DA SAENZ POSTS "PROOF" HE AND HIS STAFF AIN'T WACKY

By Juan Montoya

Out the blue, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz – through the department's mouthpiece Melissa Landin – assured the public that they haven't been smoking, snorting or injecting illegal substances since January.

That spurred Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio to respond to Saenz's ground-shaking announcement that no one on his staff has inhaled to say: “That was implemented when I took office in 1997. That’s nothing new to us.”

Apparently, the by-now predictable announcements that Saenz's raiders had hit yet another surreptitious eight-liner arcade isn't giving the DA's Office the bang for the buck they used to. Could it be that the businesses now operating wide open just across the western boundaries of Hidalgo County in Starr county has tarnished some of the luster off the DA's crackerjack maquinita operations?

Or could it be that the fact that some of the machines operating there had been confiscated in Cameron County and then sold – by the DA's Office –  in Starr County brings into question the sincerity of Saenz's pledge that he would destroy them rather than sell them like his predecessor Armando Villalobos?

When he was running for DA, Saenz painted his opponent int he runoff – Carlos Masso – as the devil incarnate because some of his relatives had been charged with operating eight-liners. 

In fact, Landin dragged out the Villalobos bogeyman again to show how different this DA is from the one serving a 13-year federal prison sentence for racketeering and extortion.

“I tested all assistant DAs, investigators and myself to assure the public that the office’s law enforcement and those who prosecute defendants are drug-free,” Saenz said, according to a news release. “I believe the public would like to see more county offices do the same thing, especially other county law enforcement offices.”

Sheriff Lucio, however, said he didn't test himself.

"I haven't, but I will,” Lucio said, adding that he doesn’t smoke or drink. “I don't have a problem with that."

There is no love lost between Saenz and Lucio now. Lucio has heard that Saenz is pushing one of his top investigators – Victor Cortez – to run against the sheriff.

Now why would Saenz make this earth-shattering announcement now?

Could it be because people are questioning his open alliance with the likes of Brownsville mayoral candidate Erasmo Castro – before his campaign appearance with his 2016 opponent Masso – or with scorched-earth blogger Robert Wightman?

When he got close to Wightman – the blogger said he answered his personal phone calls and had a personal line to Landin –  he ended up getting burned when he confirmed he had indeed sold the gaming devices he confiscated to and international gaming company represented by...Masso.

And as far as his love-hate relationship with happy Wightman, well, who would get close to someone who exhibited the tattoos on both his buttocks on the wide-world web just yesterday?
There is, apparently, a downside to courting Wightman's support. We publish them here in all their hairy splendor. There is no need to probe any further anymore, Luis. 

If this is what a sane person does, perhaps a puff of something and a stiff shot of good booze could help his better judgment.