WRONG-WAY WIGHTMAN VEERS OFF ON NON-STORY

By Juan Montoya
Wonder what is really behind the reams and reams of copy by local drama queen blogger Robert Wightman surrounding the case of Sandra Blanco, the woman accused of running over an elderly lady and two boys back in 1998?
Wightman has converted this simple traffic accident into a cause celebre and charged that District Judge Ben Euresti – with the connivance of Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz – allowed "a killer to walk free."
In reading the dramatized account of the accident that occurred at the corner of Jackson and 13th Street, one would think that Blanco was a cold-hearted killer who purposely ran over Maria Fidela Garza and her two grandchildren.
Wightman states: " Maria Fidela Garza died after being hit as a pedestrian by Sandra Blanco."
Facts have never gotten in the way of a good story for Wightman, and this case is typical of his style.
In fact, Garza died a full year and three months later from a coronary, a heart attack that was unrelated with the accident in 1998.
The Herald account of the accident tells how Blanco, a home health provider, inadvertently ran over Garza and her two grandchildren while looking at the traffic on 13th Street, a one-way. She never saw the three walking out of her line of vision and tried to cross the street, striking them and dragging them under her Ram Charger truck.
The story quoted one Jose Montiel, who works at CPL Medical Equipment, a business on Jackson
Street, who said it was not the first time there is an accident at that intersection.
"Some people don't even stop at the corner," Montiel said.
In other words, it was a tragic accident.
Wightman makes much over the fact that Blancoi failed to appear for her court on the charges. Wonder why she was so fearful?
The initial charges filed against Blanco were for "failure to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians" Blanco hired Saenz to represent her in court. Saenz didn't think the case was that serious and even allowed Corpus Christi personal injury superstar attorney Mikel. Watts depose her in a civil case brought against her by the family of the woman on March 15, 1999.
Watts knew there was noting to be gained from the case and dropped it.
Then, just a month after she was deposed, on April 4, Saenz wrote the assistant DA assigned by DA Yolanda De Leon to the case inquiring about a potential upgrading of charges. She was first charged with a Class C misdemeanor of failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians. He got his response on June 9, when Blanco was indicted by a grand jury and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (her car), a first-degree felony.
Blanco got spooked and ran.
Why would De Leon up the ante? There had always been bad blood between her and Saenz and, in fact, Saenz became the campaign manager for Armando Villalobos in his race against De Leon just three years later.
When Blanco was finally caught this year, she was sentenced to jail on the Failure to Appear charge and denied bond until three months later.
At the court held on May 26, 2015, Euresti – after being informed  that DA Special Prosecutor Ed Cyganiewicz and court-appointed defense attorney Louis Sorola had reached a plea bargain – approved it and sentenced her to a year in prison probated for two years. Her convictions were for Class A Deadly Conduct misdemeanors.
Those are the facts. Not sexy. Not scandalous. Just the plain, tragic facts behind an accident that happened to two people whose lives were overturned and wish it had never happened at that street corner in downtown Brownsville.
Wightman has taken this tragedy and is trying to worsen an already lamentable situation by dragging the family and the woman through his little shop of legal horrors to relive the events. He is saying that Euresti, Saenz, Sorola and Cyganiewicz are involved in some sort of fantastic conspiracy to "allow Sandra Blanco to walk out of court a free woman after being on the run for 15 years after killing Maria Fidela Garza."
And, of course, there's his omnipresent arsenal of threats involving the FBI, the Department of Justice, Washington D.C., etc.
In the end after Sandra Blanco was on the run for 15 years to avoid prosecution for killing Maria Fidela Garza, it was Judge Ben Euresti who told Sandra Blanco she was free to go. It was Judge Ben Euresti who effectively said Maria Fidela Garza's life did not matter. Well it does and this story will be kept alive until Maria Fidela Garza is afforded justice.
Why not throw in a bit of devil incarnate Villalobos and escaped killer Amit Livingston in for good measure to spice this up as well and build himself up as the avenger of wrong and defender against evil? Wrong-Way Wightman then recounts his feats of legal prowess.

"In the case of Amit Livingston, Villalobos and former Judge Abel Limas, I flew to Washington and filled a lawsuit to compel the FBI and DOJ to bring charges. While I lost the battle I won the war because the last I checked Villalobos and Limas are in federal prison.
Maria Fidela Garza's family have been clear, if the local DOJ/FBI fail to seek the indictment of those responsible for his travesty of justice, they are prepared to take the local FBI office to task in Washington. It could include yet another lawsuit (Of course, why aren't we surprised?)
It is past time for the FBI to bring in Judge Ben Euresti and demand how he came to choose Ed Cyganiewicz as the special prosecutor. It is past time to interview Saenz to find out why he was in the court the morning of sentencing conferring with Ed Cyganiewicz and Louis Sorola when he was conflicted out of the case."
Someone remind La Babosa to take her meds.