DeLeon resigns from board of advocacy center

Former Cameron County District Attorney Yolanda De Leon has resigned from the board of directors of Cameron County's Child Advocacy Center.

De Leon tendered her resignation last week, said William Peacock, chairman of the board of directors, for Monica's House and Maggie's House, whose parent organization is the Child Advocacy Center.

De Leon has served on the board since 2000 as a member. According to Brownsville Herald archives, De Leon is the founder of the advocacy center.

This month, she was named in a civil lawsuit that accuses her of providing confidential information to former district attorney candidate Peter Zavaletta that was used in a political advertisement against District Attorney Armando Villalobos.

The confidential information belonged to the advocacy center and was not for publication, Villalobos said, citing the state's family code on misuse of official information. The code states that "the files, reports, records, communications, and working papers used or developed in providing services under this chapter are confidential and not subject to public release."

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 the publication of the political ads as a proper exercise of First Amendment rights.

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

Peacock declined to discuss the contents of De Leon's resignation letter on Wednesday, saying he wanted to present it to the board of directors first. The board's next meeting is in April.

Although the board is concerned about what has happened, they have not been updated on an ongoing criminal investigation into the release of the confidential information, Peacock said.

"The political part is not our business. ... We are there to advocate for the children" and their rights, Peacock said.

The Cameron County Children's Advocacy Center serves young victims of child abuse. It provides legal, psychological, social and medical services to abused children. It is funded through grants, donations, civic organizations and juror and court fees. The records in question are used to garner grant money.

Following Villalobos' win on March 4, his office executed a search warrant at the Zavaletta Law Firm in search of records used in the advertisement.

That day, Zavaletta signed a statement explaining that De Leon had provided the documents.

In the statement, Zavaletta states that on Feb. 21 De Leon told him she had documents "showing a large number of dismissals in cases involving offenses against children." De Leon told Zavaletta that she would provide him with the information, but some of it would have to be "redacted."

The conversation occurred at an annual Shrimp Fest held in Harlingen that the two attended, according to Zavaletta's statement.

Zavaletta also states that "at no time did Mrs. De Leon ever mention that the information was confidential or that the information could not be used in an add."

The information was dropped off at Zavaletta's office the following day.

When asked Thursday to comment on Zavaletta's statement, De Leon said, "I believe this is a subject of the litigation and I will refer all media questions to the attorneys handling the litigation."

"If that is (Zavaletta's) statement, it is inaccurate," said Israel Cano III, attorney for De Leon.

Cano added, "We look forward to vigorously defending against this meritless lawsuit."

Zavaletta said some of the information on the documents were blacked out. "Mrs. De Leon wanted to make sure that the information that was redacted in the first page of the documents were redacted throughout the entire document. I was under the impression that Mrs. De Leon was attempting to hide the identity of the source of information," Zavaletta said in his statement.

Also in his statement, Zavaletta said the information appeared to contain the name of the actual victims and that he had his secretary work on the documents so the victim information could be redacted.

Further in his statement, Zavaletta said De Leon told Peacock "that in her experience as a former district attorney, the information was not confidential."

As of Thursday, no charges had been filed in connection with the criminal inquiry. Villalobos said the investigation is ongoing.