PEREZ-REYES MOVE TO FIRE SALAZAR ON FIRM LEGAL BASE

(Ed.'s Note: The current controversy over Brownsville Independent School District trustee Laura Perez-Reyes' call for the termination of BISD board counsel Baltazar Salazar for being a convicted felon has been delayed until the next board meeting October 6. So far, only fellow trustee Eddie Garcia – a 30-year Brwnsville Police Dept. veteran – has joined her in calling for his removal. BISD board chair Minerva Peña, who  voted back in 2013 to hire him despite the unclear criminal background check, has defended him tooth and nail and scoffed at Perez-Reyes' claims. 

Trustee Phil Cowen is coming around to the realization that the lawyer may have covered up the conviction when he applied for the job with the district. Because the 107th District Court had issued an order of expungement, the files were removed from public access and unavailable to the public. They were unavailable to BISD HR personnel when they investigated his application. 

The Texas 13th Court of Appeals reversed the court order when the Texas Department of Public Safety appealed the expunction. The files now on the shelves and open to the public and reveal the facts below. What will Peña, Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, Drue Brown and Prisci Roca-Tipton do now?) 

By Juan Montoya

It took a while, but the Baltazar Salazar files are back on the shelves of the Cameron County District Clerk's Office.

Salazar, board counsel with the Brownsville Independent School District since April 2013, was charged with felony theft on three charges dating back to 1983. He is now board attorney at an annual $300,000 salary.

The first charge was 83-CR-416-A. The second was 85-CR-450-A.

The third was 85-CR-23-A.

All involved Salazar issuing three checks without funds for $1,000s of dollars each.

Of the first two listed above, both were dismissed on technicalities in Cameron County courts; one for being filed after the statute of limitations had passed, the other was dismissed for "want of prosecution."

But the third one – 85-CR-23-A – reached a final verdict. That verdict was guilty and it was issued by then-judge Melchor Chavez in the 107th District Court. The verdict was contained in the order issued then (click to enlarge):

The defendant was ordered to pay:

Salazar appealed the verdict and sentence to the Texas Court of Appeals and the court upheld the verdict of the trial court. When he tried to expunge the conviction from his record, the court said that:

"As to the third offense, Salazar did not even deny that he was given community supervision. The supplemental clerk’s record contains a “Probation Judgment” in trial court cause number 85-CR-23-A stating that on February 26, 1985, the trial court found Salazar guilty of theft by check and sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment; the trial court suspended the sentence and placed Salazar on probation for seven years. Salazar appealed the judgment and this Court affirmed the conviction in appellate cause number 13-85-181-CR in May 1986."

Claims that the conviction was "set aside" by an order of "judicial clemency" has been discarded by legal observers who say that the law cited – Article 42A-701 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure – specifically applies to "The Reduction of Termination of Community Supervision Period," which Salazar was granted shortening his seven-year probation to five, not to the conviction. The felony conviction stands.

When Salazar applied for the BISD legal counsel position, he claimed he had not been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude, theft being listed among some of those crimes.

By contrast, if someone applied to work at the district and was found to have been convicted of such a crime, they would not be hired. And if they did not disclose a conviction, they would be subject to immediate termination. Will the board members do the right thing?