ELIZONDO TO BE RE-ARRAIGNED ON TWO NEW INDICTMENTS; EURESTI SCHEDULES ELIZONDO'S NEW TRIAL FOR JUNE 25

Various Sources

Guess what?

Former Brownsville Fire Chief Carlos Elizondo will be arraigned on two new indictments in Judge Ben Euresti's 107th District Court. Elizondo's arraignment on the new charges will be held Thursday at 1 p.m.

The two new indictments will replace the two charges of  theft and misapplication of fiduciary property originally filed on October 2017. The Cameron County District Attorney's Office agreed to dismiss the original indictment and replace it with the new charges and agreed to transfer Elizondo's surety bonds to the new charges.

The new indictments handed down by a grand jury charge him with third-degree felony theft because at the time of the crime the owner of the property appropriated was a nonprofit organization.

The crime rises to a higher level if the defendant was a public servant at the time of the offense and the property appropriated came into the actor's custody, possession, or control by virtue of his status as a public servant and he was in a contractual relationship with government at the time of the offense. Elizondo was a firefighter and acted as treasurer for the firefighters' PAC.

Authorities arrested Elizondo in  October on accusations that he stole $8,000 from the Brownsville Firefighters Association Political Action Committee through unauthorized ATM withdrawals, according to a police report. The formal name of the PAC is Brownsville Firefighters For Responsible Government.

The other new indictment of misapplication of fiduciary property or property of financial institutions bases the higher offense– a felony of the third degree – because the value of the property misapplied is $30,000 or more but less than $150,000.

Euresti had previously denied Elizondo’s challenge to the original indictment charging him with theft and misapplication of fiduciary property and his attorney Eddie Lucio filed a writ of habeas corpus arguing that the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office was charging him twice for the same alleged crime.

(Coincidentally (or was it?), just today Erasmo Castro, on social media, is posting that Elizondo saved someone's life at De la Rosa's Seafood Restaurant for some unspecified emergency. Martin Sarkis said he posted the incident on social media and Castro picked it up. 

He claims that the ambulance took 23 minutes to get to the restaurant and that if it hadn't been for Elizondo being there, the man would have died. And he asserts that it too EMS crews 23 minutes to arrive while contradictory reports say it took nine minutes. Sakis swears his version is the correct one, as do the other posters who have contradictory versions.)

Lucio, had argued that “good ground” did not exist for issuance of the original search warrant because sufficient facts to establish probable cause weren’t there and because 404th state District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez, who signed the warrant, was not neutral because of a conflict she has with the Brownsville Independent School District and its board of trustees.

Cornejo-Lopez had filed a federal lawsuit against BISD over how a grievance she filed against the district was handled by school administrators. Elizondo is a member of the BISD’s board of trustees.

During a previous hearing to quash the second count of the indictment, which was denied, Asst. D.A. Art Teniente told Euresti that both counts do include the same check transactions that the DA’s office alleged were illegal.

Even the Texas Ethics Commission has become embroiled in the case.

On Feb. 16, Lucio subpoenaed the TEC asking for information pertaining to the commission’s account for the Brownsville Firefighters for Responsible Government PAC, including correspondence, rulings, requests made or received by the commission, and or any complaints, allegations, statements received or provided by the commission.

According to the search warrant Elizondo challenged, Margarito Gracia Jr., vice president of the Brownsville Firefighters Association, contacted the TEC to advice it of money spent by the BPAC and was told that BPAC wasn’t recognized as a general purpose committee and that it had terminated Elizondo as treasurer in May 2010.

That document also states that no BPAC expense reports had been filed with TEC between 2010 and 2016, and that all expenditures and contributions were not in compliance with Texas Election Law.

According to records obtained by BPAC members from between May 22, 2010, and March 1, 2016, a total of $39,388.30 had been spent from the account, according to the search warrant.

In its motion to quash the subpoena, TEC asks the court to either completely quash it or, in the alternative, to grant an order protecting the confidentiality of the documents.

TEC also complains that the request is overly broad.

“The Commission is concerned that the disclosure of information or documents related to any sworn complaint that is made confidential by that statute may expose Commission staff to criminal and civil liability,” the motion states.

Euresti has yet to rule on the motion by the TEC.

At the hearing today, Euresti scheduled Elizondo's new trial date for June 25.