State rep, developer caught up in Island divorce case

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — A perfect storm of sex, money and politics has made landfall here, bringing with it the flotsam of two acrimonious divorces involving prominent Island residents.

State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, was subpoenaed earlier this summer to give a deposition in the divorce lawsuit of Sabrina Brashear against real estate developer and town Planning and Zoning Commissioner Clayton Brashear, 49.

Sabrina Brashear, 47, is an eighth-grade history teacher at St. Joseph Academy in Brownsville. She filed her divorce petition on Oct. 10, 2008, after 22 years of marriage.

Clayton Brashear is listed in the Cameron Appraisal District records as owning extensive real estate holdings in Brownsville and on the Island with an appraised value of $11.3 million, including one property at 7200 Padre Blvd. valued at $6.6 million.

Rios Ybarra, who is also a dentist with a practice in Brownsville, admitted in her Aug. 7 deposition that she is intimately involved with Clayton Brashear, who raised thousands of dollars for her state legislative campaign, to represent Texas House District 43. The district includes Cameron, Willacy, Jim Hogg, Brooks, Kenedy and Kleberg counties.

Rios Ybarra said that she and Clayton Brashear began an intimate relationship in February after months of friendship and after she had filed for divorce from her husband, physician Richard Joe Ybarra. That divorce petition was filed Dec. 17, 2008.

Richard Ybarra, 51, declined to comment on the record about Rios Ybarra’s deposition but said he is aware of its contents. He was "knocked cold" when he was served with the divorce papers, he said.

He added that he will not vote for his estranged wife if she seeks re-election to the Texas House and will actively support a challenger, "with integrity" to represent Texas House District 43.

When contacted earlier this month, Rios Ybarra said that she does not believe that her relationship with Clayton Brashear, who has extensive beachfront real estate holdings in her district, is a conflict of interest and that her personal life does not "overlap" with her public duties.

She also said she does not believe that admissions she made in her deposition about her involvement with Clayton Brashear will harm her re-election chances.

"I think we should stay focused on our accomplishments rather than engage in personal attacks," she said.

Voters will need to decide if the behavior of an elected official is ethical or acceptable, Anthony Knopp, history professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Brownsville said Friday.

Political fundraising is a fact of life, Knopp said.

"Obviously, candidates have to raise funds from a variety of sources," he said. The issue is whether the money raised makes the candidate "beholden to the contributors."

Clayton Brashear did not return several telephone calls, including messages left at the Island Planning and Zoning Commission office, seeking comment from him.

When contacted Aug. 21, Sabrina Brashear said, "I’ve been married to (Clayton Brashear) for 22 years. I’ve helped him become successful.

"He’s never voted Democratic in his life," she said. "I don’t understand it.

"Now he took money from our friends and friends of our friends to contribute to (Rios Ybarra’s) election campaign."

"This woman doesn’t deserve to be a representative," she said. "He went on trips to Mexico (with Rios Ybarra) while I taught summer school to pay our daughter’s (college) tuition because he wouldn’t pay it," she said.

Sabrina Brashear added, "My children can’t be hurt any more than they have been."

In response to questions from Sabrina Brashear’s attorney, Rios Ybarra stated in the deposition that she did not commit adultery because she had filed for divorce before she began an intimate relationship with Clayton Brashear. She also stated in the deposition that she is in love with him but does not plan to marry him.

Rios Ybarra, 37, said that her husband was often away from home, dividing his time between the Island and his work at hospitals in Houston. She said that the emotional relationship between her and her husband ended in 2005 and he was not surprised when she filed for divorce.

She said during the deposition that it was during the summer of 2008 that she first discussed with Clayton Brashear the possibility of divorcing her husband.

Under Texas family law, Rios Ybarra was deposed because a party to a divorce can submit evidence that could influence the division of community property, attorney Marty Morris said. Morris is an associate of Sabrina Brashear’s attorney, Katie Pearson Klein, who was not available for comment.

Morris said that a deposition could show if a party to a divorce was inappropriately using marital property by such activities as taking a girlfriend to dinner, on vacations, and entertaining her family, using money that was also an asset of a spouse. A judge, he said, could consider these factors to decide if one spouse is to blame for the divorce and if the other spouse is then entitled to more than half of the community property.

