By Juan Montoya
The zany crew over at the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office won El Rrun-Rrun's 1st Annual Halloween Costume Contest with this apropos gang photo of them dressed as Cameron County inmates being rounded up by a law enforcement sheriff dudette.
Our judges thought the costumes, which refer to the recent spate of arrests, indictments (and dismissals) of their chief Tony Yzaguirre, Jose Mireles Jose Garza and a few underlings by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, were in moderately good taste and scored the top marks for creativity.
So far, Yzaguirre has prevailed in court over a change in venue motion which will move his trial on more than a score of charges contained in the indictments. Three of his fellow indictees saw their charges dismissed.
Rumors in social media say that the workers at the tax office have grown so jaundiced of DA Office investigators coming in and questioning them continually at all hours of the day trying to unearth evidence of Yzaguirre's alleged wrongdoing that they feel that they all could get indicted anytime.
This photo appeared in a popular Facebook page and was kindly sent to us by one of our seven readers.
Someone pointed out that during the recent primary election for DA between Carlos Masso and DA Luis V. Saenz, the eventual winner made much of Mexican authorities inviting him to instruct their investigators in the finer points of prosecution.
But the recent bad streak of losses in the courts on capital murder, kidnapping, aggravated assaults, the dismissals of cases, and even Yzaguirre's change of venue is giving the DA a black eye.
Some wag noted that perhaps Saenz had picked up something from the Mexican prosecutors himself.
"In the U.S., you're innocent until proven guilty," he said. "Maybe Saenz picked up a little from their system and now we're all guilty until proven innocent."
P.S. The tax office staff gets a lifetime subscription to El Rrun-Rrun. Congratulations!