Willacy County grand jury indicts VP Cheney

RAYMONDVILLE — A Willacy County grand jury indicted several high-profile public officials Monday including Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.

The indictment charges Cheney with illegally profiting, by virtue of his office, from $85 million in investments in the Vanguard Group. The group invests in companies that house federal detainees. He also is charged with exerting pressure on how much prisons are paid to house detainees.

The vice president's office has so far declined to comment.

"I haven't seen the indictment," Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell said Tuesday, indicating that it would be reviewed.

The indictment also alleges Gonzales used his position to stop investigations into assaults committed in a private prison managed by The GEO Group Inc. in Willacy County.

GEO, formerly Wackenhut Corrections Corp., was also indicted on murder charges involving the 2001 death of an inmate killed in a Raymondville prison. The indictment accuses GEO of allowing inmates to beat to death Gregorio De La Rosa Jr., 33, of Laredo, using padlocks stuffed into socks.

"There are a lot of wild things in the (Rio Grande) Valley, but this is by far the wildest," GEO attorney David Oliveira said of the latest accusations.

"It's crazy," he added.

Outgoing Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra dismissed a three-count indictment against GEO earlier this month because it was improperly filed.

Lucio is charged with profiting from public office when he acted as a consultant for Management and Training Corp., CorPlan Corrections, Aguirre Inc., Hale Mills Corp., TEDSI Infrastructure Group Inc., and Dannenbaum Engineering Corp. The indictment against Lucio reflects he would not have been paid consulting fees were it not for his public office.

"This is not the first time that Guerra has attempted to turn the justice system into a circus," Lucio's attorney Michael R. Cowen said in a written statement. The first time, Cowen said, was last year when Guerra camped in front of the courthouse in a trailer with three goats, a chicken and a horse after his office was searched as part of a criminal investigation.

"In a recent court proceeding, presiding District Judge J. Manuel Bañales stated, ‘These kinds of cases have made Willacy County the laughing stock of the state and the nation,'" Cowen said.

The grand jury also indicted 103rd state District Judge Janet Leal and 197th state District Judge Migdalia Lopez. Former Willacy County special prosecutors Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Gustavo Garza and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano were also indicted.

All five are accused of abusing their offices in actions surrounding an investigation into Guerra's office.

"I didn't indict these people. The grand jury did," Guerra said of the 12-member panel that reviewed the evidence during a four-month period.

Lozano was not surprised by the indictments.

"Guerra had made comments that he was going out (of office), but that he was going to take several officials with him," Lozano said. "I know that he has made comments that I am in his hit list."

Guerra lost a fourth bid for the district attorney's office in this year's March Democratic primary and is set to vacate the office at the end of the year.

"Now, with only a few weeks left in his term, Mr. Guerra has again chosen to misuse his position in an attempt to seek revenge on those who he sees as political enemies," Lucio attorney Cowen said.

Guerra, meanwhile, asserts there is no law that prohibits him from presenting cases involving his office and that the grand jury reviewed the position he holds rather than reviewing him personally.

"Corruption is out of control," he added, from the highest to the lowest levels in government.

GEO attorney Oliveira said he plans to file a motion to set aside the indictment against his client. He expected a hearing today before Bañales, the Fifth Judicial District's administrative judge, at the Willacy County Courthouse.

"Could it be that the corruption is so much that it is spilling over to the little counties, like Willacy County?" he said.

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Emma Perez-Treviño is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.