ERIN'S MINIONS GO HAYWIRE OVER SOROLA FILE REQUEST

By Juan Montoya
Push is coming to shove – literally – over a request for a case file that local attorney Luis Sorola made to the office of Justice of the Peace Erin Hernandez Garcia.
Sorola was contacted by the Iglesia Metodista El Buen Pastor which is being sued by a woman who accused the church and Brownsville Towing  Brownsville Towing, 2581 Old Port Isabel Road with illegally towing her car from their parking lot.
His meeting and presentation with the church leaders is scheduled for Monday. So he sent one of his assistants – a young woman – to get a copy of the original petition filed with the JP 2-2 court to prepare.

When she got to Erin Herandez Garcia's court she said a court clerk asked Sorola's assistant who wanted the copy. When she told them she it was Sorola, Hernandez-Garcia's staff called her on the phone and the assistant was told in no uncertain terms that she could not have a copy. She was told that unless they were told who they represented, they would not release the copy."You won't get a copy today," the woman reported she was told.
We happened to have some business on the second floor with Laura Betancourt's County-Court-at-Law #2 band were walking in the corridor when we came upon the scene.
"Can you believe this?" Sorola asked. "They won't let me have a copy."
Even after Sorola made the request in writing for the JP court, Hernandez-Garcia refused to release it.
In fact, Hernandez-Garcia wouldn't even file stamp Sorola's request for a copy of the lawsuit.
Thereafter, Hernandez-Garcia shot off a series of correspondence and emails were shot off to the commissioners (her daddy is indicted Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez), the Cameron County District Attorney's Office and Human Resources director Arnold Flores where she called Sorola a "barbaric bully" for demanding a copy of the original petition.
As for the scene, we were there and did not witness any type of altercation described by Hernandez-Garcia as "barbaric."
 In fact, we are told that there is ample surveillance recordings that should lay rest to those bogus claims. Constable Abel Gomez, unaware of the details of the dispute, sent two deputies to investigate the matter when Hernandez-Garcia called him and Sorola left.
He returned later with a formal request for the original petition and copied DA Luis Saenz and the State
Commission on Judicial Conduct.
State law says that "You are entitled to inspect and copy records of all government bodies under the Texas Public Information Act. The term 'government body' is defined broadly and includes city governments, county governments, and agencies. The Act also covers certain non-profit organizations and private entities that spend or are supported by public funds."
We would think that a justice of the peace court would fall under one of those categories. Perhaps Ms. Hernandez-Garcia's keen interpretation of the law is different than the Texas Public Information Act and ours. We'll see.What a contrast to the way that Laura Betancourt's court was run when we were finally got there. Everyone was treated with respect and decorum and the people's business was run with expedience.
Or is there something in the file that Hernandez-Garcia does not want anyone to see?
On Friday night, Sorola and his fiancee attended an anniversary event for a local judge and were confronted by a Hernandez family supporter who he had represented before on some child support cases. One of his sisters works for JP Linda Salazar and also holds the contract for the courthouse coffee shop. The man, who is a known politiquero for the Herandezes threatened Sorola with physical violence before his fiancee and the startled guests, many of them members of the local bar.
It appears that push has come to shove as early voting approaches. Both Erin Hernandez and her father Ernie Hernandez are up for reelection and they are probably feeling the heat. The latest polls indicate that both are lagging behind their challengers. Desperate times, we guess, call for desperate acts.