$250,000 IN CASH, MONEY ORDERS, LEFT IN BOX BY EX-DISTRICT CLERK ADMIN, NEW SHERIFF DEPT. ADMINISTRATOR

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Azteca Valle, KRGV 5-2's investigative reporter Enrique Lerma is reporting that when Ricardo Cornejo left the Cameron County District Clerk's Office to become chief administrator for his former boss and now Cameron County Sheriff Eric Garza, he left a box in his former office containing $500 cash and about $250,000 in money orders.

Lerma said that he had gotten confirmation on the cache of loot in the office from District Clerk Laura Reyes-Perez  and said the money orders dated back for more than a decade. 

He said county officials could not determine where the cash and money orders came from or whether they may have been payments for county fines, services, or perhaps even child support withheld for an unknown reason.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño knows about the discovery of the money, but protested that he was unaware of the find until Lerma confronted him on the matter.

Garza made Cornejo chief administrator of the Sheriff's Dept. and hired him on the last day for applications and before any applicants were interviewed for the advertised position. Garza has been criticized for hiring top administrative personnel and paying lip service to the Human Resource hiring process.

Cornejo's hiring by the sheriff's department as its chief administrator was announced on the last day of the application period while a goodbye party was held at the district clerk's office.

Now, who will investigate the proceeds of the cash and money orders? The sheriff's department?

(After this post appeared, we were informed the case is been handled by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office. We are awaiting a response from that office.) 

Lerma says he will have a full report on the story as soon as the Cameron County Auditor's Office  releases its report today.

Garza's first four months on his four-year term have been filled with scandal and apparent malfeasance. A sergeant in the department has filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging massive violations of department personnel First Amendment rights and claims there has been retaliation against them for having supported former sheriff Omar Lucio against Lerma.

He has also been sued by the Cameron County Commissioners Court for unilaterally rescinding a Memorandum Of Understanding between the court and the former sheriff that budgeted the commissioners' courthouse security fund and 15 deputies and bailiffs under Pct. 2 Constable Abel Gomez. He is said to have sent his personnel and ordering them to report to his office and not to Gomez on pain of termination.

This latest scandal comes on the heels of the commissioners lawsuit last week for trying to enforce his authority over the deputies and ignoring the budget amendment process and authority of the commissioners court to place the courthouse security fund under an official of their choice.