DOES ANYONE BELIEVE ERNIE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT?

By Juan Montoya
This morning, as I sipped on a cup of coffee at a Stripes store and glanced at the story about Cameron County Pct. 2 Administrative Asst. Raul Salazar going to trial over charges stemming from the illegal hiring of his boss' brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel, an old friend stopped by to say hello.
 After the customary pleasantries, he asked me what was in the paper.
"Apart from nothing as usual, there's a story about Salazar, Ernie Hernandez's assistant going to trial come November 12," I said. "They say he was the main guy behind the illegal hiring of Cadriel, Ernie's brother-in-law. Ernie says he knew nothing about it until he read it in the newspaper that Robert had resigned as a security guard at the bridge."
Nick (not his real name) laughed out loud and said: "You think anybody's going to believe that?"
He then told me about the time he had called Raul from his home out toward San Pedro off Military Highway to ask him if there was something he could do about a hole that was getting bigger on the caliche road where he lived.
"It wasn't my driveway or anything illegal," Nick remembered. "I just wanted them to patch it up with some caliche, that's all."
Nick said that Raul came out to see the road and said he had to see if his boss, commissioner Ernie Hernandez gave the OK for him to request the county's Public Works crews to come out and fix it.
"What?," asked Nick. "Why do you have to ask him about something as simple as patching a hole with caliche?"
"Es el jefe," Raul had replied. "I have to get his OK."
That left me thinking about the incongruency of Ernie Hernandez's explanation that he didn't even know that his brother-in-law (his wife Norma's brother) had applied with the county for a job. Not only that, but he also claimed that he didn't know that Roberto Cadriel had ever taken a test, had not passed it twice, and that the third time the test was taken in his name he miraculously improved his score by some 60 points over the first two civil service exams.
Salazar has been charged with two counts of tampering with government records in relation to that offense.
If that's the case, then Saint Ernie and Raul the Martyr want us to believe that:
1. Raul took it upon himself to encourage Cadriel to apply for the job with the county without his boss' approval..
2. Raul also got Robert Lopez (the interim head of Human Resources) to order one of his assistants to take the test for Cadriel, also without letting Ernie know.
3. Raul also talked County Administrator Pete Sepulveda and Asst. administrator David Garcia to assign Cadiel to a non-commissioned job with the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Ernie had no knowledge.
4. Raul was responsible for forcing Lopez to resign from his interim HR administrator position after the gig was up and Cadriel had to resign when the heat got too bad and people were beginning to suspect his brother-in-law had something to do with his hiring.
Now, unless Salazar suddenly usurped the role of his boss Ernie and worked behind his back regardless of his superior's orders, this is all  a bit much.
People who are friends of the Salazar say that they have tried to reach out to Raul to tell him that – although admirable – sometimes loyalty to an Hernandez will cause you grief. They have told him that with a felony conviction under his belt, there will be little that the Hernandez's can, or will, do to help him when the verdict is handed down.
He now knows, for example, that Cadriel has made a deal with the DA for his testimony. If you'll remember, Cadriel did not testify during the first rounds of the grand jury inquiry into his hiring because he could not be found. Months later, when the DA investigators found out he was reporting to a county probation officer, they had him called in and he cut a deal in return for his testimony.
It does not bode well for Ernie or for his wife Norma. You see, Roberto was one of five beneficiaries named in the will of his (and Norma's) late father Joe Cadriel Sr. Joe Cadriel Jr. was named as the executor. One of the beneficiaries was to be Cadriel Sr.'s last wife after his first wife died and he remarried. The woman was the nanny to Cadriel Sr.'s kids (Robert and Norma and their two other brothers).
To make the long story short, the estate was never divided into five equal parts and Roberto thinks he got a raw deal. In the end, the house ended in Ernie Hernandez's name and Roberto and the woman were left out of sharing any part of the estate. Some say that the bridge job was a sop handed to Roberto to appease his hurt feelings.
There are also some reports that Robert Lopez was also offered a deal for his testimony that he had one of his employees take the test the third time for Roberto Cadriel. After his brusque resignation as interim HR director, Lopez ran a construction and weatherization company that was given contracts totaling in the $100,000s to perform work on county buildings. That, also, apparently stopped after people got wind of it.
Now, as the trial looms ahead, Raul has to be wondering what awaits him if he continues in his obstinacy in falling down on the sword for Ernie.

Salazar was the City of Brownsville Fire Department Chief at the time that Ernie was a city commissioner there.
It is noteworthy that both Cadriel and Salazar have been in legal trouble before.
Cadriel was found guilty of a felony and Salazar – former acting Brownsville Fire Chief and Fire Marshal – has had to live down a conviction himself having to do with using 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 if he was ordered to pay back $10,000 in restitution to the fire department's Children'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.

News stories from 2006, when Cadriel was employed as a city code enforcement officer, indicate he was indicted by a Cameron County grand jury following an investigation into allegations that he and another city employee abused their positions by soliciting and taking bribes from local mechanic shop owners between 2005 and 2006. They were accused of selling building permits. Cadriel was charged with various counts under a law preventing a gift to a public servant by a person subject to his jurisdiction, abuse of official capacity and tampering with governmental records. He was convicted on six of the counts. He also has a felony theft conviction dating to the 1980s."
Raul should think about this carefully. The subpoenaed officials include Lopez, enrollment specialist Jessica Olivarez; human resources civil service coordinator Dalia Salinas, Asst, Administrator Garcia, bridge supervisor David Silva; county administrator Sepulveda, human resources assistant director Susan Marfileno; and his boss Ernie Hernandez and his wife Norma.

Does he really think any of these people are going to look out for his interests?