De Leon indicted

Former Cameron County District Attorney Yolanda de Leon has been indicted on charges of tampering with governmental records and perjury.

She appeared in a state District Court on Thursday afternoon to be arraigned on the charges, but her arraignment has been postponed for two weeks.

Defense attorney Mervyn M. Mosbacker Jr. asked Judge Abel Limas to delay the arraignment in order to discuss the case with the parties involved.

Limas agreed to the request and said he would issue a $5,000 personal recognizance bond on each indictment.

The first indictment charges her with 10 counts of tampering with governmental records. The second indictment has her charged with two counts of perjury.

A Cameron County grand jury handed down the indictments on Monday.

De Leon also has three pending misdemeanor charges for disclosure of confidential information to the public and perjury, officials from the district attorney's office said.

Jason Moody, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said De Leon's case would be treated in the same manner as other cases prosecuted by the district attorney's office.

The indictments come after confidential information was released to district attorney candidate Peter Zavaletta during the March primary election.

That information was used in political advertisements that appeared in several newspapers including The Brownsville Herald and the Valley Morning Star.

The information belonged to the Cameron County's Child Advocacy Center and is not for publication, District Attorney Armando Villalobos said in a previous interview.

Villalobos cited the state's family code on misuse of official information. The code states that "the files, reports, records, communications, and working paper used or developed in providing services under this chapter are confidential and not subject to public release."

Although a search warrant was executed at Zavaletta's office in March, he was never charged with any crime.

Zavaletta was to be indicted also, but Chief First Assistant Attorney Charles E. Mattingly Jr. requested that Zavaletta's name be removed from the indictment because he has agreed to be a witness in the case.

"We have reached an agreement. He is going to be a cooperative witness for the prosecution," Mattingly told Limas during Thursday's court preceding.

The district attorney's office declined to comment on the dismissal under a prior agreement with Zavaletta.

Outside the courtroom, De Leon declined to comment and referred questions to Mosbacker, who said. "I'm not going to comment on the charges at this time."

Zavaletta ran against Villalobos in the March 4 primary election.

In March, De Leon was named in a civil lawsuit to recover monetary damages in which she is accused of providing the same allegedly confidential information to Zavaletta.

Also named in the lawsuit are Zavaletta and Freedom Communications Inc., parent company of The Brownsville Herald and the Valley Morning Star.

Counsel for the Herald and the Star has defended publication of the political ads - and the disclosure of the district attorney's records on his handling of complaints - as a proper exercise of First Amendment rights.

In March, Villalobos confirmed that authorities were investigating board members for possibly sharing information provided to them by his office, including records that contain complaints of child abuse or neglect.