CHAMBERS TRIAL: GUILTY, WILL APPEAL, CORTEZ JUBILANT

By Juan Montoya
A Cameron County jury has found former Indian Lake police chief John Chambers guilty on 14 counts of tampering with a government document on firearm certification files.
Defense attorneys say they will appeal the verdicts and said that the prosecution had withheld evidence they had requested in discovery. Additionally, they say that one of the jurors was seen texting during the deliberations. 
At about 9:45 a.m. today, the state and defense rested their arguments as the very political trial of Chambers was placed in the hands of the jury by 103rd District Court Judge Janet Leal.
The trial had been going on since Monday and revolves around firearm certification forms required by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. The state – through Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz – charged Chambers tapered with a government document to defraud and harm the Great State of Texas.
Chambers' lawyer, Chad Van Brunt, of San Antonio, on the other hand, said that if anything, Chambers was sloppy in his record keeping and negligent about filling them in a timely fashion. However, he say, sloppy record keeping does not rise to the level of crime because there was no intent to defraud or harm the state.
"It's not a crime to be a fool," said Chambers' attorney told the 8-woman, four men jury. "He's a fool to have trusted Fred Avalos."
Alfredo Avalos III was one of 30 reserve officers Chambers used to help him while he was chief of the 600-population village in northeast Cameron County. The reserves are not paid, but are authorized to carry weapons if they qualify and to make arrests when on duty.
Chambers has maintained – and testimony confirmed during the trial – that he had asked Avalos to help him with the gun certification paperwork which would give him time to straighten out other matters in the office. He was also preparing to go on a cruise as part of his daughter's wedding.
The reason for filing the certification reports was mandated by an audit of the Indian Lake P.D. performed by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCLE) in January of 2015.
The DA's Office filed 14 counts of Tampering With Government Documents charges against Chambers and gave Avalos full immunity from facing any charges related to his role in preparing the forms.
What is of political importance to the case against Chambers is that his case against him was first started by then-Public Integrity Unit chief Victor Cortez.
Cortez is now running for the Republican Party nomination for Cameron County Sheriff against Chambers. Two other candidates, Robert Rodriguez and Michael Watkins, are also sheriff candidates in the GOP primary.
Cortez has been seen hanging around the third-floor corridor of the courthouse where Leal's court is located and huddling with Delaney and the prosecution witnesses during the trial. Obviously, if the jury reaches a guilty verdict against Chambers, Cortez is the one who stands to profit most from the result in his race for the GOP nomination. His pickup truck filled with his campaign signs was visible in the parking lot in front of the courthouse.
When Cortez left the DA's Office to run for sheriff, the case fell to George Delaney, his former colleague in the department, and also a fellow ex-DEA agent.  (See graphic at right. Kneeling and wearing a cap is Cortez. George Delaney is white-haied man sitting.)
Avalos, after he agreed to work with Cortez and Delaney, agreed to wear a wire and taped a conversation between him and the defendant discussing how to comply with the findings of the TCLE audit. The practice of surreptitiously recording conversations and videotaping defendants is a trademark ex-DEA agent Cortez when he was the Asst. DA and head of the PIU.
In the state's closing statement, Asst. DA Peter Gilman said the filing of the forms and the information contained in them were important to the well-being of the state.
"If they don't follow the law, all the regulations that police officers have, then why have them?" he asked.
In her instructions, Leal said that if the jury found that Avalos had been an accomplice to the tampering with the documents, they were to find Chambers not guilty.
In the closing statement, Van Brunt reminded the jury that almost, if not all, of the firearm certification forms had been completed by Avalaos whom they portrayed as coveting Chambers' position as chief of Indian Lake. Avalos had also expressed a desire to establish a security and surveillance comoany like Chambers, he said.
"Fred Avalos knew what Chambers' signature looked like," he told the jury. "He submitted his application using Chambers' signature to get cheap housing (with the Cameron County Housing Authority). This case would not have happened without Fred. Of course, he's an accomplice."