By Juan Montoya
Some time back we wrote about how we had a report about JP 2-1 Linda Salazar entering the Cameron County Clerk's Office on Wednesday, Dec. 27 glad-handing the couples waiting to get their marriage licenses and telling them she could marry them on the second floor.
Our credibility was called into question and some said that she was there to check up on a couple she had already agreed to marry. They also said that we had been paid by JP 2-3 Mary Esther Sorola and her husband Ass. District Judge Louis Sorola to spread lies against poor Linda.
So we decided to go to the county and make an information request for a copy of the surveillance tape that is located on the wall above the marriage license windows. In the first part you will see a couple sitting filling out the license applications with a clerk out of camera range on the right. The clock on the tape indicates this took place between 11:13:18 and 11:16:37 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 27, the second day that county offices had been open after the Christmas holidays.
The surveillance tape does not record sound, but it is obvious that Salazar – in direct contradiction to her apologists – is there to let couples getting their licenses to marry know she can marry them on the second floor and giving them directions on how to get to her office (turn right once you get off the elevator).
Salazar is seen coming out the elevator at 11:13:18 according to the timer on the tape. This corresponds to 0:00 on the counter at bottom left.
Salazar is obviously challenged by glass doors and struggles to open one only to realize when some people walk in the open one to her right that the door is already open.
She waves a hello to the people sitting in front of the marriage license windows unaware that they are part of the wedding party of the couple seen getting their license on the right.
She then goes back to chit-chat with two county clerk staffers at counter time at 11:13:37 (0:21 on counter).
At 11:15:53 (2:50 on counter) she emerges from talking to the clerks and sets about glad-handing the people sitting waiting for the couple to get their license. All the while she is telling them that she is Linda Salazar, a JP who "los puedo casar."
At 11:15:53 (3:01-3:05) she approaches the couples at the license windows and shakes their hands in introduction. It's obvious they don't know her and shake her hand politely. She also waves at another couple who is seated at the window not visible in the tape, but as she walks away, she tells them who she is and signals that she is on the second floor.
At 11:16:09 (3:23) she makes her way out the door, but comes back at 11:16:19 (3:29) to tell them she is on the second floor and direct them to turn right as soon as you get off the elevator to her JP office. All the time she keeps repeating her name so they won't forget who she is.
You can spin it any way you want, but to us, JP Linda Salazar is soliciting a couple getting their marriage license at the Cameron County Clerk's Office to marry them in her office and charge them her fee for performing the ceremony, at a fee of between $200 to $250 a pop.
Some say that since she is so well known, the 600 ($600 x $200 = $120,000 a year) marriage ceremonies she performs at an average annually are a result of her name recognition. The video above indicates something vastly different.