ELSA — Edcouch-Elsa schools officials are expected to ask trustee Manuel “Manny” Hernandez Jr. to step down after his second arrest in less than three weeks.

But if the 29-year-old Elsa resident refuses, he will likely maintain his seat on the board despite his legal problems, board President Juan Jose Ybarra said Wednesday.

“Obviously, we need to do something,” he said. “It’s pretty sad, but it’s hard to evict a board member.”

Hernandez, a former Elsa municipal judge, has been plagued by accusations of domestic abuse and drug use over the past two years.

On Tuesday, he was arrested during a physical altercation with his mother that broke out about 8 p.m. at a home on the 800 block of North Extrumberto Solis. He showed up at the home intoxicated and began threatening violence against family members, police say.

Officers took him into custody at his mother’s request, to defuse the situation, but she did not wish to press charges against him, Elsa police Chief Jesus Mariscal Jr. said.

“He kept yelling that he was running for mayor and he would fire us when he got elected,” he said.

Though they planned to follow the mother’s request to not press charges, officers discovered Hernandez was carrying a small amount of cocaine and charged him with possession of a controlled substance, Mariscal said.

Less than a month earlier, Hernandez was charged with felony counts of assault and burglary stemming from an alleged break-in at an ex-girlfriend’s house. The woman sustained bruises to her head and face during an argument about him climbing through her kitchen window, police said. He was out of jail on a $10,000 bond from that case at the time of Tuesday’s alleged attack.

Hernandez also faced misdemeanor family violence charges from a similar incident in 2006, but it is not clear whether that case involved the same woman.

Word of Hernandez’s purported behavior only damages the reputation of a school district still rebuilding after the 2006 arrest of then school board President Aaron Luis Gonzalez on racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty in June 2006 to one count of extorting home repairs, trips to Las Vegas and cash payments in exchange for his vote on district construction contracts. He still awaits sentencing in his case.

District officials plan to ask for Hernandez’s resignation at an emergency school board meeting scheduled for next week, Ybarra said. But unlike Gonzalez’s case, Hernandez has not violated any of the state education code’s criteria for the forced removal of a board member. School board trustees can only be removed for incompetence, official misconduct, alcohol intoxication or conviction on felony charges, the code states.

Hernandez’s legal problems could also complicate his path to higher elected office. Although no registration papers have been filed yet, community members say Hernandez has made it known he plans to run for mayor in next year’s election.

But the police chief is not worried about the alleged threats Hernandez made during his arrest.

“We arrest people all the time that say they’re going to run for office and fire us all,” he said. “This guy is just a loud mouth.”

As of Wednesday night, Hernandez remained in the Hidalgo County jail in lieu of a $10,000 bond.

Ybarra, for one, said he hopes Hernandez stays there.

“The district doesn’t have time to hang its head,” he said. “We just have to keep trekking on.”

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts, law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.