Sheriff: Navarro may face other charges
June 5, 2008 - 7:12AM
By Jeremy Roebuck, The Monitor
EDINBURG - Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro and three former employees turned themselves in to authorities Wednesday on charges of theft, document tampering and engaging in organized criminal activity.

While all four were released by day's end, their brush with mug shots and booking officers may not be over yet, authorities said.
"We expect a second wave of indictments in the very near future," said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño, whose office handled the investigation.

Wednesday's arrests come one day after a grand jury returned four sealed indictments in connection with alleged fraudulent rental car receipts the elections department filed.

The second set of criminal accusations - which could result in indictments as soon as today (Thursday) - deal with allegations of county credit card abuse, Treviño said. They are expected to target only Navarro and her current co-defendants.

Together, the four employees are accused of defrauding the county of anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000 over the past two years.

THE INDICTMENTS

Navarro, 48, who lives in Mission, brushed aside questions Wednesday as her attorney, Terry Palacios - who is also a municipal court judge in Edinburg - escorted her from the Hidalgo County Jail.

She has declined to comment since the start of a sheriff's office investigation into her department in February.

She now faces five felony counts that allege she knowingly defrauded the county over a period of two years and conspired with her co-defendants to cover it up.

The co-defendants the grand jury named on multiple counts were former department Operations Director Rene Solis, 42, of Weslaco, and low-level employees Amado Cavazos Jr., 27, of Edinburg, and Patricia Zapata, 35, of McAllen.

All four were immediately released on personal recognizance bonds after turning themselves in.

But an attorney for Solis, once known as Navarro's right-hand man, took steps to separate his client from the others.

"Anything my client did was done under a supervisor's order," lawyer Al Alvarez said Wednesday. "He's completely innocent."
It was unclear whether Zapata and Cavazos had retained attorneys as of Wednesday evening. Neither could not be reached for comment.

RED FLAGS

A county audit earlier this year set off the criminal investigation into Navarro and her former employees.

In a report released March 28, Auditor Ray Eufracio detailed several instances of receipt discrepancies, questionable travel records and problematic credit card expenditures.

But until the indictments were unsealed Wednesday, authorities had remained largely silent about the exact nature of the alleged theft.

"It was a scheme that they operated together and covered up together," Treviño said.

Investigators believe all four indicted employees rented cars with taxpayer money for their own personal use and that of their families.

Once the office received receipts, the four allegedly changed names and dates to make it appear that the cars had been rented for legitimate purposes.

In all, they are accused of misspending more than $8,000 as part of the alleged car rental scheme, the sheriff said.

The indicted county workers are also believed to have made more than 45 personal purchases on their work credit cards, but authorities declined to say what was purchased or how much was spent citing the ongoing grand jury review.

NAVARRO'S FUTURE

News of the indictments spread quickly in county government circles Wednesday and kept tongues wagging throughout the afternoon.

But in at least one county office, employees kept their heads down and their mouths shut.

"There's still work to be done," said one elections office employee, who declined to give her name.

Other department workers said Navarro's presence has been sparse at the office since the criminal investigation began, but were loathe to say anything more about their boss, who could return to work as soon as tomorrow.

Navarro has served as the county's elections administrator for the past eight years. She took office in 2000, several months after her predecessor, Noe Garza, suddenly retired under allegations of voting irregularities.

She has already survived one attempt to dismiss her in the wake of the auditor's report.

In April, the Hidalgo County Election Commission - a body that oversees the fairness of elections but not the day-to-day operations of the department - unanimously voted to oust Navarro, citing administrative concerns Eufracio's audit raised.

But county commissioners declined to vote on her dismissal for fear that she could sue if a criminal allegations did not pan out.
State law stipulates an elections administrator can only be removed on at least a four-fifths recommendation of the elections commission and a majority vote by the commissioners' court.

Because the state election code only gives the county the power to dismiss and replace an elections administrator, she can not be suspended while she remains under indictment.

Navarro earns an $80,000 annual salary and $8,000 vehicle stipend, according to the county's 2008 budget.

"The Hidalgo County Commissioners' Court is committed to upholding the integrity of the elections department," county Judge J.D. Salinas said Wednesday in a written statement. "When the time is right, the best actions will be taken."

All three of Navarro's co-defendants had left the elections department well before Tuesday's indictments. Only Cavazos remains a county employee, after transferring to the County Clerk's office months ago.

It remained unclear whether he could face suspension, county spokeswoman Cari Lambrecht said.

If convicted on all counts, all four could face up to life in prison and $10,000 in fines.
Monitor staff writers Jackie Leatherman and Jared Taylor contributed to this report.






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