Willacy County DA Guerra voted out of office

RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County residents voted District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra out of office Tuesday, sending his two challengers into a runoff.

Bernard Ammerman, an assistant Cameron County district attorney, and Art Saenz, an attorney who runs a Harlingen law firm, will face off in a runoff April 8.

“Mission accomplished,” Saenz said late Tuesday. “We got Mr. Guerra out. We got what we wanted to do all along.”

Ammerman received 2,000 votes; 1,591 ballots were cast for Saenz, officials said.

Guerra trailed with 1,552 votes.

“I’m excited that the voters in Willacy County want an experienced candidate,” Ammerman said late Tuesday night. “I’m the only candidate with prosecution experience.”

Guerra, who could not be reached for comment, faced three felony indictments as he fought to hold onto the post he won in 1997.

“Now the voters have to decide what kind of DA’s office they want: a young man with a few years’ experience as a prosecutor or a mature person with 16 years as an attorney,” Saenz said.

In August 1991, county commissioners named Guerra, a former science teacher and businessman who grew up as a migrant farm worker, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of the district attorney.

From the start, critics charged Guerra failed to prosecute criminals and he was defeated in his first election bid, in 1992, by lawyer Gus Garza.

But Guerra defeated Garza in a rematch in 1996, and went on to be re-elected in hotly contested elections in 2000 and 2004 by drawing support from working-class residents.

Over the last year, Guerra was arrested, had those charges dismissed, and was then indicted.

He filed charges against his political rival Garza, Raymondville Police Chief Uvaldo Zamora, Chief Deputy David Martinez, Sheriff Larry Spence, District Clerk Gilbert Lozano and County Clerk Terry Flores.

Guerra was criticized when, in September, he recommended that a judge dismiss capital murder charges against an 18-year-old Lyford woman who was accused of killing her newborn son.

It’s been six months since Guerra presented a case to the grand jury, saying that he suspected that the grand jury would indict him.

Earlier this year, Guerra received a Bum Steer Award from Texas Monthly magazine, which ridiculed him for camping out on the courthouse lawn with a menagerie of farm animals.