SALAZAR GETS 10 MONTHS, TIME SERVED; ERNIE HERNANDEZ A NO-SHOW AT SENTENCING

By Juan Montoya

Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez might have been a no-show at Raul Salazar's sentencing for his convictions on two counts of abuse of official capacity and one of tampering with a government document, but Raul Salazar's defense attorney made sure the court knew the force behind the illegal hiring of the commissioners' brother-in-law.
"We should not send him to jail because he was only following the orders of his boss (Ernie Hernandez)," attorney Larry Warner told visiting judge Federico Hinojosa. "Ernie Hernandez was not on trial here."
Hinojosa then sentenced Salazar – Hernandez's former administrative assistant – to 10 months in the county jail and time served for the convictions.
Warner filed a notice of appeal and said Salazar would seek a retrial. The judge reduced Salazar’s bond from $150,000 to $10,000 per offense. Salazar was expected to post bail and be released later today.Warner pleaded for leniency for Salazar telling Hinojosa that he had been a model probationer in his last felony conviction for stealing from the children's fund while at the City of Brownsville as firefighter.
Since Salazar was tried on the three misdemeanor counts together, the maximum time that Hinojosa could sentence him was to one year. When multiple counts are tried together, the sentencing is always to the benefit of the defendant. Salazar's sentence included time served – an apparent reference to the evening he was processed at the Rucker-Carrizales Corrections Center at Olmito – before he was released under the county's Pre-Trial Release program. That apparently, earned him two months credit on the sentence.
Salazar was the administrative assistant to Hernandez whose bother-in-law through his wife Norma, Roberto Cadriel, was hired illegally as a security guard .
During the trial, testimony from several witnesses indicated that Cadriel – a convicted felon – was not eligible for employment with the county because he could neither read nor write, could not operate a computer, and was unable to pass the Civil Service examination all county employees must pass.
Several witnesses said that a Human Resources female employee was ordered to take the exam for Cadriel after he tried and failed twice with score sin the low 30s. When the woman took the exam for him, he scored an 86.
After he couldn't get the position he sought initially (animal control, that is, dog catcher), witnesses and Cadriel himself testified that a copy of the answers to a written test for security officer were given to him before he took the exam. He scored a 96 and was placed as a non-commissioned security guard at oen of the bridges at the Cameron County International Bridge System.
And even though his boss Ernie Hernandez denied any role in his hiring, Cadriel testified on the stand that it was the commissioner who told him to go see Salazar at his commissioner's office to help him apply for a job with the county. Cadriel said Norma – his sister and the commissioner's wife – helped him fill out the county application.
Then, during the trial, numerous state witnesses said Hernandez and Salazar pressured them through conversations and phone calls urging them to "move the application along," and get Cadriel hired.
Cadriel resigned – as did then-HR director Robert Lopez after media inquiries about his hiring began.
Hernandez told the local daily that he knew nothing about Cadriel being hired or resigning until he read it in the online version of the Brownsville Herald.
However, at the start of his assistant's trial, Hernandez – on the advice of his attorney – took the Fifth Amendment protection against self incrimination and refused to testify on his behalf. Hernandez said that he was afraid that  some of the testimony he gave to a grand jury (three hours in all) might contradict the testimony he gave during Salazar's trial and he refused to take the stand.