De Leon reindicted again

Former Cameron County District Attorney Yolanda de Leon has been reindicted for a third time on 10 counts of tampering with governmental records.

The new indictment handed down Wednesday replaces the other indictments from July and September.

The latest indictment states that de Leon intended to "defraud or harm another, namely, Armando Villalobos."

Although Villalobos, the county's district attorney, had been named as the victim in the original indictment, his name was removed in the second indictment and has been inserted back into the third.

"There's no crime that's been committed here," said defense attorney Israel Cano III during Thursday's hearing, in which a motion to disqualify the District Attorney's Office from trying the case was to be heard. "They are just trying to make it fit like square peg in a round hole."

However, the hearing was postponed because of the new indictment. De Leon trial is set to begin Nov. 17.

"I am surprised that the attorneys, for defendant Yolanda De Leon, do not realize that superseding indictments in a criminal case are commonplace," Chief First Assistant District Attorney Charles E. Mattingly Jr. said in a written statement. "The defense is desperate and has resorted to grasping at straws.

"The facts regarding De Leon's criminal conduct have never changed," Mattingly added. "De Leon has always been accused of the same criminal offenses. All that has been done is to narrow the issues for trial."

The indictments come after information was allegedly released by DeLeon before the March primary election to District Attorney candidate Peter Zavaletta relating to the district attorney's handling of formal complaints of sexual and other abuse of children. The District Attorney claims that the information is confidential.

That information was used in political advertisements that appeared in 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The information belonged to the Cameron County's Child Advocacy Center and is not for publication, District Attorney Armando Villalobos said in a previous interview.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."

Zavaletta was to be indicted also, but his name was removed because he agreed to be a witness in the case. He also entered a pre-trial diversion agreement with the Cameron County District Attorney's Office.

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 proper exercise of First Amendment rights.