some of the more dynamic bloggers sniping at our heels and having a feeding frenzy once our posts appear. So we thank Wightman for allowing us the opportunity to clear the air.