HERNANDEZES HAD EVERYTHING, BUT IT WAS BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF CORRUPTION AND SAND

By Juan Montoya
From all indications, former Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez had finally accomplished everything he had craved.
He had influence, the ability to dole out patronage, a paying job unlike the 20 odd years he has been a city elected official to an unpaid position. He had a county car, insurance, a growing retirement kitty, the perks of office. He had managed to secure a growing number of patronage jobs for his political supporters.
He had even managed to get his daughter Erin Hernandez-Garcia elected to the Justice of the Peace 2-2 position.
But as the poet said, the future cheats you from afar.

For years, Hernandez had manged to skirt the meaning and intent of the law.
When he was a city commissioner, a controversy erupted over him controlling two different towing companies on the city rotation. Then there was the case of the missing airport doors that some said mysteriously ended up on his business. Then there was the  case of the vending machine company that belonged to the Hernadezes that was doing business with the city.
When he came to the county, the Herandezes shifted the ownership of the vending company first to daughter Erin Hernandez-Garcia then to his wife Norma when Erin was elected JP.
Ernie survived it all.
Using a coterie of politiqueras managed by his wife Norma, Hernandez won every major election he ran in. The last time he ran against Ruben Peña for the county commissioner's position, it was the  mail-in ballots that put him mover. And when his daughter Erin faced off Yolanda Begum in the runoff in 2012 to complete the unexpired term of the late Tony Torres, it was the mail-in ballots again that put her over the top.
But as the poet said, the future cheats you from afar.
Lurking in the background was the illegal hiring of Roberto Cadriel, Ernie's brother-in-law and his wife Norma's brother. When Cameron County District Attorney's Office investigators finally found the elusive Cadriel, he told them that Ernie and his sister had given him money to move out of Cameron County and to avoid talking to investigators. Then he told a jury from the witness stand that it was Norma who had filled out his application with the county and Ernie who had encouraged him to go see his administrative assistant Raul Salazar so he could fix him up with a job.
Hernandez knew that Cadriel could neither read nor write and that he was a convicted felon and unemployable.
This made no difference to the commissioner. In fact, his assistant Salazar was a convicted felon himself who been caught stealing from the City of Brownsville Fire Department's Christmas Children Charity.
After Salazar was convicted for his role in the illegal hiring, Hernandez was next. A grand jury indicted him on eight counts, seven having to do with Cadriel's hiring and another for coercing a county employee to reopen a closed eight-liner salon.

As part of a plea agreement with the DA's Office, Hernandez agreed to resign and accept responsibility for the eighth count. He was given five days to clear out his office.
Meanwhile, his daughter continues to look behind her back after the Texas Attorney General opinion said that her issuing and sale of waivers to the 72-hour waiting period between getting a marriage license and the performance of the ceremony was against the Texas Family Code.
The DA's Office had found at least 13 waivers that had been issued by Erin and for which she had charged couples, sometimes as much as $40. She then performed the ceremony and charged between $150 and $250 without having to wait the state-mandated 30-day waiting period.
And just two days ago, a local broadcaster reported that the DA said his office it will proceed with an investigation into the marriage waivers tat were issued by her office. Saenz says the problem is that the justice of the peace was allegedly charging a fee for the waiver.
"In addition to granting waivers, she was charging an additional fee for that. ... I believe the investigation will show that instead of turning over the money to the auditor's office, the justice of the peace herself was keeping that money," Saenz said.

So far, no charges had been filed.
Meanwhile, a joint state and federal task force continues to investigate the allegations that Norma Hernandez and her group of political ward heelers have manipulated the mail-in ballots for years to assist their political compadres win just as they did for Ernie and Erin.

And so the seeds of the Hernandez family political destruction were planted by their own hand.