On the day that police and investigators from the Cameron County District Attorney's Office showed up with search and arrest warrants at former Brownsville Fire Department Chief Carlos Elizondo's house, he was said to be fishing.
When he was given the heads up by friends that the fuzz was knocking on his door, he headed back to the city and went to his lawyer Noe Garza's office on the corner of 9th and E. Van Buren streets to confer with him.
DA investigators found out he was there and showed up and told Elizondo and Garza that unless the wanted man gave himself up within a period of time, they would have no choice but to enter the building and arrest him. After the time was up, they did. But Elizondo and Garza were already gone.
Fearing that Elizondo – with family in Matamoros – might abscond or try to flee the city, they had the Brownsville Police Department dispatchers issue an all-points bulletin to arrest him on sight. That didn't last long because unbeknownst to the officers, Garza had already spoken with Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz and they had agreed that Garza would bring in his client.
Now, Garza could have taken him to the Rucker-Carrizales corrections center in Olmito and have his client give himself up and get booked and arraigned there. Instead, it appears that Garza and Saenz agreed that he should bring Elizondo to the second floor of the Cameron County Courthouse's administrative section on Harrison Street. A grand jury had indicted the demoted fire chief with Theft by a Public Official and Misappropriation of Fiduciary Property
What Garza didn't know was that the media had been alerted that Elizondo was on his way there and that they should be waiting in the hallway. The DA's offices have locked doors and can't be entered unless someone from the inside unlocks them. What followed was a lengthy period of time when Elizondo, Garza and attorney Victor Ramirez waited as the media tried to question Elizondo about the charges.
The wait only lasted for 3 and one-half minutes, but to Elizondo and his layers it must have seemed an eternity as reported asked him about the charges and he deflected them by turning to them. Some said that Elizondo's pacing and repeatedly looking through the glass to the inside reminded them of a cornered rat.(The Brownsville Herald documented the moment and included the link in its website. Click to view.)
https://youtu.be/-yKPh0zHfs4
"Do you have anything to say to your community?," asked one.
"Does this have anything to do with the private ambulance company?," piped in another.
At one point Garza turned and rebuked them by saying: "He doesn't have to say anything...this is all political."
Finally, an exasperated Garza addressed himself to the people behind the door and said that if no one was coming to serve the arrest warrant they would leave.
Some insiders say that the fact that the defendant and his lawyers were kept waiting and that the media had been alerted had enraged Garza to no end given the fact that he and Saenz supposedly enjoy the greatest of friendship. In fact, Garza's wife Adela Kowalski Garza, works for Saenz as one of his prosecutors.
"Noe was pissed that they had to wait in he hallway and that the media was alerted to Carlos being taken there," said a courthouse observer. "He and Luis are supposed to be the greatest of friends. On Luis' birthday, Noe lets him use his ranch to have his parties. He wasn't expecting that."After Elizondo turned himself in, he was then led – handcuffed – out the back door, and in the full glare of the cameras. He was then taken to Rucker-Carrizales for booking.
"If Garza had just taken Elizondo directly to the jail, he would have spared himself the grief of being cornered by the media," the observer said. "But he thought that had been taken care of when he talked to Luis."
There was also another bone of contention, they say. Apparently, Luis had wanted the panel of district judges to appoint Noe's wife Adela Garza to the new position of Associate Judge and had lobbied with them to appoint her. Former commissioner Ernie Hernandez and his wife Norma – a waning, but still latent political force in Brownsville – were also lobbying for their daughter, former JP Erin Garcia, to be appointed to the post.
Instead, the panel of district judges opted to appoint attorney Louis Sorola, married to JP Mary Esther Sorola and son-in-law of Pct. 2 commissioner Sofia Benavides as a safe and competent compromise.
"What happened in the Elizondo episode made Noe mad that he and his client had been left waiting outside at the mercy of the media," one said. "Noe was livid. He wasn't expecting that. Let's see if he lets Luis use his ranch for his next birthday party."