DOES THIRD HIGHEST ASSISTANT D.A. OWN PROPERTY OF RAIDED 8-LINER IN OLMITO?

By Juan Montoya
Little was heard about last week's raid by Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. on several eight-liner operations in Olmito and San Benito.
However, a comment sent  to us by one of our three readers piqued our interest.
In it, the reader asserted that one of the eight-liner salons raided was operating in Olmito on property that belonged to Cameron County Asst. District Attorney Pete C. Gilman.
Gilman is only three employees below D.A. Luis Saenz and is the Felony Intake Supervisor, in charge of winnowing out the cases and deciding whether to prosecute or not. Only assistant attorneys Gus Garza and Rene Gonzalez are above him.
We requested information on the address of the Olmito property from the Sheriff's Dept. and were told that it was located at 6933 N. Expressway. We did a cursory check of the property owner on an Internet site and lo and behold!, the owner listed is none other than Mr. Gilman, attorney.(See graphic below.)
However, one of our three readers informed us that Gilman had an office there at one time but is no longer listed as the owner with the Cameron County Appraisal District. We are not sure whether he did indeed sell it – or may be in the process of selling –
his former office.

Coming on the heels of reports that indicate that the DA's Office sold confiscated eight-liner machines to a Georgia-Las Vegas, Nev.-based corporation with ties to local gaming subsidiaries, this new allegation would have been difficult for local residents to swallow.
Now, the eight-liner issue has been a two-edged sword for Sanez. He literally branded his opponent Carlos Masso as Mr. Maquinita himself because of some of his relatives' association with some raided eight-liner operations.
Now, if his number three in command at the DA's Office had been found to have been taking rent money from the raided eight-liner operation in Olmito, will the case proceed like some of the others where the DA's Office has sought to confiscate the property from the owners?
Or would Gilman, in his role of intake officer, merely push it aside in the "no confiscate" basket and just forget about it?
Even more embarrassing to the DA's Office once the case is sent by the Sheriff's Office to the DA's Office is the possibility that someone so high up the ladder and so close to Luis had been getting paid by the eight-liner operators that his boss has vowed to shut down all across the county.
Remember, it has been two years since the crackdown on the maquinitas began. In fact, Gilman himself ran for DA.
We have asked the sheriff's dept. for a copy of the report to see whether the machines were confiscated and what amount of money was seized during the raid. Pending the completion of that report, chief deputy Gus Reyna assured us that we could obtain a copy.
Now, Gilman earns $70,5000 from the DA's budget, another $20,000 from the Pre-trial Diversion Fund, and $5,500 from the DA's Forfeiture Fund. That's right, the fund where forfeited proceeds from investigations – including the maquinitas – goes and from where Saenz augments some of his staff's salaries.