In her deposition, Rios Ybarra said that she first met Clayton Brashear while she was an alderwoman for the town of South Padre Island, and that he was a supporter and contributor to her re-election campaign for alderwoman. She said that he donated between $20,000 and $25,000 for her state election campaign and raised thousands of dollars more from other contributors.

She said that Texans for Lawsuit Reform donated more than $25,000 to her state campaign. She also said that she could not remember exact amounts or the names of contributors, but the information is available on her campaign finance reports, which are public record.

Clayton Brashear was not a campaign manager nor did he hold any other position on her campaign staff, she said.

Rios Ybarra also stated in her deposition that she and Clayton Brashear have taken several vacations or weekend trips together since her divorce filing, sometimes with her children, who are 4 and 7 years old. However, the two split expenses and did not sleep together when her children were present, she said.

The vacations included a trip to Disney World in March, she said, where they had adjoining rooms at their hotel. Clayton Brashear had asked to accompany her and her children, she said, and he made the reservations, and charged one room to her credit card, she said.

Rios Ybarra said that on a weekend trip to the Texas Hill Country, she paid for one night at a hotel, Clayton Brashear paid for the second night, and she paid for her children’s meals and other expenses for them.

In July, she and Clayton Brashear went to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, each paying their airfare and splitting the cost of the resort hotel, she said.

For a trip to San Miguel de Allende a week later, Rios Ybarra said that she paid for Clayton Brashear’s bus ticket and they stayed at the home of a friend. On another occasion during the summer, she said they spent a weekend in Monterrey, again splitting the costs.

Later in the deposition, Rios Ybarra said that Clayton Brashear told her he did not have enough money to do the things he wanted to do, including purchasing a new truck, and that he had lost money with the decline in value of his real estate holdings. In response to the lower real estate values, Rios Ybarra said they stayed at less expensive hotels when they traveled on weekends.

Clayton Brashear also visited her several times in Austin during this year’s legislative session, Rios Ybarra said. While she had not stayed at his hotel, she said that he stayed once or twice at an apartment she rented in Austin.

Rios Ybarra also said that she has met Brashear’s two teenage children and has a good relationship with them. On one occasion, Brashear’s teenage daughter spent the day with her at the Capitol during the session, she said. She said that Clayton Brashear had taken her father deer hunting in the fall of 2008.

Also in her deposition in response to questions from Sabrina Brashear’s attorney, Rios Ybarra said that she and Clayton Brashear had had lunch in Rancho Viejo with state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, and his chief of staff Paul Cowen sometime after the March 2008 primary election. She said that the state senator told her privately that he did not like Clayton Brashear.

Lucio’s office confirmed this conversation with Rios Ybarra.

In response to other questions from the attorney, Rios Ybarra said that following Hurricane Dolly in July 2008, Clayton Brashear loaned her a generator and supervised repairs to her home. The appraisal district

values Rios Ybarra’s home at 5905 Tropical Drive on South Padre Island at $392,640. She said that she gave Clayton Brashear the check from the insurance company and told him that only that amount of money could be spent on repairs. She did not specify the amount she received from the insurance company to repair hurricane damage, and said that she did not know if he spent more than the amount of the check.

Sabrina Brashear’s attorney questioned Rios Ybarra about a process server’s unsuccessful attempts to serve her with the subpoena ordering the deposition. Rios Ybarra said that she was "scared" when a process server came to her house. She said that she did not remember denying her identity to the process server or whether the process server tried to give her any papers.

She said that a man walked into the back yard while she was there with Clayton Brashear and she asked the man to leave.

Rios Ybarra admitted in her deposition that she instructed the staff at her dental office on one occasion to tell a process server that she was busy and could not accept the subpoena. On another occasion, she told them to say that she was not in the office. She also said that there were several attempts to serve the subpoena at her office.

Jason Moody, the spokesman for the Cameron County District Attorney, speaking in general terms and not about the subpoena in this case, said that when a subpoena is issued, an attorney can seek, on behalf of his client, to quash it.

"The lawyers know what to do," Moody said Friday.

However, if a person being subpoenaed avoids accepting service, the attorney who issued it can seek a writ of attachment and the person who has been avoiding the process server could be arrested.

An elected public official would not be treated differently than an ordinary private citizen, he said.

