Former Combes official pleads guilty to bribery

COMBES -- A former Combes alderwoman and her husband are among three individuals who pleaded pleaded guilty Friday to trying to bribe a state prosecutor investigating them on allegations of running illegal gambling parlors.

Karen Lamon Bell, 50, Jeffrey Dean Bell, 53, and Henry Edward Ingram, 69, entered their pleas before Cameron County state District Judge Migdalia Lopez.

Bryan Christopher Perdomo, 51, also appeared before the judge and pleaded guilty to a charge of engaging in organized criminal activity.

The group had been indicted earlier this year on multiple charges of bribery and engaging in organized criminal activity, according to Valley Freedom Newspapers archives.

In exchange for their guilty please, the remaining charges were dismissed.

Karen Bell was sentenced to six years probation, Jeffrey Bell to eight years probation, Ingram to five years probation and Perdomo to one year of probation.

Indictments were dismissed against Hortencia Reyes Gaona, 44, and Jorge Luis Gaona, 41, who also faced charges of bribery and engaging in organized criminal activity.

Jason Moody, a spokesman for the Cameron County district attorney's office, said the charges against the pair were dropped in exchange for their agreement to testify against the others should the group decide to rescind their guilty pleas.

Those who pleaded guilty are set to be sentenced Oct. 13.

The group had been accused of violations connected with illegal gambling machine parlors at the Purple Building Arcade in La Feria, the Mexican Buffet Arcade in San Benito and the Lucky Day Arcade in Santa Rosa, according the newspaper archives.

Their arrests in 2007 were the result of Operation Bell Bottom Blues, a crackdown by the district attorney's office on illegal eight-liner arcades in the Cameron County area.

That office's Special Operations Group had been focusing on game rooms in the county.