Fewer than a third of 2005 election fraud cases closed

McALLEN — Just three of the 10 election fraud cases stemming from the May 2005 election have been closed, more than a year and a half since those involved were indicted.

The most prominent case, a charge that Othal Eugene Brand Jr. paid for votes, was dismissed last year. Brand is the son of former McAllen mayor Othal Brand Sr. The man accused of aiding Brand Jr., Jose Eliseo Lopez, had one charge against him dropped, too. Lopez pleaded guilty to theft in the amount ranging from $1,500 to $20,000.

Juanita Sabala, the former La Joya city secretary, pleaded guilty in August last year to a lesser charge of signing an application for another’s mail-in ballot.

The remaining cases have been postponed numerous times, many at the request of Hidalgo County district attorney’s office so that they can be reviewed. All the while, accusations of political favoritism have cropped up in how the cases have been prosecuted.

“No politicians have been called to the carpet to see who hired who,” said Al Alvarez, attorney for defendants Gloria Barajas and Carmen Castillo. “It is very unfair to target the prosecution of minions when you have the powerful left out.”

For example, the district attorney’s office asked for a continuance last July for “further evaluation” in Castillo’s case, according to the court docket. A pretrial hearing has been set for November, almost two years after the December 2005 indictments.

Another case, that of Maria Guadalupe Garcia, has been transferred from County Court-at-Law No. 4 to County Court-at-Law No. 6. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for October.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra left a voice-mail message Friday saying he would not be available to comment on the cases until Monday and that he was not handling the cases personally.

UNUSUAL CHARGES

The politiquera system, in which political operatives facilitate voting for the elderly and other people, has long been criticized by those who view it not so much as lawful voter assistance intended to get out the vote, but rather as systematic exploitation of the most vulnerable voters as a means of stealing elections.

But charges against politicians are rare. It’s usually the campaign workers who get in trouble, says Alvarez, who as a young attorney worked for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. He says he rarely saw voting fraud cases prosecuted in the state, especially in cases in which elderly people had been helped to vote.

“It is very unusual for (prosecutors) to pick on people who are helping elderly vote,” he said. “In a democracy you don’t want to stymie people’s vote — you want to encourage them.”

While some may see the charges as a way to punish those who meddle with people’s votes, the state Democratic Party feels differ-ently. Laws in Texas were changed in 2003 to allow for family or people who live with someone who wants to mail in a ballot to help the person.

Democrats also filed a lawsuit trying to block the Texas attorney general from prosecuting politiqueras. In 2006, a U.S. district judge agreed with the Democrats and stopped the attorney general’s prosecution of politiqueras.

Michael J. Garza, who is defending Esmeralda Lara on charges of unlawful assistance to a voter, says the charges against his client are so rare they require him to move slowly.

“(The charges) are pretty unique,” he said. “You don’t see these type of filings a whole lot.”

Garza is also defending Elvira Rios, whose case has yet to go trial, and Garcia. Besides Brand Jr.’s case, Rios has received the most attention.

She was at District Attorney Guerra’s re-election party. Guerra denied knowing her at the time and said he knew nothing about her, according to The Monitor’s archives.

Rios had been implicated at one point by Lopez, who said she used him as a middleman with Brand Jr. However, Lopez later said he was lying when police first confronted him and he made statements implicating her.

DELAYS NOT POLITICAL

While some lawyers and some of the defendants in the cases have accused the district attorney’s office of playing politics with the cases, Garza feels the delays have more to do with the complexity of the cases.

“You want to be as thorough as possible” he said. And unlike other criminal cases in which physical evidence plays a large role, the cases against the politiqueras are heavily based on statements from witnesses.

The one case with overwhelming physical evidence was the Brand Jr. case. He was recorded agreeing to exchange votes for money with Lopez. He argued that he performed the transaction only to prove how easy it was to corrupt the voting system.

Since only three of the cases were related, it is unlikely the remaining ones will move quickly. And some of the lawyers involved have started filing motions to suppress evidence and motions for speedy trial. If a judge grants those orders, the cases likely could be dismissed.

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Andres R. Martinez covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.