CASTRO'S CANDIDACY FOR MAYOR LOOMS LARGE IN CONTEST

By Juan Montoya
Don't look now, but it appears that the Head Cheese – Erasmo Castro – is threatening to make a bid for the mayorship of poor Brownsville.
We're not kidding you.
As is his wont, Castro and his Cheezmeh "Nation" have asserted that they are in the process of collecting three times the required number of signatures (100) to get his name on the ballot.
The list of potential candidates to replace King Tony Martinez is growing ever larger. Former city commissioner William Garza is making a stab at it as is former mayor Pat Ahumada. We hear rumblings from Capt. Bob's seafood restaurant that Capt. Robert Sanchez, a past city commissioner candidate and former Public Utility Board president, is also collecting signatures to throw his captain's cap into the ring. Other candidates will surely emerge as the deadline grow near.
Now, Castro has said that he lives in Austin, but also claims that since he is an ternal student, he qualifies to run here. That, he said, is the opinion of his crackerjack legal team Angela Nix and Erin Garcia Hernandez, the former Justice fo the Peace for Precinct 2, Place 2. A Dream Team, indeed.
If anything, Castro's entry into the fray will provide much-needed comic relief to local politics. Imagine a debate between Martinez the Pious, the bombastic Ahuamda, William The Demure Garza, and Smooth as Velveeta Cheeze Castro.
Then there's the small matter of Castro's past felony conviction and being named in federal lawsuits alleging the defrauding of immigration services clients through his family's notary public business.
Castro first came to the attention of the Brownsville Police Department and the Cameron County District Attorney's Office through his active participation in a fraudulent scheme to dispossess a Brownsville woman (Petra Aurora Floyd Mancillas) of a white 1984 BMW that her husband Alejandro Mancillas bought for her with $1,900 of her income-tax refund money in February 1992.
According to her statement to police, after she was using the car for about three weeks, she and her husband got into an argument and he threatened to kill her if he left her. She then left for California after he placed a gun between her legs and threatened to shoot her.
While in California, she learned that her husband had "sold" her car to Erasmo Castro for an unspecified amount and that Erasmo had done a transfer on the title to his name. She told them the car belonged to her and that she wanted it back. As a result of her complaint, police seized the car and when she arrived in Brownsville she found out that the car had been placed in the Cardenas Motors impoundment yard.
From there, statements by impoundment yard employees and police officers indicate that Erasmo Castro and Quesada attempted to get the car released but that they lacked a release form from the police department. After they got the money required by the yard, Castro returned with a form signed by an officer Daniel Y. Bennett authorizing him to get the BMW. Later, detective Mariano Gonzales determined that Castro had forged Bennett's signature.
During a hearing called by then Municipal Judge Kip Van Hodge to determine ownership of the vehicle at which Castro did not appear, the car's ownership was returned to the woman, although the car had by then been driven to Ft. Myers, Fla. by Quesada.
As a result of these criminal offenses (passing a forged instrument), Castro was charged with forgery and his trial was held in 138th District Court before Judge Robert Garza. After a bench jury, Garza found him guilty of felony forgery and sentenced him to 10 years in the penitentiary reduced to five years probation. His attorney was Angel Castro, now an Asst. U.S. Attorney. The prosecutor was Bruce Tharpe. The District Attorney was (drum roll) Luis Saenz.
Castro was sentenced to pay a fine and to report to probation. He asked that his probation be removed to Titus County (Mt. Pleasant) and two years later, asked that the court reconsider his sentence to deferred adjudication. The state objected to the reconsideration and a hearing was held on May 13, 1994.
During that hearing, Castro introduced a letter from his employer John DiFrancesco Jr., of Pleasant View, a facility that cared for handicapped children. In the letter, DiFrancesco pleaded with Garza to defer the sentence or else he could not employ Castro with a felony conviction.
"If necessary, I would appear before your court or even bring a group of mentally retarded clients with me," DiFrancesco wrote.
Castro, on his own behalf, also pleaded with Garza to grant him the deferment stating his work in Brownsville with Lincoln Park School (with Linda Gill Martinez) as a coach with Special Olympics in Brownsville and his desire to make "great things happen for my children" in Mount Pleasant. He also told Garza he had "become active in my church and oversee a youth group" there.
Despite Saenz's objections, Garza granted the deferment.
His reappearance in Brownsville in his family's notary public office has also raised grave concerns from attorneys representing immigrants and their families who were advised to seek help from notaries to fill out their applications with the U.S. Immigration Department (ICE) for residence and eventual citizenship.
Two complaints naming the Castros (including Erasmo)were filed in the U.S. Southern District Court accusing them of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise (a RICO) for continuing to fill out the forms without certification. According to the lawsuits, as a result of the inappropriate filling out of some forms, some petitioners lost their opportunity to get residency and even citizenship when their forms were rejected for a number of reasons, including filling out the wrong forms or missing deadlines.
Despite these past actions, Castro will apprently continue his run for the mayorship. He claims in his emails that he will "post" everything he does to the electorate and claims "we" have done wonders without the support and resources of our city government(?).
Who else will crawl out of the woodwork to entertain the Brownsville electorate before it's all said and done?