BISD WON'T RELEASE GRAFIK SPOT INFO, CITES INVESTIGATION

By Juan Montoya
We are in receipt now of the Brownsville Independent School District objection to our information request on payments made to Grafik Spot over the past five years.

After hearing continuing rumors that it was at the heart of an investigation by federal agencies overseeing funds for Food and Nutrition Services by local school districts, investigators said they found suspicious activity apart from the spoiled barbacoa purchased from the McAllen-based company Valco, which has since gone out of business.

That company came under scrutiny when cafeteria managers detected a large batch of the Mexican-processed meat that had spoiled. Only the timely intervention by alert cafeteria managers stopped the food from being fed to students.

In the case of the USDA investigation into Valco, the department director – the late Silverio Capsitran – was scheduled to meet with federal agents the morning after he was found with a bullet in his head sitting in his pickup truck in the parking lot of his apartment.

"(We were) scheduled to meet with Mr. Capistran the morning after," said one. "It was the school district who called (us) at 6:30 a.m. to let (us) know what happened."

"The FBI and Texas Rangers eventually took over the whole investigation," they confirmed. "(We) would assume one of them probably has (Capistran's) phone."

Relatives say that the phone contained detailed specifics about the dealings Capistran had within the department and that he kept a ledger of the outside business he was conducting in association with  "investors" into the barbacoa meat and the cafeteria-oriented purchases with vendors.

That apparently included other cases of fraud such as shorting cases of produce like tomatoes by having the district pay for crates labeled as containing 25 pounds when they weighed 15 pounds instead. The "profits" on the extra non-existing 10 pounds were then split among the "investors."

The same happened when the "investors" purchased containers full of backpacks to be handed out to students, cafeteria tray liners, cardboard containers for chinese food, etc.

But agents looking into the BISD's district's relationship with Valco also uncovered other irregularities in their purchases fro other vendors, including Brownsville's Grafik Spot.


"(Our) role in the investigation (the USDA's) was solely on the meat product from Valco," said the source. "As the investigation went on (we) quickly realized there was a lot more going on than just meat from Mexico. The meat product was the least of their worries. The evidence was turned over to the FBI."

The district's appeal to the Texas Attorney General's Office says it is taxing exception to El Rrun-Rrun's because the information requested "Is part of a multi-agency investigation by several law-enforcement offices including the Brownsville Independent School District. The law-enforcement agencies are investigating potential criminal activity."

It cites Texas Government Code Section 552.105 which deals with "Law Enforcement, Corrections and Prosecutorial Information."

"As stated previously, the District's Police Force along with other State and Federal law enforcement agencies are investigating suspected criminal activity. The requested information is part of the criminal investigation. At this time, the investigation remains active by the BISD Police Department and the various law enforcement agencies. 

The information made the subject of this request is part of the investigation and we believe are privileged and excepted from disclosure under the section of the Act."