The recently issue indictments against Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector reveal that the confidential informant is a man who himself is facing eight Tampering With a Government Document charges and on count of providing a fake name to register a vehicle.
Melquides Sosa, the informant, was charged with the offenses Aug. 28, 2015.
Yzaguirre was charged with four counts of bribery, a second-degree felony, engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony, and official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.
Mireles was charged with bribery, a second-degree felony, engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony, and official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.
Garza was charged with bribery, a second-degree felony, engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony, and official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.
Omar Sanchez-Paz, who was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony, and abuse of official capacity, a Class A misdemeanor.
The indictments against the four men name 59-year-old Sosa, was arraigned August 28, 2015 and was charged with eight counts of tampering with a government document and one count of False Name, Info Forgery Vehicle Registration.The Texas Penal Code statute 37.10(a)(4) makes it a third-degree felony if a defendant "possesses, sells, or offers to sell a governmental record or a blank governmental record form with intent that it be used unlawfully."
So far county records show that DA Saenz has never presented the evidence against Sosa to a grand jury for an indictment since he came before Padilla in August.
The offenses alleged in the Sosa cases indicate that five of the Tampering with Government Documents offenses occurred on May 8, and five on June 5, 2015, and the use of a false name on a car registration also on June 5. He was arrested on Aug. 28 and charged with the offenses.
So far, there has been no movement in these cases.
Courthouse sources tell us that Sosa may have been cooperating with the DA's Office, the Texas Attorney General and the alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies to develop a case against Yzaguirre and the other defendants. In the affidavit made public by the DA's Office, it states that a confidential informant left $300 on Yzaguirre's desk after he had acquired three fake car titles from a tax office clerk.
The first incident allegedly took place last September 14 and involved three cars. The second affidavit for probable cause states that later that year, on Dec. 15, the informant procured two car titles from Yzaguirre's office and left $200 on his desk.
In the current indictments, Sosa is said to have paid Yzaguirre a bribe at least 10 times for registering cars without having the required identification a person normally has to present to make the transaction.
The transactions between Sosa and Yzaguirre were said to have taken place Sept. 14, 2015 (2), October 7, 2015 (2), Dec. 15, 2015 (2), and January 6, 2015 (2).
Sosa was wearing a wire, or recording device, in the last transaction. Immediately after he had placed an envelope on Yzaguirre's desk, members of a joint task force raided his office and arrested all four men, including Omar Sanchez-Paz, a clerk at the tax office.
Mireles and Garza are named in the first two bribery counts and then again twice in the 11 counts of Abuse of Official capacity and one count of Official Oppression.
The three men are also charged with one count of Engaging In Ongoing Criminal Activity.
The last count charges that the three took money and that it was not a political contribution and was not reported in Yzaguirre's campaign expenditure reports.
Former District Court Judge Robert Garza has alluded to Sosa;s legal troubles and said the prosecution will have a difficult time establishing his credibility. According to the information provided by the DA's Office to the magistrate, Sosa was said to have placed money in an envelope and left it on Yzaguirre's desk after each transaction.
Garza charged that the charges were filed by DA Saenz in a desperate attempt to boost his chances for reelection. He is being challenged by local attorney and Brownsville Navigation District commissioner Carlos Masso, a candidate he barely beat in a runoff in 2012.
8 comments:
So what if the CI is a criminal? That's the way it is done and always has been done. No big secret! Its whether the CI is very credible when testifying? Will there be a trial? Sounds like they have everything on tape? Remember, a jury convicted ARmando Villalobos on the testimony of a supposedly credible attorney in Oscar De La Fuente who admitted to stealing over $100K from clients and that Armando took money from him without anyone else seeing it or on tape> Don't make a big deal out of it. It will be up to a jury to decide whether this Tony Y is a crook or not. If individuals were really going to commit crimes in front of credible persons, then there would be no crime?
Tony is a crook, everybody knows that...Why the people voted for him, we don't know. May the courts help him or make him answer to the voters but, a crook he is.
Exactly how corrupt officials are caught! Attorneys know this also. "Y" and his three stooges also used informants to set up "offenders" Ironic huh...
Yes and tony menchaca is singing like a canary about all the corruption that he and yzaguirre were doing while he worked at tax office !! Wait till the Feds get ahold of yzaguirre!!!
Folks don't worry about the feds getting a hold of Tony Yzaguirre, tony should worry about bubba, he and his gang members are waiting for you once you set foot in a state prison, just like in that movie shawshank redemption. De quien chon.
Tony, it is time for you to go, damn people, steal from the tax payers and accept bribes, what kind of a man are you?
He is a dick
Your nothing but a mommy's boy. Go back to her chest get more V-D, yfah.
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