IN SAENZ'S CAMERON COUNTY, DIRTY DEEDS WIN ELECTIONS

By Juan Montoya

With just a few weeks before the March 2016 primary elections where Cameron County Democrats were to elect their candidate to face the candidate of the Republican party (if any), it seemed to local political observers that challenger Carlos Masso could defeat incumbent Luis V. Saenz on his second attempt.

Four years previously, in 2012,  Masso had come incredibly close to beating Saenz,just losing in a runoff election by a mere 351 votes of the 15,721 cast in that race. But now, in the spring of 2016, many felt Masso had the momentum to finally defeat his nemesis.

In the final months of 2015, Masso had gathered numerous endorsements and the word on the street and the county courthouse was that he had Saenz this time. The Democratic party was torn asunder with adherents of the two men bitterly fighting for their survival. In Masso's corner was the surprisingly popular Cameron County Clerk Sylvia Garza Perez and her growing clique which included residents in the north part of the county.

The old Democratic machine at one time dominated by his sister-in-law former Cameron County District Clerk Aurora de la Garza was behind Saenz. Some of the county commissioners also backed the DA, albeit without as much enthusiasm as they had in the previous election.

In the newborn year of 2016, and with his political doom written on the wall, Saenz needed something – anything – to improve his chances.

According to sources inside the law-enforcement community, ever since
September 2015, Saenz and his Public Integrity Unit headed by chief investigator at the Cameron County District Attorney's Office (and former DEA Special Agent) George Delaunay and Asst. D.A. Edward Sandoval  had been running a sting operation in the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office targeting head taxman Tony Yzaguirre.

Pete Gilman, the head prosecutor in the D.A's Office, would try the case for Saenz.

They had enlisted a shady confidential informant named Melquiades Sosa to ingratiate himself into Yzaguirre's inner circle and give the goods on him.

They had Sosa by the short hairs because he had been indicted on nine charges of Tampering With a Government Document dealing with getting phony titles to vehicles. Sosa was a car dealer and dealt with the Vehicle Registration Department almost on a daily basis.

He made a deal with Saenz, Delaunay, and DPS Special Agent Rene Olivarez with the task force investigators that included the Texas Attorney General, the FBI and local law enforcement to bring down Yzaguirre.

To get close to Yzaguirre, Sosa agreed to help him sell tickets to barbecues at $20 a pop for his reelection. He got them from Yzaguirre 10 at a time and when he sold the lot of 10, he would give Yzaguirre the $200 and take 10 more.

The idea was to record Yzaguirre taking the $200 in envelopes he had in his desk and make it seem like Sosa was paying him to let him "fix" car registrations and titles without checking his ID or insurance. In fact, as Sosa knew, since he was a registered car dealer, under Texas law he did not need to show ID or insurance to get titles to the cars.


This simple fact – which formed the crux of the entire Dirty Deeds operation – eluded Saenz, Delaunay, and DPS Special Agent Olivarez and his boss Ray Maza.

What's more, as they reviewed tapes of the Sosa-Yzaguirre exchanges, some agents thought they didn't have the evidence needed to get the indictments.

(Trial Transcript of Olivarez P. 102, L. 15 - P. 103, L. 2)

Q. Okay. She's saying, "I'm not seeing any money – handing any money directly"?
A. Correct, sir,
Q. Now, you had already heard, even though you're saying "1 wasn't present in that car, " before arresting Mr. Yzaguirre, you said you had already heard Janie Alvarado express that sentiment to you. 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. So now you have another agent from another completely separate different agency telling you that he in his opinion, Mr. Yzaguirre is not accepting it, correct? 

A. You'd have to ask him exactly what he meant by that, sir. 

Q. Okay. But you just heard him say that, right? 

A. Yes, sir.

During Yzaguirre's trial, defense attorney Eddie Lucio made it clear that numerous agents in the task force did not think that the investigation was ready – and lacked sufficient convincing evidence – to seek indictments, much less make a case and get a conviction.

But Saenz was facing a sure loss in the 2016 primaries against Masso and could not wait. As  a seasoned attorney, and with his covey of ex-federal agents and DPS and federal investigators, Saenz struck nonetheless. He carried his half-baked boxes of "evidence" in front of a gullible grand jury and walked out of the courthouse with 40 counts. Aside from Yzaguirre, five other tax-office employees were gathered in the net.

With network cameras rolling, Yzaguirre, peace officers Jose Mireles and Joe Garza were paraded in handcuffs in front of the courthouse. Others including clerks Omar Sanchez Paz, Claudia Sanchez, and Marisol Sifuentes were arrested at their work place, handcuffed and hauled off in front of their coworkers and the public and booked at the Rucker-Carrizalez Corrections facility in Olmito.

The gambit worked.

"Man, Luis was really falling behind Masso until the Yzaguirre arrests and then he surged past him here in Harlingen" said a former county commissioner who lives there. "El arrest le dio un levanton."


 As televised arrest followed televised arrest, Saenz's chances improved markedly. By that March, the voters came out in the Democratic party primary and handed him a victory over Masso of 14,650 to 13,860, albeit still a squeaker with 27,510 votes cast in the race, a 790- vote margin.

But a win is a win is a win, Saenz figured. Now he had the victory with no Republican candidate to face in November.

Trying Yzaguirre and the other five tax-office employees was almost an afterthought. But that was when things got dicey. Due to massive negative media pre-trial publicity, a court granted Yzaguirre's motion for a change in venue to Nueces County.

       

When the jury heard the "evidence" against him, they dismissed eight of the 23 charges during trial and acquitted him of the other 15.

Saenz had no choice but to dismiss all the remaining 17 charges against the other five defendants. Sifuentes, who had been arrested and booked, was never indicted or tried. (See graphic below. Click to enlarge.)

Now Yzaguirre and the five tax-office employees have filed a complaint against Olivarez and his supervisor Maza for Abuse of Official Capacity, Official Oppression and civil rights violations and malicious prosecution.

Neither D.A. Saenz or his prosecutors are named in the complaint, but many think that a complaint against them with the Texas State Bar is the least of the consequences they should face. After all, they – seasoned legal practicioners – knew the "evidence" they had against the taxman and his workers didn't hold water and yet still continued the prosecution to help their boss get reelected.

Was a political gain worth ruining the lives and staining the reputation of six individuals? These were "Dirty Deeds," indeed.