After failing to get a judge to quash one of two counts of an indictment charging him with stealing about $8,000 from a firefighters' union bank account and of misappropriating more than $20,000 when he was treasurer and president of the association, local court observers say that former Brownsville Fire Department Chief Carlos Elizondo and his lawyers will probably seek a change of venue.
His attorney Eddie Lucio wanted District 107th Judge Ben Euresti to throw out the second charge because he said his client had not received enough information to prepare his defense.
However, Asst. Cameron County District Attorney Art Teniente countered that the prosecution had provided the defense with 19 encrypted CDs and that the evidence linked to the second charge is in it. Teniente said that the defense had the evidence all along but that they had lost the password that he had provided them.
"It couldn't be more clear," that that was what had happened, he said.
Euresti tabled the matter to consider Lucio's request, but some legal observers say that what Elizondo and his attorneys want is for the court to approve them removing the case to another venue, preferably in Corpus Christi where Lucio was successful in defending Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre on more than a dozen corruption charges.
In that case, a jury in Nueces County found that Yzaguirre was not guilty of any of the charges.
Elizondo has charged that the case is politically drive and that the current union leadership is attacking him personally.
However, the union has said that when Elizondo was treasurer of union's PAC he was sanctioned by the Texas Ethics Commission for not filing annual reports after one year on the position. The current union leadership charges that Elizondo never told them about the sanctions and continued to act as treasurer and in possession of the PAC's credit card which he used to make ATM withdrawals.
As far as the possibility that a local court will grant a change of venue, observers say that as the former fire chief's case made its way through the courts, it has been Elizondo himself and his legal representatives who have sought public attention and sympathy. Since it has been them, and not the prosecution, who have sought media attention, it is unlikely a court will grant them their request when and if they file the motion.
"They sought the spotlight, not the DA's Office," said a defense lawyer at the court. "It may not be easy as they think."
8 comments:
Your prejudice is showing loud and clear, Juan. Be fair and be believable, dude!
Pobre peanut bien cagado Que anda
And the feds keep cruising by his house
Bet he regrets taking that Beasley $8000.
He was better off just taking Joe Rod and Baltazar's measly dinners and free taxi tides to the airport and island. OGT De Leon is laughing last.
Speaking of things falling appart, that tub of legal sounding lard is going to keep up the farce of his JP run through Monday. At the conclusion it is guaranteed that it will be someone else's fault that he didn't file. Excuses will include heavy claims of total system corruption, mysterious collusion to prevent the required support to file, and the usual threat to sue some random person or organization.
Yes the tax assessor is a crook and I hear this Atty has friends in that area
who cares about the $8k? People want to know if there was wrongdoing regarding the ambulance service or the emt school!! is this some kind of distraction?
FORMER Tax Collector? He still is Tax Collector Juanito
REPLY TO 2.40 COMMENT... Estoy de acuerdo contigo por pinches 8000 dlls estan desviando el pedito de las AMBULANCIAS y tu MONTOYA no les hagas el juego a este par de ratas tanto elizondo que ese pinche abogado de tercera. Ya es hora de dejarnos de chingaderas y invistigar los 64000 dlls que se repartieron El tal Elizondo y el rata de CABLER YA ES TIEMPO QUE LES PONGAN EL UNIFORME NARANJA Y QU LOS MANDEN AL BOTE
Why bring up the Tax Assessor?
He was found innocent of ALL charges! That case was BULLSHIT and politically motivated. That screw up with the tax office raid cost the county a pretty penny!!
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