Rios Ybarra said that she did not remember details from the time that she was an alderwoman of the town’s purchase of land owned by Clayton Brashear that is located next to the World Birding Center property.

She also stated that she did not remember the names of all the other aldermen who served on board with her, nor any legal action that was taken relating to the town’s purchase of the land. But she said in response to the attorney’s questions that aldermen’s votes on any matters that could have benefited Brashear were in the best interest of the town. She said that her friendship and association with Clayton Brashear did not influence her votes, nor did he seek to influence her votes as an alderwoman or a state representative.

In addition to deposing Rios Ybarra, court filings show that Sabrina Brashear’s attorney also subpoenaed Clayton Brashear’s bank records from First Community Bank, IBC Bank, Capital One Bank, First National Bank of Brownsville, South Padre Bank and Lone Star National Bank.

Court records show that Clayton Brashear’s attorney filed motions to reduce the amount of money he was ordered to pay in temporary support for his wife and children, arguing that Sabrina Brashear has her own income.

The court ordered him to pay his daughter’s college tuition and other expenses, and to pay $5,000 per month to his wife for her expenses and to support their son.

In response, Sabrina Brashear’s attorney filed a motion, asking the court to order him to sell his boat and a car, which the motion said were being used by "a female friend" and were "not essential and/or luxury items."

In an inventory of personal and marital assets, Clayton Brashear listed a "used wedding ring," valued at $1,500. He also listed his daughter’s 2004 Porsche Boester, his son’s 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, as well as a 2004 Jeep Wrangler, 2005 Porsche Cayenne and a 18-foot Dargel boat with outboard motor.

He listed various real estate holdings on the Island, including 7200 Padre Blvd. with a fair market value of "plus or minus $3 million;" 2400 Gulf Blvd. with a fair market value of $1.2 million; property at Seahorse Harbor Marina, valued at $1.3 million; and another property at Gulf Boulevard valued at $5 million. He also listed two loans for $3.3 million and $2.5 million.

Court filings also show that Sabrina Brashear was granted exclusive use of the family home at 4500 Salida del Sol in Brownsville, which is valued at $750,000. Her attorney filed a motion stating that Clayton Brashear had repeatedly asked to stay in the pool house at the home, and then "harassed" his wife when she told him that he could stay there.

Rios Ybarra and her husband each listed among their assets a condominium at the Four Seasons in Houston, valued at $220,000, as well as their house at Tropical Avenue. Ybarra also owns a condominium at 334 Padre Blvd. valued at $430,000 that he owned prior to his 1999 marriage to Rios Ybarra. They also jointly own commercial property on Pease Street and Ed Carey Drive in Harlingen. The latter is the location of Ybarra’s urgent care clinic.

Rios Ybarra is seeking rent from that commercial property, valued at $500,000, because Ybarra’s clinic business was created after their marriage. She also stated in her inventory statement that her dental practice is solely her property since she opened it before they were married, and did not disclose its approximate value.

Other marital properties that Ybarra and Rios Ybarra listed are a 2007 Porsche Carrera, 2005 Toyota Prius, 2002 Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a 1979 sailboard, and a 2005 Chevrolet Suburban. Ybarra valued the Porsche at $90,000. He also stated that he has a Cartier watch valued at $10,000.

Ybarra’s court-ordered monthly payments to Rios Ybarra for herself and their children were reduced from $10,000 to $8,000, court records show. He was also ordered to pay $25,000 in delinquent taxes and interest to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for under-reported income on the couple’s 2005 joint federal tax return. In her asset statement, Rios Ybarra said her husband’s income is more than five times as much as she earns.

Rios Ybarra listed monthly expenses that included a $3,030 mortgage payment, $500 for real estate taxes, $400 phone bill, a $1,025 car payment, $200 for children’s clothing, $1,200 for the children’s school tuition, $225 for hair care and cosmetics, and $900 for entertainment and vacations.

Other monthly expenses that Rios Ybarra listed include $435 for student loan payments and $1,600 for air travel for the children to see their father.

Clayton Brashear’s attorney filed a motion on Aug. 24, seeking to seal the contents of Rios Ybarra’s deposition.

A judge has ordered the Brashears’ divorce to mediation.

The Ybarras’ divorce is set for trial on Sept. 28.