Handy says she broke the law unintentionally

McALLEN — From the day she was led in front of a federal judge last year in handcuffs, former Hidalgo county commissioner Sylvia Handy has denied knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants in either her home or her government office.

Even as she resigned her position and pleaded guilty to tax fraud and conspiracy charges, she insisted she broke the law unintentionally.

But now, a group of Handy’s former domestic servants and county employees are calling her a liar.

Since at least 1999, the erstwhile elected official knew she had illegal housekeepers and babysitters working in her home and orchestrated a scheme to pay their salaries by securing them fake county jobs, according to a series of affidavits from nine men and women who were prepared to testify against her if her case had gone to trial.

Federal prosecutors included their testimony last week along with a series of allegedly damning audio recordings as part of a publicly filed memorandum in advance of her June 23 sentencing.

The documents present the fullest picture of Handy’s alleged wrongdoing since a federal grand jury handed down its original indictment against her in 2009. And the portrait they paint is unflattering.

While Handy clung to the image of an upright government steward in public, in private she was allegedly:

Loaning money to her undocumented household help to purchase fake identities.

Fabricating work histories for them at her family’s businesses so they could secure jobs in her Precinct 1 office.

Explaining to legitimate county workers that she needed to put these women on the government payroll because she couldn’t afford their incomes out of her own pocket.

Claiming she could manipulate the court system to protect anyone willing to lie about her involvement and take the fall for her.

"Ms. Handy asked me to lie to the FBI and tell them that (she) did not know I was illegally in the United States and that I had worked illegally under three different names," states the affidavit of Beatriz Garcia, one of the women Handy is accused of illegally hiring. "She convinced me that I should take the blame because … I would only get probation.

"If they found out she had something to do with it, she would go to jail."

UNUSUAL MOVE

The release of these affidavits is unusual both in their scope and their public availability.

Typically, pre-sentence negotiations in federal court are conducted under court-ordered seal. But in Handy’s case, much of that back-and-forth between prosecutors and her defense has occurred in open filings.

Since her re-arraignment hearing in March, the former commissioner’s continued insistence that she did nothing wrong has angered government lawyers and the FBI agents who originally investigated her case.

The government sentencing memorandum filed May 21 presents the fullest picture of Handy’s alleged wrongdoing since a federal grand jury handed down its original indictment against her in March.

And in the eyes of Handy’s defense lawyer, filing these affidavits was a calculated move on the part of the government to further tarnish his client’s reputation.

"It’s unusual," attorney Al Alvarez said. "This whole thing — from the time they charged it — has been unusual. They limit the charge to unlawfully harboring an alien and they’ve always wanted to make it something bigger than that."

AFFIDAVITS

Although she is accused of paying as many as five undocumented domestic servants from 1999 to 2007, Handy only pleaded guilty to illegally hiring one: Garcia.

The former commissioner has claimed in court not to have known the woman had no legal right to work in the country until well after Garcia had resigned her government job.

But according to Garcia’s affidavit, Handy was aware of her lack of legal status from the beginning.

"Ms. Handy knew I was an illegal alien … because I was going to get hired under another person’s name," the document states. "She asked me what false name I was going to use."

While Garcia performed duties as an actual government maintenance employee, she also got paid with county money for working in Handy’s home, she said. Others allege they never did any actual government work.

Maria de los Angeles Hernandez, one of Handy’s co-defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges last year , said that she worked in Handy’s home from January to June 2005 and only received payment in the form of Hidalgo County paychecks issued to two fake identities.

At one point, "Ms. Handy gave me a promotion … so that I could earn enough money to make monthly payments on a $50,000 loan (she) had with First National Bank," she said. "I made monthly payments on this loan from September 2004 to February 2007 instead of paying rent on a house in Mercedes that (she) had rented to me and my family."

The commissioner allegedly told Adelina Viveros Contreras, who worked as Handy’s babysitter from 1999 until 2005, that she was putting her on the Precinct 1 payroll under the fake identity of Alicia Muñoz because she could not afford to pay her anymore.

Handy used the same name to claim a federal income tax credit for child care in 2006, which she has since admitted she did in error.

Prosecutors say the name was used to cover up the fact that she had hired an illegal immigrant as her babysitter and had never actually paid her out of her own pocket. Handy maintained at her March re-arraignment hearing that Alicia Muñoz was a woman who had taken care of her children before Viveros and that she had simply forgotten to update her tax information when filing her 2005 forms.

But Alicia Muñoz, a Los Fresnos resident, called Handy out on her story in a separate affidavit.

"I have never worked for or with an individual named Sylvia Handy," she said. "Until I was approached by the FBI, I had never even heard of an individual named Sylvia Handy."

COVER-UP

While managing this complex payment scheme for her domestic help, Handy allegedly had a group of county employees feverishly working to cover her tracks, the affidavits suggest.

"I helped Commissioner Handy with the unlawful employment … of at least (five) illegal aliens under other persons’ names," said former Precinct 1 Human Resources Director Maria Ybarra. "I helped (her) by falsifying time sheets, conducting sham interviews of people seeking the jobs that were acquired by illegal aliens and submitting paperwork dealing with the hiring and promotion of illegal aliens under the false names they were using."

While preparing job applications for the illegal workers, Handy instructed Ybarra to say the women had previously been employed at the commissioner’s Mid-Valley court reporting business or for her father’s Donna barbecue restaurant, according to her affidavit.

Ybarra said she went along with this scheme before ultimately losing her job in February 2009.

In a lawsuit filed shortly after the commissioner’s indictment, Ybarra claimed she was fired when Handy found out about her cooperation with the FBI investigation. The county paid her a $40,000 settlement earlier this year.

‘I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING’

But the most damaging words may come from Handy herself.

In addition to the affidavits, prosecutors submitted recordings of several conversations Handy had with witnesses and government employees in which she allegedly discusses her efforts to cover up her crimes.

Although a CD compilation was filed in the court’s public record, U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa declined this week to allow The Monitor access. The U.S. District Clerk’s Office could not provide a reason for his refusal.

But a portion of at least one of the recordings was played in open court in December during a hearing in which government lawyers sought to have Handy’s bond revoked for allegedly trying to influence witnesses.

On the tape, the commissioner pleads with a group of women — including three of her purported illegal servants — to lie to agents about the work they did in her home.

"The two bottom-line issues are that nobody ever worked here and got paid by the county," she is recorded as saying. "And that I don’t know anything."

Handy faces up to 10 years in prison at her sentencing hearing next month.