BOMBSHELL: WAS BROWNSVILLE POLICE CHIEF AIDING AND ABETTING AFFAIR BETWEEN BPD STAFFER AND HIS BROTHER?

By Juan Montoya
Remember when Mayor Tony Martinez came on board trumpets blaring that he planned to introduce the adoption of a code of ethics for city officials, staff and employees?
That was way back in 2011 and so far, we haven't caught nary a whiff of that fabled code.
Meanwhile, we've seen a former Brownsville Police Department commander sending nude selfies to his paramour on a city-owned telephone, a city commissioner getting arrested for family violence on multiple occasions, Da mayor getting involved in questionable real-estate deal involving cronies, and an increasingly growing frustration among city residents over the actions of their elected officials.

But if you thought the naked commander was ethically questionable (just by coincidence he was planning to resign the following month), another case involving our randy BPD staffers has now been revealed.
It came in open court in a divorce proceeding of a BPD staff member who admitted she was having an affair with the brother of Chief Orlando Rodriguez, and that the chief had known about it for months and had done nothing.
The woman, who works in the BPD's records department, said her affair with Adolfo Rodriguez, who now lives in California, had been ongoing since before she married a local veteran-rights activist and volunteer.
Further, she said in her testimony that she had discussed the matter with Chief Rodriguez, his brother, and that that he had not taken any steps to address the potential legal or ethical issues that might have risen from the illicit relationship.
"When I told him (Chief Rodriguez) about this he just said he considered it a personal matter," said the woman's husband. "He said there wasn't anything he could do about it."
A visiting judge on Tuesday granted the couple their divorce and the husband later met with City Manager Charlie Cabler, a former BPD detective. Sources say that the visit from the wronged husband has led to a formal investigation on the matter.
Now, on its face, perhaps the fact that a member of the BPD is having an affair is no one's business but the couple's. But this leads to questions on whether the woman got favorable treatment because of her "peculiar" relationship with the chief and his brother.
When the question of the affair came up in court Tuesday, the woman's attorney quickly stipulated that she would admit she had an affair with the chief's brother and that Chief Rodriguez knew about it. With that, he prevented the introduction of explicit photographs she had sent him on her cell phone, the list of jewelry and gifts (including a cell phone) or the trip to Las Vegas that had paid for through the married couple's credit card.
Apparently, the investigation now under way will determine whether any city assets were used in the furtherance of the illicit relationship.
There was at least one instance mentioned in court where the woman was said to have taken time off from work when Adolfo was in town from California. The investigation is now focused on whether she was getting paid during that time.
Human Resource specialists we interviewed tell us that an employee having an affair with someone outside the department was not in itself illegal. However, if the woman's superiors granted her any special treatment or showed favoritism toward her because they knew of her ongoing illicit relationship with the chief's brother, that changes matters, they said.
"If she got a promotion ahead of others who were more qualified, or was paid for time she didn't work due to that relationship, legal issues can arise," said one. "In this type of case, the supervisor should move quickly to remove any appearance of impropriety."
In the case of the records department staffer at BPD, she entered the department as an alarm-permit clerk and has now been promoted to a supervisory role in that department.
If we had a city ethics code where everyone knew the behavior expected of them, it certainly might make these nebulous relationships much clearer. As it is, city employees can only guess whether it is their merits or the special relationships between their boss and their fellow employees that matter.