WITH NO ELECTION PENDING, HERNANDEZES FORGET FAMILY

By Juan Montoya

The Democratic Party primary March 4, 2014 election was less than a month away and Erin Garcia Hernandez was locked in a three-way battle for the nomination for Precinct 2, Place 2 Justice of the Peace with Yolanda Begum and Jonathan Gracia when she got the call.

Her duties as a justice of the peace were needed the night of February 7 to declare a death of a homeless man sitting on a bus bench struck by a van driven by – it would be learned later – a drunk driver.

When Garcia appeared at the scene, she surveyed she scene and the body and then when she was given the driver's license, saw the picture and the name, realized it was her mother's cousin.

Her mother is Norma Hernandez, the queen of politiquera in Brownsville and wife of Ernie Hernandez, the county commissioner for Precinct 2 before he was indicted on seven counts of official misconduct and agreed to resign and accept a lesser charge of coercing a public official.

So what did she do?

She saw the opportunity for media coverage, dialed her pals at Channel 4, and held a press conference at her office where she explained that her relative – 49 year old Ricardo Briones – was homeless "by choice" even though she claimed her family had offered him a place to stay but he had refused.
This was not so out of character for this bunch. 

After all, it was during the trial of Ernie's administrative assistant Raul Salazar that Roberto Cadriel – her mother brother and Ernie's brother-in-law – who told the court that they had allowed him to live in his truck parked at the family business on Paredes Line Road.

Garcia spoke "exclusively" to Action 4 about her first experience on the job having to pronounce a family member dead.

This is the text of the coverage.
"When Garcia was handed the victim's ID, she started filing the death report.
Once she came across the name and picture on the ID, Garcia quickly realized she was there to declare one of her own family members dead.
'As soon as I looked at the picture and I though oh my gosh, that's my mom's cousin,' Garcia said."

The diver of the van, Mexican national Wilson Orlando Matamoros, turned himself in the next day and was arrested and charged with Intoxicated Manslaughter and Accident Involving Serious Bodily Injury or Death. He was jailed and held on an immigration detainer.
During the trial, jurors heard that he had been deported three times and had been convicted in Florida on family violence and cocaine possession charges. 

Matamoros had at first accepted a plea bargain where he would plead guilty to the second charge and the state would agree to dismiss the first count. In return, he would accept a five-year prison sentence. However, before the sentencing he withdrew his plea and requested a jury trial.

Just today, a jury found Matamoros guilty of Intoxication Manslaughter with a Vehicle and and of the second charge of Accident Involving Death ot Serious bodily Injury or Death and entered the punishment phase.
They assessed 17 years incarceration per charge, to be determined by 357th District Judge Juan Magallanes whether Matamoros will serve them consecutively or concurrently. 

Yet, during the victim impact phase of the trial, there was only one person listed by prosecutors to address the court – the brother of the victim – who made a statement on behalf of the homeless man. Norma, Ernie or Erin Hernandez were not listed and did not speak out on behalf of their relative.

The sympathy television coverage Erin Garcia sought before thte 2014 primary did her no good. She came in some 400 votes behind Begum and about 800 behind Gracia and was left out of the runoff.

Would the Hernandezes have remembered he was family today if there was an ongoing election where they were the candidates?