IT'S BEEN 10 YEARS SINCE ADOLFO BETANCOURT PASSED

By Juan Montoya
I once ran into the late judge and attorney Adolfo "Bedo" Betancourt at the Javier Ruiz's 1,2,3, Lounge.
That in itself was nothing unusual. "Bedo," as his friends called him, liked to be among the common people and often would stop by the 14th Street honky tonks to visit his friends.
At this time, a tattooed thug from a nearby table got up and started shouting at Betancourt that he had sent him to "el rancho" (the state pen) a few years back.
Betancourt didn't blink and told the annoying drunk that nothing would have happened if he hadn't broken the law.
"Deben de portartse bien," he chastised the man.
Straight-talking and not easily swayed by anyone's influence, his word was his bond. Few dared to try to influence his court decisions unless they had a true argument to make.
In this case, the man's friends calmed him down and then took him away.
Betancourt, born on July 4, 1922, was the first Mexican-American prosecutor in Cameron County.
But he wasn't hired by the county as an affirmative-action token. He was hired, as it were, in self defense.
"I had beaten the DA on two capital murder cases," he said during one of our conversations over a beer. "Cameron County Judge Oscar Dancy called in District Attorney F.T. Graham and told him 'You better hire that son of a bitch because he's making you look bad.'"
Betancourt was a chief felony prosecutor with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office for 25 years before he went on to hold elected positions as justice of the peace and county court-at-law judge before retiring in 1994.
A native of Brownsville, he attended and graduated from Brownsville High School, studied at Brownsville Junior College (now TSC) and St. Mary's University in San Antonio before graduating from the South Texas College of Law in 1951. He passed the Texas Bar Exam with top marks.
Betancourt was one of those members of what Tom Brokaw called the Greatest Generation and who grew up in the United States during the deprivation of the Great Depression. He then went on to fight in World War II.
A veteran, he served for many years as adjutant at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2035. His record of service indicates that Betancourt served his country in South Asia during World War II as a toxic gas handler with the 900th Chemical Company of the U.S. Army. He earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with two Bronze Stars as well as a good conduct medal and a World War II Victory Medal.
This generation is also termed the G.I. Generation.
This past March was Betancourt's 10th anniversary of his death March 21, 2005.
His sons and daughters also followed in their father's footsteps and are in public service.
But this is a dry history because, if anything, "Bedo" enjoyed life to the fullest.
His son David tells a story about a public intoxication case that Betancourt was defending. Apparently, the accused said he had had two drinks at Gambrino's in Matamoros when he was arrested. As the prosecutor and the defense went toe to toe, they decided to call a recess and see whether the amount of liquor would result in intoxication.
The judge and the attorneys crossed the bridge together, went to Gambrino's and ordered two of the same drinks each. After they had imbibed them, one asked the other if he felt drunk.
The other replied in the negative and they went back to Brownsville and resumed the court.
Based on this first-hand evidence, the defendant was pronounced not guilty.