Two more voter fraud cases dismissed

Hidalgo County Court-at-law Judge Jaime Palacios dismissed the case against Maria Helena Belasquez and Alicia Liscano Molina at the request of prosecutors who did not feel they had enough evidence to convince a jury of wrongdoing.

The decision comes five days after a similar case was dismissed against another politiquera, Gloria Barajas.

"They were not our investigations, and I didn't feel they would stand up before a jury," Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said.

An Hidalgo County grand jury indicted the women and six others in May 2005 with various forms of voter fraud connected to the McAllen elections, alleging they had unlawfully assisted elderly voters and may have influenced their ballots.

One of the defendants - Othal Eugene Brand Jr., son of former McAllen mayor Othal Brand Sr. -recorded conversations with another man who allegedly promised to secure 400 votes in exchange for $4,000.

Brand worked as a poll watcher for current Mayor Richard Cortez in a highly contested runoff race against former city commissioner Ric Godinez.

Barajas was a campaign worker in Godinez's camp. Belasquez and Molina also worked for candidates in the mayor's race

But when a judge dismissed charges against Brand Jr. in 2006, Barajas' attorney Al Alvarez felt sure the entire case would fall apart.

"Once they dismissed that case, I thought it was inevitable that the others would be dropped, too," he said. "From the very beginning, there was never any evidence."

Voter fraud cases can be notoriously difficult to prosecute, Guerra said, because the evidence is often circumstantial.

In this case, the investigation was conducted by the Texas attorney general's office but did not produce specific evidence linking the women to any crime, Guerra said.

"There's a very high standard of proof required by jurors (in voter fraud cases)," he said. "You can't just show evidence of irregularities. You have to show that the defendant was responsible."

So far, five of the nine indictments related to the McAllen elections have been dismissed, one of the defendants has pleaded guilty and the remaining three cases have bounced from court to court suffering numerous setbacks and delays.

In 2006, Attorney General Greg Abbott held up the Hidalgo County voter fraud case as an example of a successful voter fraud investigation that produced results.

His office did not return calls for comment Tuesday.
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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.