SILGUERO PLEA BARGAIN YIELDS INSIDE LOOK AT JP SCANDAL

By Juan Montoya
Former Justice of the Peace 2-2 Erin Garcia Hernandez had just assumed office a scant two months before when the sister of one of her clerks told her some of her family members had a little problem and could she help them out with a favorable settlement?
Thus begins the story that embroiled the JP 2-2 court and became the focus of an investigation by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, the FBI Task Force and the Brownsville Police Dept. The result was two indictments handed down by a county grand jury against two sisters and the questioning of court staff and Justice of the Peace Erin Garcia Hernandez. Garcia has never been charged.
The 140-page attachment to the plea bargain reveals the scope of the corruption that enveloped the court almost upon from the day that Garcia took over the office in late 2013 to serve the unexpired term of deceased JP Tony Torres.
It seems that Vanessa and Jaime Mercado and had approached Maria Velia Silguero, the sister of Liliana Cantu, Erin's clerk Liliana Cantu, and offered both women $800 in return for a favorable settlement in a small claims lawsuit they had filed against some relatives.
Silguero said she approached Garcia through her sister and later alone in the corridor of the courthouse.
According to Silguero's statement – and corroborated in part by Garcia – both women met in the hallway of the second floor of the county judicial wing, Silguero told Garcia that the defendants owed close to $15,000 to Jaime Mercado. She also told Garcia – and through her sister Liliana – that the Mercados were relatives even though they were not.  At this point Silguero said Garcia told her that they should file for a sum lower than $10,000 which would giver her jurisdiction in JP court.
The Mercados were assisted by Cantu to fill out the forms to file their small claim in January 11, 2013. The couple submitted a claim for $9,455. Garcia had taken over the court just a little over a month before in late November or early December.
And how much should she charge them, Silguero said she asked Garcia using her thumb and forefinger to signify the cash.
"Silguero said that Garcia told her that since they were family she (Silguero) should charge them whatever she wanted and whatever they paid to give towards her campaign," the investigative report attached to Silguero's no-contest plea continues.
"Silguero said that Garcia had BBQ fundraiser for her campaign possibly sometime in June. To donate toward the campaign. Silguero stated that she was going to give the money to Garcia by way of purchasing BBQ tickets. Silguero's sister Cantu gave Silguero 70-80 bbq tickets, and in turn Silguero gave approximately $600 to her sister to give to Garcia. Silguero stated that she intended the money as a payment to Garcia for a favorable ruling in the Mercado lawsuit and that the fundraiser was a way to disguise the payment to the judge.
In fact, Garcia did make a default judgement April 3, 2013 when the defendants in the Mercado lawsuit did not show up. But she quickly reversed that ruling when the defendants hired former Cameron County DA Armando Villalobos who on April 13, 2013 asked for a rehearing claiming they had not received notice of the hearing on the case.
Garcia dismissed the case against the defendants on August 7, 2013.
By then, on May 2013, less than a month after the April 3 ruling, a federal jury was picked to sit in judgment of the former DA on corruption charges. He was later convicted and sentenced to 13 years in federal prison.
According to the documents attached to the case, investigators found that the notice for the hearing on the Mercado case had been intentionally sent to a nonexistent address, unlike other notices sent to them which contained the correct address.
After Villaobos requested the hearing, Garcia reversed her ruling and dismissed the case. This led to a courtroom confrontation between Vanessa Mercado and Garcia where Mercado complained in open court that she had "given one of your clerks $800" to get a favorable ruling in their case.
The incident was witnessed by the clerks and a bailiff from the Pct. 2 Constable's office who later filed a report for the investigators.
After this confrontation, Cantu said she was called to Garcia's office where the judge told her she was giving her a "heads up" about Mercado because she knew she wasn;t going to stop there.
The investigators interviewed both sisters, the Mercados, and court staff over a period of  time stretching from August 2013 through February 6, 2014. There were at least 14 interviews during that time. At one point both sisters said they were "afraid" to make any statements involving the Hernandez family because they were politically powerful and were afraid they would "get them."
At the end of the report DA Investigator Zachary Rhinehart recommended that "this case be reviewed by a Grand Jury to consider the facts which indicate that Vanessa Mercado, Jaime Mercado, Maria Silguero, Liliana  Cantu and Erin Garcia "knowingly and intentionally" participated in an effort to solicit, accept or agreed to accept from one another" a bribe for a favorable ruling from Garcia in the Mercado case.
When she was asked by Rhinehart if she had any qualms about accepting cases of relatives of her employees, and whether she had done anything about the claims by Mercado that she had paid $800 to her employee in return for a favorable ruling, Garcia was equivocal. She told Rhinehart that "In hindsight I don't know if I should have or shouldn't have, in hindsight a reasonable person that she (Mercado) would have paid her (Cantu) to help arrange theh case, sure absolutely."
The Mercados, Liliana Cantu, and her sister Maria Velia Silguero were indicted by a grand jury. Garcia was not.
As a result of the plea, Silguero is being offered five years in jail, probated for five years. Silguero has not been formally sentenced yet. The case was heard by 103rd District Court Judge Janet Leal.