By Juan Montoya
If you listen to Mark Anthony Cortez, the son of JP 2-1 Linda Salazar and brother of State Board Of Education member Ruben Cortez, everyone deserves a second chance.
He doesn't say it of course, but he alludes to his youth of mayhem. irresponsibility, and debauchery that he wants everyone to forget. Most of all, it is his Mommy Dearest Linda Salazar who wants everyone to forget and to vote for him in the Brownsville Independent School District election for Position 1.
Salazar and Baby Markie hope you will overlook many things about his past, and her's as well and darken the oval to get him elected over four other candidates after incumbent Cesar Lopez withdrew. They candidates are (in order of the ballot): 1. Caty Presas-Garcia, 2. Jose Valdez, 3. Drue Ellen Brown, 4. Mark Cortez, and 5. Tim Ramirez.
Although Cortez hints at his wild past, he is not very specific about his activities which have landed him in the sights of local police or the courts. we went looking through the municipal court records and fund that his transgressions were more than youthful indiscretions and more like a pattern of illegal behavior that hadn't stopped at the time he filed for a place on the BISD ballot.
Here is a chronological list of some of those:
1. There were at least eight traffic and one alcohol-related charges we will not list because he was still a minor (under 18).
2. On February 19, 2007 (when he was 23), he was cited for no driver's license and no insurance
3. On On August 21, 2010 (when he was 26), he was cited for running a red light
4. On August 26, 2010, he was cited for speeding 57 in a 45 mile zone
5. On May 2, 2012, he was cited for no seat belt and no insurance
6. Less than a month later, on May 29, 2012, he was cited three times for speeding 71 in a 60 MPH zone, no vehicle inspection, and again, for no insurance
7. On March 11, 2014 (when he was 29), he was cited for no seat belt
8. On May 21, 2014 (still 29), he was cited for speeding 51 in a 35 MPH zone and no insurance
9. On October 13, 2014 (now 30), he was cited for speeding 40 in a 30 MPH zone and expired registration
10. The funniest notation on the records is a transfer of a case from a third DWI or More (Citation 08-B-0987) to a DWI "B" (a misdemeanor) for an offense listed on March 7, 2007, and changed in status on February 6, 2015, nearly eight years later. What happened to the other two DWI offenses?
We filed an information request with the Brownsville Police Department about this and two other arrests where police reports are customarily filed and were told those reports were not in their system or files. What happened? They could not tell us. Things have a way of disappearing with Mark Anthony. We went to the Cameron County Clerk and the Cameron County District Clerk files and inquired about Cortez there. Again, no records existed under his name and DOB.
We should have known by now that Cortez is blessed by the "Dismissal" god. Take for example the four cases that somehow landed on his mother's court (JP 2-1 Salazar).In Case 2011-FTR-008037, Mark Anthony was charged with having an unrestrained child in his car and on a companion case 2011-FTR-00838, was charged himself for not wearing a safety belt.
Both, as the docket sheet notes, were dismissed on a motion by the state. Salazar also signed off on them. We seriously doubt that the state attorneys realized the defendant was Salazar's son.
In yet another case, 2017-FTR-00468, he was charged with displaying the expired license sticker and got off with the $20 fine for court costs. And there is yet another case pending in Salazar's court involving Mark Anthony (2018-FDC-00525), this one involving an unpaid $2,335.61 since February 7, 2017 on a Walmart credit card. That account was sold to Midland Funding who then sued for collection. That lawsuit ended at Linda's court since April 2018 and remains pending.
Her refusal to recuse herself from her son's cases has resulted in a complaint against Linda with the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct which has initiated an investigation into this apparent violation of the judicial canons. The TCJC is notorious for taking its time to render a ruling or sanctions.
But until then, the voters of the BISD can issue their verdict in the form a vote in the upcoming BISD Position 1 race.