SORELLE CITES COUNTY "CORRUPTION" TO RUN FOR D.A.

By Juan Montoya
"To be quite frank, I'm sick and tired of the corruption in this county," said Jeremy SoRelle, the Republican Party's candidate for the nomination in the Cameron County District Attorney's Office.
Coming, as it was, from a magistrate judge in Cameron County and a Municipal Judge in Laguna Vista, this may have been taken as political hay as the day of the March 1 primary approaches.
But SoRelle was also a prominent prosecutor in Cameron County District Attorney's Office before he left to work for the State of Texas.

"In my position, I have access to information that comes from federal and state agencies and the things that I'm seeing are, quite honestly, disgusting. I'm tired of standing on the sidelines yelling and screaming about it. I'm not going to be a hypocrite anymore. We're going to jump in and we're going to go at this full blast and we're going to take this office," SoRelle said to enthusiastic screams from the Cameron County GOP faithful gathered at Cobbleheads.
"Can I close my eyes and go to sleep because I did the right thing?," he asked the crowds to ask themselves.
Conspicuous in the room was none other than Victor Cortez, a candidate for the sheriff's nomination. So was John Chambers, his opponent.
In fact, it was none other than Cortez when he was the head of Saenz's Public Integrity Unit who started the prosecution against Chambers for at least two indictments which were later dismissed. (Cortez asserts in his FB page that he was "recruited" by Saenz for the juob and didn't go looking for it himself.) Chambers is still being prosecuted for tampering with a government record. That prosecution continues carried on by Cortez's sidekick George Delaney, also a former agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Chambers has asked that 103rd District Judge Janet Leal also dismiss that charge. Before, Chambers' lawyers had asked Leal to recuse herself from the case since she, Saenz and Chester Gonzalez' – the judge's significant other– shared law offices. Leal has so far refused.
"There's nothing there but a continued political witch hunt," Chambers asserted.
To have a former prosecutor in Saenz's office say that he is "sick and tired" of corruption should send tremors through the second and third floors of the Cameron County courthouse occupied by the DA's Office.
Saenz, in the fight of his life to retain his position as the Democratic Party nominee, cannot rely on the support he had four years ago against Carlos Masso, his challenger in the runoff in 2012.
Saenz beat Masso by a scant 351 votes (8,066 to 7,715) of 15,781 votes cast, and this time around may predict it will go down to the wire in the Democratic primary between teh two men.
Many former Saenz supporters have openly come out for Masso, also a Brownsville Navigation District commissioner.  

But while many have turned to Masso, those in the GOP audience included some former fervid Saenz supporters. Conspicuous among those present to support SoRelle at Cobbleheads were local attorneys Angel Nix and husband Julio, and even attorney Noe Garza, a political heavy hitter who has hosted numerous Saenz events at his ranch in the outskirts of Brownsville.
Throw in the fact that his former Public Information Officer and social media manager Melissa Landin has left the office and taken a similar job with the City of Harlingen and one can almost see the Saenz candidacy erode before your very eyes.
Just last week, the entire DA's Office "family" was being gathered for a holiday photo on the steps of the courthouse. With Landin gone, it feel to Saenz to arrange the gathering for the photo and he was in the process of moving people to their places when  none other than Masso drove by in his pickup truck.
"I'm not ready for the picture yet," Masso joked to a visibly miffed Saenz."Wait until after the primary election."