SAENZ'S REELECTION PR BELIES CONTINUED DANGER TO MOST VULNERABLE VICTIMS FROM HIS INACTION

By Juan Montoya

With all the hoopla and bells and whistles made by the reelection campaign of Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz over October being Domestic Violence Month, what is the real feel on the ground on his performance.?

Take the example of Miguel Angel Rico,a suspect on a charge of Assault Family Violence (Class "A" Misdemeanor), filed last March 13.

While he was waiting for the prosecutor and the court date to face that charge, Rico was again arrested, this time for a more serious crim against a more vulnerable victim,
The Brownsville Police Dept. reported that Rico was arrested two days ago (Oct. 14) "on the 1100 block of N. US 77. He had a pending warrant for sexual assault of a child. The warrant stemmed from an outcry made by the victim in September 2015. Detectives recovered enough evidence to secure the warrant. Bond was set at $25,000."
What happened? Who dropped the ball?

Local attorneys have complained that the prosecution of charges in Cameron County lag far behind the norm elsewhere and point to Harris County in comparison

"The dockets are backed up beyond belief in this count." complained one. "In Harris county, a county of over 3 million, I believe, DWIs are charged within a week of arrest. The fact that it takes us months and months is ridiculous. I happen to know of a case where a defendant here in Cameron county was accused of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated  assault deadly weapon and this DAs office couldn't get around to indicting the defendant for over 3 months, a week after the defendant got out on a Personal Recognizance bond. They must be more backed up than any of us realize."
Whether it's the DA dragging its feet on their campaign against domestic violence despite the public relations blitz by Saenz's reelection campaign machine, or the courts not being fast enough to get these defendants off the streets and away from their victims, it's not a good situation.
And what about the case of the Brownsville Independent School District teacher at Lopez High School who was arrested Oct. 1 bringing his victim back from Matamoros where he admitted he had sexual contact with him.
If you read the newspaper account of an arrest at Gateway Bridge of a David Gallegos Covarrubias, the 44-year-old Brownsville man who was arrested on charges that allege he had sex with the underage victim.
The incident occurred after the  U.S. Customs had stopped a 2001 GMC Sonoma S-10 occupied by two subjects. Covarrubias has as his passenger a 15-year-old juvenile male who was an active runaway out of the Brownsville Police Department.
BPD investigators said that Covarrubias had told them that he had met the juvenile on social media/internet.
At this time, Sex Crimes Investigators then made contact with Covarrubias. Covarrubias gave a statement implicating himself to meeting the juvenile on the internet on Friday September 25th 2015.
Further investigations revealed Covarrubias had sexual contact with the juvenile victim. Covarrubias was placed under arrest and charged with Sexual Assault. Bond was set at $30,000.
Itt turns out that Covarrubias is an English teacher at Lopez Highs School that the 15-year-old is a student there, and that two weeks after he was arrested at the bridge, Covarrubias was still in the classroom as if nothing had happened.
Other social media has since confirmed confirm that as of Oct. 15, he was still an active English teacher at Lopez.
In fact, Covarrubias was involved in numerous extracurricular activities where he is in a position  of authority over minors, including managing the Destination ImagiNation team for his school in competition this past February.
And school sources tell us that the parents of the boy had reported that Covarrubias had been giving gifts to their son and that they had reported this inappropriate behavior to the school principal and administration.
The principal at the school is Dahlia Aguilar, known to many staff and students as a supporter of alternative lifestyles and personal sexual preferences. While there is nothing wrong with embracing diversity, the fact that she or her staff may have been alerted to Covarrubias' predatory behavior and had not taken steps to prevent what eventually happened between a minor and his adult aggressor might raise serious questions about the safety of students under their supervision.
The parents say nothing was done about their concerns, resulting in the incident at the bridge and whatever happened in Matamoros between them.
Where is the DA on this one and on the Rico arrest?
Is he too busy preening before the cameras trying to get reelected to mind the public's business and safety?
We have a domestic violent offender on the streets waiting prosecution since March then allegedly sexually assaulting a child in September while awaiting trial for the first offense.
And we have a professed predator allowed to wander the hallways of our schools in contact with potential victims for at least two weeks as if nothing had happened.
And not only does Rico flaunt his freedom, but goes on social media to downplay his behavior.. This was all, he assures his "friends and family" a misunderstanding.
Both Covarrubias and Rico are out on bond and will probably have access to their alleged victims.
This is restoring respect to the DA's Office, Luis?