LUCIO BUILDS OVER DEDICATED ROAD: "CAUSE I CAN."

By Juan Montoya
As early as July 2002, six months after Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio and his wife Herminia bought block 14 and 15 of San Carlos Estates Subdivision in Cameron County, a county commissioner inquired of the engineering department why he had fenced off a publicly-dedicated easement and built his driveway and house there.
Ten years alter after there was no resolution to the easement-invading issue by county authorities,  a local attorney filed a lawsuit in district court challenging the Lucios' right to build their home over the easement.
In a startling development, Lucio – through the law firm of Colvin, Chaney, Saenz and Rodriguez – claim that the attorney, Juan Angel Guerra, had no standing to sue and that Lucio was protected from the lawsuit, asking the court to dismiss because it lacks jurisdiction and that Lucio is "entitled to governmental, qualified and/or official immunity."
That answer was filed with the court about two weeks ago, on Feb. 13, 2015.

In other words, Lucio, because he is a state senator, asserts he is immune from the lawsuit and can claim a waiver to the charges brought in Guerra's lawsuit.
That road is called San Carlos Road, a thoroughfare that starts at Highway 100 and runs north to south and forks when it meets Resaca de Los Cuates. The left section follows the resaca to the left and crosses at a bridge further north to meet Iowa Gardens Road in the north. The right fork crosses over the resaca and is supposed to continue north and meet with Iowa Gardens Road. It is this fork that has been the source of contention since Lucio built a fence across it and his home across the resaca, effectively blocking off public traffic and invading the easement.(Click on top graphic to enlarge)
In the Google Earth image at right, the right fork ends abruptly at Lucio's driveway after the resaca bridge is crossed.
On April 4, 2002 County Right-of-Way Clerk Richard Walker wrote a memo to his boss County Engineer Juan Bernal and told him he had met with Lucio who was in the "process of developing and improving his property" and had fenced off the bridge and roadway. Walker wrote Bernal that Lucio had inquired on how to seek an abandonment of the easement but had not returned to follow through. Instead, he proceeded to fence the area off to the public and take over the easement.
Others had inquired on whether Lucio could do as he did.
On June 2002, correspondence between county officials attached to Guerra's lawsuit indicate that Walker responded to San Carlos Road resident Chris Korab who had asked about the fencing off of the right-of-way. Walker responded to Korab under the heading of "unnamed" road located within San Carlos Subdivision. Suddenly, Guerra claims, the road had been stripped of its name and was now merely an "unnamed road" in furtherance of the scheme to allow Lucio to invade the dedicated road easement. That, he charged, constituted a conspiracy by county officials to allow anotehr to appropriate a public thoroughfare for private use.
On July 2002, Harlingen resident Lizzy Wilkerson contacted Pct. 3 commissioner David Garza and said that she was concerned that because of Lucio's fencing off of the public easement "she cannot enter onto the publicly dedicated access road that runs through the adjacent owner's property. She claims that public access has been blocked off to the public."
Garza contacted Bernal inquiring to see whether the public's access to the easement had been blocked. There is no answer to his query on the record on the issue, although records indicate that Walker met with his staff and then-County Judge Gilbert Hinojosa later that year, on Oct. 7, 2002, and discussed the matter.
Then, on April 2012, attorney Guerra filed a lawsuit in the 107th District Court using a Civil RICO action and charging that Lucio – aided by county officials – conspired to appropriate land and public resources. He included, along with Lucio, the county's tax assessor-collector, the Water and Control District #6, the county Engineering Dept., and ROW clerk Walker.
Guerra charged in his lawsuit that when the Lucios bought the property they accepted the "exceptions and conveyances and warranties" that included the "reservation and dedication of said subdivision recorded in Volume 8, Page 37 Map records of Cameron County Texas for roadways, pipelines, utilities, irrigation facilities, railroad and other purposes rights, rules and regulations law in favor of Cameron County Water and Control District # 6."
"Soon thereafter (Eddie Lucio) gated and fenced the property with little regard for the easement and private road restrictions that are attached to the property."
In particular, Guerra charged that the Lucios ignored the "40-foot easement that bridges the resaca and bisects Lot 15, followed by a 20-foot private drive bisections lots 111, 110, and 109. This easement and private drive starts and ends on San Carlos Road Blvd. and allows the future owners to have legal access to their property and this cannot be changed or altered."
A court date has not been set for a hearing on the case, but Guerra says he wonders whether other San Carlos Road residents feel they have been blocked from the use of the dedicated road through Lucio's actions.
"He is claiming that because he is a state senator he can do as he pleases because he is immune," Guerra said. "I have never heard of such a defense except when you're on the floor of the senate or get a speeding ticket going on your way to attend a session."