ATKINSON CASE: OPENING ARGUMENTS, PINK APE ON STAND

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

By 2013, federal prosecutors in the Brownsville U.S. Ass. Attorney General's Office learned that an ad agency owner – Rodrigo Moreno of Pink Ape Media – was in the country illegally.

More importantly, they knew that Moreno had managed the campaigns of several candidates to city, county, and state elective office and of other office holders including some in the Brownsville Independent School District.

They offered him protection from deportation through a S Visa to serve as an undercover FBI informant, through which he obtained legal resident status and hopes eventually to obtain legal residency and one day U.S. citizenship. (Local defense attorneys refer to this the S Visa as the "Snitch" visa).

In return, he was to record the conversations of some BISD candidates, including those with Dr. Sylvia P. Atkinson. 

As a result of those recordings, a federal grand jury indicted Atkinson in December 2019 on eight counts of bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery and violation of the state travel act bribery statute. If convicted, she faces up to 45 years in prison and a fine that could total $2 million, in addition to any funds subject to forfeiture. 

Some of the meeting he recorded included Atkinson discussing the purchase of tablets by the Rio Hondo school district, finding ways to market an independent movie Moreno produced and which she co-financed with Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez and accepting the $10,000 bribe.

The film – not a movie, mind you – was said to have cost $750,000 to produce. Where did the money come from? Atkinson's 30 percent would come to some $225,000. Who were the other investors? Mendez, now the mayor of Brownsville? Local doctors?

She is accused of placing an item to further the scheme related to the movie on the BISD agenda – and advocating for her fellow school board trustees to approve it and voted for it – in exchange for $10,000. She was arrested in December 2019 after the FBI conducted a sting operation.

Atkinson pleaded not guilty and took the case against her to trial.

Moreno testified for about six hours Monday to a jury composed of eight women and four men.

Moreno recorded meetings with Atkinson. Prosecutors said he recorded Atkinson discussing the purchase of tablets by the Rio Hondo school district, finding ways to market an independent movie she co-financed with Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez and accepting the $10,000 bribe. His film, “The Whole,” which was shot in Brownsville, won indie film awards, and Atkinson was an investor with a 30 percent stake, he testified.

The case is being heard by a jury of seven women and five men, which has been semi-sequestered due the COVID-19 pandemic. The case is set for 10 days before U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr.

Pink Ape Media became involved in campaign advertising for political candidates including former BISD Board President Cesar Lopez, and Atkinson during her 2016 run for the BISD.

The case also involves the Rio Hondo Independent School District, where Atkinson worked as an assistant superintendent, that district’s purchase of tablet computers in 2015, Pink Ape’s preparation of a Power Point presentation for Jaime Escobedo of American Security Systems, a vendor, and Atkinson’s alleged role in proof reading the presentation and guiding American Security through the bidding process.

This morning the audience in the courtroom was a veritable Who's Who of the top tier of BISD administrators, some of them placed in those cushy positions when Atkinson was the director of Human Resources. Besides helping Mendez get elected, she also pushed for the candidacies of sitting board members Minerva Peña, Drue Brown, Dr. Prisci-Roca Tipton, and others.

Do they hear footsteps?  

Testimony continues today.