Two bailiffs fired after allegations of nepotism

EDINBURG — At least two state district court bailiffs have been fired because of nepotism allegations Hidalgo County District At-torney Rene Guerra raised last week.

Guerra met with county commissioners and the county auditor in a private executive session on Aug. 7 to discuss several county employees who he says had been hired by relatives. He pointed out a state law that prevents employees from working under blood relatives who are within three degrees of separation and in-laws who are within two degrees.

Guerra said he told County Auditor Ray Eufracio to freeze the payments of the employees in question.

He said his office is not investigating the allegations as a criminal matter and was merely passing along the information.

On Monday, he declined revealing the names of those employees whom he had discussed with the commissioners.

The Monitor called all 15 county and state judges in Hidalgo County on Monday.

Nine returned phone calls saying they had not been contacted by the county auditor and that they did not have relatives on their payroll.

Five did not return phone calls.

But state District Judge Rudy Delgado confirmed his bailiff’s paychecks were frozen.

The identity of the second bailiff could not be immediately confirmed.

However, the nepotism concerns reach across all county offices.

BAD BLOOD

Delgado hired his bailiff, Atanacio Gaitan, in 1992.

Gaitan then married Delgado’s sister in 1998.

The judge said he asked the Texas Ethics Commission in Austin at the time if there were any violations and it said there were not because Gaitan was hired before he became a relative.

“After 15 years how did it become an issue?” Delgado said.

The relationship between Delgado and Guerra has been frosty since 1990, when Guerra prosecuted Delgado on a misdemeanor assault charge. That charge was later dropped.

Since then the two have traded words over the jurisdiction of the courts and the way cases are handled.

The animosity between the two peaked in 2002, when Delgado was arrested on a DWI and evading arrest charge. Those charges were thrown out.

Delgado was then re-indicted on misuse of information and the evading arrest charge. Those have also been dismissed.

UNKNOWN BAILIFF

County spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht said that Eufracio would not disclose in which court the other bailiff worked.

She did say that the unknown judge preempted Eufracio and fired his bailiff after the nepotism questions had been raised about his bailiff in the executive session.

Eufracio also met with members of the human resources department Monday to design a survey that all county employees would receive with their next paycheck, Lambrecht said.

They will all be required to answer questions about whether they have any relatives in county government.

Eufracio and his office will then review whether any employees need to fired or reassigned.

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Andres R. Martinez covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com