By Juan Montoya
One day before he was scheduled to go to trial on charges of abuse of official capacity, theft by a public servant and misapplication of fiduciary property, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office dismissed the cases against former interim Cameron County Judge.
Sepulveda was accused of using county materials and employees to pave a private road in San Benito on December of 2016.
According to the Brownsville Herald, the DA's Office dismissed the cases due to insufficient probable cause.
Let's see if we got this right.
"Someone" up above gave the order to the county administrator in charge of Public Works and Transportation to pave the road to a rural grade standard.
"Someone" was called up by the administrator and told to get everything ready to do the work.
"Someone" was called up by the administrator and told to get everything ready to do the work.
"Someone" assigned the road crews of the county's Public Works Dept. to work on the road.
"Someone" ordered their supervisors and foremen to use county materials and county equipment.
"Someone" also did the paperwork so that the work order would reach the precinct crews.
"Someone" also ordered the crews to use fuels, lubricants, etc., for the machinery.
"Someone" also decided that the work was finished and ordered the crews to return to their barns.
It could not have been Pete Sepulveda alone. If the case had gone to court, the county administrator, supervisors, workers, and even a county official or two would have been incriminated.
As a matter of fact, County Administrator David Garcia was set to rat on his former boss and everyone else involved in return for immunity from prosecution. This wasn't Garcia's first rodeo. He did the same thing in the case involving former Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez when he tried to get his brother-in-law a job as a security guard at one of the bridges.
The dismissal of the case – with a relatively light slap on the hand of the former county judge – was a very political solution to the theft of public materials, use of its workforce, and the wear and tear on the machinery.
Now either Sepulveda's attorney Noe Garza is a hell of lawyer or D.A. Luis V. Saenz is a very political animal. He had Sepulveda agree to take part in a pretrial diversion program for one year with the condition that he reimburse the county for the materials, equipment and labor that were used to pave the road.
How very neat. Now we'll never know who the "someones" involved in the theft of the public dollar were.