IS GARZA ENDANGERING FEDERAL PRISONER CONTRACT?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

A growing number of incidents involving federal prisoners under the custody of the Cameron County Sheriff's Department is leading some county staffers to worry that the contract between the county and the federal government to house its prisoners may be in peril.

The incidents range from a federal inmate alleged to be a cartel hit man escaping from custody one lone deputy from the Harlingen County Annex after the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Fugitive Task Force handed him over to the sheriff's department to taking federal inmates for medical care using only one deputy.

With only four months in office, the administrative and operational actions by Sheriff Eric Garza and his Chief Deputy Robert Gracia has many local observers scratching their heads at the managing of department personnel.

"The federal people are not pleased," said a department staffer. "The Marshal's Office didn't like the fact that they had to come back and recapture the inmate after they had placed him in the county's custody. These are serious decisions and violate the federal-county contract. Is there anyone serious in charge?" 

At the time that the fugitive escaped, there were only four units on patrol and the one deputy from whom he escaped was alone in the Harlingen, area, sources say, and was awaiting backup from the unit at Los Fresnos.

The prisoner, whose name has not been released, is of Puerto Rican descent who came to Cameron County – according to law enforcement sources – to execute a hit on an undisclosed target, was a federal inmate. 

The federal agents reportedly placed him in the custody of the sheriff and he apparently escaped wearing handcuffs when he fled from the Harlingen building. 

According to county sources, the sheriff's contractual obligation call for at least two deputies to be present when transporting a federal inmate. They say that recent events show that federal officials have already expressed their displeasure over the department to live up to the contract. 

The recent department incident includes a report last Saturday from a Harlingen trailer park where a tipster reported that there were several people under the control of human smugglers and that the lag of response by the sheriff's department necessitated the assistance of the Border Patrol because of the shortage of patrol officers.

As a result, they said, by the time the officers and agents arrived about two hours after the call, the alleged human traffickers an their victims were gone. 

The shortage of officers on patrol is partly a result of the department claiming its constitutional purview to provide courthouse security despite the county commissioners having established a budget hiring 15 deputies and placing them under Pct. 2 Constable Abel Gomez.

Upon taking over the department following his election in November, Garza set about making changes in the staff placements and hiring some of his campaign donors and supporters. The other important move was removing the courthouse security deputies under Gomez and replacing them with his own people.

Sources in the department say that Garza drafted patrol deputies, investigators, the entire civil process division, and K9 handling officers to cover the courthouse security duties. 

As the commissioners were getting ready to transfer the budget and personnel to the sheriff, Gomez asked that supervisor of the deputies, his former chief deputy Joseph Lopez, be returned to his office and not be included in the transfer, Garza flat out refused.

As a result of 445th District Judge Gloria Rincones dissolving the Temporary Restraining Order preventing Garza or any of his agents like Chief Deputy Gracia and Deputy Silverio Cisneros from taking over the court security duties of the 15 deputies, all of them were removed from their work 
sites and were placed under Gomez.

Now they are serving as security paid by the commissioners budget at the tax office, the JP courts, elections and other county facilities.

The upshot is that in taking deputies from their patrol and other duties to courthouse security will prevent Garza from fulfilling the contract to house and provide adequate custody for federal prisoners. 

Or he simply could have simply waited for the budget workshops for the 2021-2022 year to have the commissioners court place the courthouse security budget under his department through the budget amendment process.

Will push come to shove and the sheriff's budget take a hit if federal officials remove the prisoners and transfer them to another county for custody?