Hidalgo County judge assigned to Yates case

Hidalgo County state District Judge Mario E. Ramirez Jr. has been assigned to hear the case against County Auditor Mark Yates, his attorney said on Friday.

Ramirez was assigned the case Thursday afternoon by Judge J. Manuel Bañales of Nueces County, who oversees the Fifth Ad-ministrative Judicial Region, said Yolanda De Leon, Yates’ attorney.

As of Friday afternoon, no date for the evidentiary hearing had been set, said De Leon and a court coordinator for Judge Ramirez.

Ramirez became judge of the 332nd state District Court in Hidalgo County in 1983 and has held this position since. He previously presided over the 93rd state District Court from 1981 to 1983.

He also served a County Court-at-Law judge in Hidalgo County.

Information pertaining to Yates’ case was to be forwarded to Ramirez, who would decide when to hear the case in Cameron County.

Although Yates’ case has been assigned to the 138th state District Court, which is overseen by Judge Arturo Cisneros Nelson, none of Cameron County’s judges can hear it because Yates was appointed to the position by them, authorities said.

De Leon, a former Cameron County District Attorney, filed a writ of habeas corpus on Yates’ behalf requesting the charges against him be dropped because he did not violate the government code stated on his arrest affidavit.

The code cited pertains to requests for competitive bids if the contract is for the construction, repair, or renovation of a structure, road, highway or other improvement or addition to real property.

Yates is accused of violating the competitive bidding process by renewing a health insurance plan without the consent of Com-missioners Court.

In the writ, De Leon is requesting an evidentiary hearing.

And although the affidavit/complaint for arrest contains an inaccurate date on which one of the witnesses was questioned, this is not enough to get the case through out of court on a technicality, said Austin attorney Jeff Boyd, who works with the Freedom of Information Foundation.

“It would still be valid,” Boyd said.

The date in question is “July 6, 2007,” which is when Miguel Sanchez, an investigator with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office questioned Human Resources/Civil Services Director Manuel Villarreal about the request for proposals regarding the insur-ance contract.

District Attorney Armando Villalobos said his office started working on the case in either January or February. Sanchez began his investigation on May 23, according to the arrest affidavit.

The contract in question is worth $1 million with United of Omaha Insurance.

Yates is not suspected of personally benefiting from the unauthorized renewal.

Yates was arrested at his office earlier this week where he was handcuffed and transported by sheriff’s deputies to the Carri-zalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito. He was arraigned on the charge and later released on a $2,500 personal recognizance bond.

Yates has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

Exactly who initiated the investigation is still in question. Villalobos said the request was made by the county’s legal division, while Richard Burst, the county’s legal counsel, denies the claim.

Instead, Burst said that Remi Garza, former administrative assistant for ex-County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa, turned over a packet of documents pertaining to the insurance contract to the district attorney’s office. Garza denied the claim and maintains that Hinojosa directed the county’s civil division turn over the documents to the district attorney’s office for review.