Visiting judge asked to hear Yates case

Cameron County state District Court Judge Arturo Cisneros Nelson has requested a visiting judge be assigned to hold an evidentiary hearing in the case against County Auditor Mark Yates.

Nelson contacted Judge J. Manuel Bañales of Nueces County, who oversees the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region, on Thursday asking a judge be assigned to the case.

Nelson expected Bañales to assign a judge either Thursday or today.

When a judge is assigned, the case information will be forwarded to the judge, Nelson said.

Yates is accused of violating the competitive bidding process for renewing an insurance contract without Commissioners Court approval.

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

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

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

An evidentiary hearing is requested in the writ.

Officials begin fingerpointing

Exactly who initiated the investigation is still in question. Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos said the request was made by the county’s legal division, while County Legal Counsel Richard Burst 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.

De Leon said she is not surprised by Garza’s comments.

Yates was arrested at his office, where he was handcuffed and placed for several hours inside the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito on Monday. Authorities anticipated Yates, who had to don an orange inmate jumpsuit and beige sandals, would spend the night in the detention center.

However, he ended up being arraigned on the Class B Misdemeanor charge and released on a $2,500 personal recognizance bond.

Just who ordered Yates to change into the orange jumpsuit is unclear, but his attorney says that was “staged” for the media.

District Attorney Armando Villalobos reportedly told Yates’ defense team that “Mr. Yates was put in an orange jumpsuit at Sheriff Lucio’s insistence and that it was Sheriff Lucio’s deal and that it was not his doing,” De Leon said.

Yates’ treatment, she said, “calls into question the entire process, the entire investigation. It calls everything into question and is what gives credence to the notion that this is personal.”

However, Lucio denied the allegation and said the decision to place Yates in the jumpsuit was made by the jail’s detention officers.

“I never said anything like that. I don’t interfere with the people at the county jail (in) the way they handle prisoners,” Lucio said, adding it is not uncommon for inmates to be placed in jumpsuits if they are not expected to be arraigned immediately.

Salazar ‘surprised’ at speed of arrest

The sheriff said he was told that Justice of the Peace Linda Salazar would not be in to arraign Yates until the following day and that’s why Yates was placed in the orange jumpsuit.

Salazar ended up at the detention center that day and arraigned Yates shortly after 6 p.m.

Lucio said he didn’t know how Salazar ended up at the detention center.

Salazar said she was under the impression Yates would be arrested on Tuesday morning and would be brought to her office at the Cameron County Courthouse for arraignment.

Authorities from the sheriff’s department and district attorney’s office went to her home sometime after 2:30 p.m. Monday where they asked her to sign Yates’ arrest warrant.

“That is what I understood, that those officers were going to do that (serve the warrant on Tuesday). I wasn’t expecting them to do it as soon as they left my house. I was surprised,” Salazar said.

Garza declined comment.

Salazar received a call later in the day that Yates had been arrested. She thought he had been taken to her court, but found out he was at Carrizalez-Rucker instead.

The justice of the peace said she was surprised to see Yates in the orange jumpsuit and questioned why he had it on.

“I even asked one of the lieutenants there, ‘Why do you already have him in the orange jumpsuit,’” Salazar said.

She was told this is normal procedure if someone does not come to claim an inmate.

County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said the entire issue raises concerns and that Judge Salazar

was “misinformed and lied to.”

“To me it sounds like it was orchestrated and that they wanted him to spend the night in jail. The way this individual (Yates) has been treated doesn’t rise to the level that matches the alleged crime that he’s committed.”

Cascos said he’s not sure if he has the authority to request an outside an investigation into the matter, but would see if there is any action he can take.

De Leon said Yates is grateful for the community support he has received and is eager to get the case resolved.

“He is absolutely committed to clearing this up and making sure that everybody understands that he didn’t do anything wrong, that he doesn’t stand alone in these decisions, and that he followed the law as he knew it.”