WITH IMMUNITY IN HAND, GARCIA PLAYS SNITCH AGAIN

By Juan Montoya
He did it once before when Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz had former Pct. 2 Cameron County commissioner Ernie Hernandez indicted by a grand jury.
And now, Cameron County Administrator David Garcia is doing it again, this time snitching on his former boss and benefactor Pete Sepulveda, the former Cameron County Judge.

Garcia, who commands a $185,000 salary as county administrator, is at the vortex of the Cameron County District Attorney's prosecution of Sepulveda who is accused of of using county materials and employees to pave a private road in San Benito for former Los Indios employee Anita Weaver.

In a news release issued January 3, District Attorney Luis Saenz said his office received a complaint about the road in March 2016 and opened an investigation. A grand jury returned a sealed indictment on Dec. 21 and charged Sepulveda with abuse of official capacity, misapplication of fiduciary property and theft by a public servant.

And the main witness – armed with immunity against prosecution for his role in the affair – will be Garcia. As county administrator in charge of the Public Works and Transportation departments, he will be the main witness.

Sepulveda’s defense attorney, Noe Garza, initially asked for a continuance and a May trial date for his client. Judge Janet Leal refused his request, but eventually agreed to a pretrial and announcement appearance March 24, with the trial scheduled for April 3.

This will  not be the first time that Garcia has served as a witness for the prosecution. The last time it was int he trial of former commissioner Ernie Hernandez, who was indicted on two counts of abuse of official capacity, one count of misuse of official information, two counts of witness tampering, one count of tampering with a government record, one count of obstruction or retaliation, one count of coercion by a public officials.

The indictments dealt with the plot by Hernandez to get his brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel a job even though he did not qualify for it.
Eventually, in return for his resignation, Hernandez was granted deferred adjudication and pleaded guilty to one count of coercion by a public official.

During his testimony, Garcia testified that he had a deal with the District Attorney’s Office to avoid prosecution in exchange for his truthful testimony. He told the court that, at Raul Salazar’s urging – the commissioner's administrative assistant – he passed Cadriel’s security guard application along to Bridge Director David Silva.

At the trial, Garcia testified in court that a reorganization of the county's Human Resources office was done at the urging of Hernandez to get even with the staff for leaking information about the scheme and for leaking the information on the plot to the DA's Office.

But what he didn't say was that the reorganization at HR had been in the works for months before and that former HR director Arnold Flores had been trying to get it approved by the county commissioners. In fact, the agenda where it was included had not even been posted when he testified about to to the jury.

It should be interesting to see what kind of testimony the DA can coax out of a too-willing Garcia – the consummate bureaucratic infighter – to try to get a conviction from a jury against Sepulveda. Will he reveal that he knew all along and kept his mouth shut until he saw the writing on the wall and spilled his guts to save his hide? And wasn't he obligated to report this type of alleged wrongdoing in the first place?

Garza is a formidable cross-examiner and he surely won't allow Garcia to tiptoe his way with weasel-worded responses to direct questions. It will be a show that's not to be missed.