Feds: Handy tried to bribe witness

McALLEN — A federal court has ordered Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy remain on 24-hour home lockdown and could send her to jail amid allegations she tried to bribe a witness in her ongoing criminal case.

Prosecutors said Handy offered $500 concert tickets to the family of an illegal immigrant who worked in her home days after she was indicted in connection with giving the woman a job.

It is the third time the commissioner has been accused of witness tampering since her arrest on charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and harboring illegal immigrants several months ago.

Handy’s attorney — Al Alvarez — denied that his client had done anything wrong during a court hearing Monday.

"It’s not a serious allegation," he said. "There was no exchange. There was no quid pro quo. There was no attempt to influence a witness."

FBI agents initially arrested Handy and her husband in April, saying they used taxpayer money to pay two women who were in the country illegally to perform housekeeping and babysitting services in their home. The commissioner allegedly put both on the payroll at her Precinct 1 office, even though neither did any actual work for the county.

Earlier this month, federal prosecutors identified a third purported servant — Beatriz Adriana Garcia Caudillo — in a superseding indictment against Handy issued Nov. 12.

Within two days of that document’s filing, the commissioner contacted Garcia’s sister and offered her tickets to a church fundraiser at which the Roma-based band Grupo Duelo was set to perform, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Rodriguez said Monday.

The woman turned her down, but was allegedly called twice more by Handy’s children who urged her to take the tickets. She had been listed on the government’s list of potential trial witnesses since August.

"(Handy) was making contact with specific people in regards to specific charges in the new indictment," Rodriguez said.

He made similar claims during the commissioner’s original arraignment in April, when he told a judge that the government intended to file further charges against her including those of tampering with witnesses.

The only additional counts that have emerged since then, though, are those of tax fraud and the allegations concerning Garcia.

But another witness in the Handy case — one of her former employees at the county’s Precinct 1 office — accused the commissioner in a civil lawsuit filed in April of firing her after learning she had been cooperating with FBI agents. A federal judge ultimately threw out that case, ruling that the alleged retribution constituted the basis for a criminal — not a civil — trial.

During Monday’s court hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos ordered the court’s pre-trial monitors to investigate Rodriguez’s claims and decide whether they would seek to revoke Handy’s $100,000 bond.

Until then, she said, the commissioner must submit to GPS monitoring and request court permission before leaving her Weslaco home.

Alvarez questioned the decision, pointing out that the judge set no timeline for how quickly the matter might be resolved and that federal prosecutors hadn’t actually asked her to change his client’s bond conditions.

"She’s a sitting county commissioner,’ he said. "She has constitutional obligations that she has to fulfill."

The confinement is not likely to affect her commissioner’s seat.

Handy has maintained her innocence on all the charges against her and is set to take her case before a jury in January.

If convicted, she could face up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.