TROUBLE COMES TO A BOIL IN ERIN'S JP 2-2 COURT

By Juan Montoya
Not only is there trouble brewing as Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz awaits a determining opinion from the Texas Attorney General's Office on whether JP 2-2 Erin Garcia Hernandez could legally issue, sell and then keep proceeds from waivers to the sate-mandated 72-hour waiting period, but now a dark cloud looms over the recent resignation of clerk Liliana Cantu who was charged with three counts of tampering with a government document.
Our sources tell us that when the dust clears, JP Garcia and other employees of both JP courts on the second floor of the Cameron County Judicial wing will wish they had never raised the issue of what was going on in the JP's office.
Friends close to Cantu, the clerk who was arrested and jailed on the three counts and was later released on a $10,000 bond issued by the county's Pre-Trial Release Program, say that she has hired an attorney to defend herself on the charges and that when it's all said and done, both JPs and some of their staff may end up on the wrong side of the witness stand in a court room.
Additionally, they say that the alleged scheme of which Cantu was charged actually stemmed from practices perpetrated by the office holder and the JP staff.
When the investigation was launched, sources say that Cantu had been involved in a scheme whereby those who were referred to that office for performance of community service hours were offered to make a cash payment instead. Now, this gets serious because some fo the violations for which the defendants were fined were generated form traffic offenses involving the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept., and county constables, among others.
Cantu resigned when she was told she was being investigated.
Now, however, friends say that she is ready to tell all if the DA's office tries to prosecute her on the charges and is not afraid where the chips may fall.
"You all should get your facts straight," Cantu wrote this blog. "I never ever touched money. I never stole anything, but now that investigators are on everyone's case I will clean my name and heads will roll from several offices," she wrote.
"I am not hiding, everyone better well remember my name from Constables office, to JP 2-1 and JP2-2. I was accused not of stealing but of a non-approved community service...Hold up ladies and gentleman, there will be a grand finale and the real rats will be exposed.
I NEVER ROBBED! But I know who is been doing it and now that I have nothing to loose I will fight to clear my name...No, people, Mrs. Garcia didn't report 'the wrong doing' I know who did and why."
The source of the reports that there was some hanky-panky going on in Erin's court apparently was made public when Cantu did not resign from her position after the new JP took over in November 2012 despite pressure being put on her so the new office holder could give the job to another person.
That person turned out to be Cynthia Lopez Rodriguez, they say. Cynthia Rodriguez is the sister-in-law of Sylvia Rodriguez, the administrative assistant to JP 2-1 Linda Salazar whose office is next to Erin Garcia's. Cynthia Lopez Garcia is married to Sylvia's brother Ernie Rodriguez whose family hold the court house coffee shop contract.
In fact, some county employees says that there had been a Hernandez cult being nurtured on the second floor of the county's judicial wing that rewards those loyal to the family, especially yo Erin and her father Ernie, commissioner for Pct. 2. Those that don't get cut out. The group has actually gone to Las Vegas together and included both JPs, vote-harvesting matriarch Norma Hernandez and other supporters. They posted this photo on their FB page.

Apparently, her friends allege that when Cantu did not cave in to the pressure to quit so that Cynthia Lopez Rodriguez could take her place, she was made a patsy for the drummed-up charges.
This is not the first time that there have been irregularities emanating from that office. The last time it involved employees who had been working there when the late Tony Torres was presiding at the court. No charges were ever filed on the matter.
Sources say that the investigation into the community-services-for-cash is ongoing and and that there may be personnel in other county offices who may have been working in concert with Cantu.
It is unknown how long the scheme has been in effect. The Constable's office from Pct. 5 handled the investigation.
Cantu's arrest came at a time when her former boss, JP Hernandez-Garcia, has been under scrutiny by the Cameron County District Attorney's office and a state grand jury for allegedly issuing and charging for fraudulent waivers to couples so they don't have to wait the state-mandated 72 hours between the issuing of a marriage license and the performance of the wedding ceremony.
After the grand jury subpoenaed the JP's marriage records, the DA requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General to determine whether the office could legally issue (and sell) the waivers in accordance with the Texas Family Code.
The AGO is expected to answer to the DA's request within 180 days.
If the AOG determines that a justice of the peace cannot issue or sell the waivers, one of the potential charges under the Texas Penal Code could be tampering with a government document. Hernandez-Garcia has stated that she issued "a comfortable 10 or so" waivers during her 11 months in office. The DA's office included at least 13 such marriages performed in that office through the waivers.