NOT GUILTY: Jury dismisses terroristic threat charge against Mayor

By FRANCISCO E. JIMENEZ
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com

Mayor Joe H. Hernandez

Mayor Joe H. Hernandez

A jury found San Benito Mayor Joe H. Hernandez not guilty Tuesday of making a terroristic threat against a former city commissioner.

Following three trial postponements, testimony was heard on Monday, Nov. 4, and Tuesday, Nov. 5, before the jurors announced the not guilty verdict, which dismisses the terroristic threat charge, a class B misdemeanor, against Hernandez. The jury came to the decision following a little less than 30 minutes of deliberation.

“It was very stressful,” said Hernandez following the trial. “I’m happy. I’m glad that it’s over and that it turned out the way it did, because I always claimed my innocence and the jury proved it. It went to show that everything was politically-motivated. I will not mention any names, but it was mentioned in the courts. I don’t want it to come from me, but it’s the same people that have been trying to detain me and discredit me.”

Ricardo R. Rodriguez, a former San Benito City Commissioner who served from 1975-79, filed a report with the San Benito Police Department on Nov. 6, 2012, alleging that on Oct. 27 of that year Hernandez parked outside his San Benito residence and took photographs of the home.

According to the police report, Hernandez allegedly threatened, “I’m gonna get rid of you and (Alfonso) Benavides, and I’m gonna burn you out of your houses after I’m through with what’s going on with me.”

Hernandez remained adamant that the allegations made by Rodriguez were politically motivated following the outcome of the trial.

“It’s just a whole bunch of lies,” said Hernandez on Tuesday. “The names that were mentioned in the courts were people that were after me from day one, since I became mayor of this city. It’s just an act of jealousy and evil against me for reasons I don’t know.”

As previously reported in the San Benito News, attorney Jan Cassidy has argued that the mayor’s alleged terroristic threat was an act of retaliation against Rodriguez and her client, San Benito resident Alfonso Benavides, for the latter filing an ethics complaint against the mayor in 2011. The complaint, which accused Hernandez of abuse of official capacity, eventually led to the mayor’s grand jury indictment and subsequent one-year probation by entering into the DA’s office pretrial diversion (PTD) program. As stipulated in the PTD agreement, Special Prosecutor Ruben Peña will dismiss a tampering with evidence charge associated with the ethics complaint while the abuse of official capacity charge will be dismissed by the state should Hernandez complete his probation.

Despite not being directly involved in Hernandez’s indictment, Rodriguez alleged that he was threatened by the mayor due to the belief that Benavides resided with the ex-commissioner.

It was on March 18 that the DA’s office filed a complaint signed by Reynaldo J. Pineda, an investigator with the DA’s office, and undersigned by Assistant District Attorney Carlos Martinez, pursuing the terroristic threat charge against Hernandez.

The DA’s complaint stated, “[Pineda] has good reason to believe and does believe that on or about the 27th day of October, 2012, A.D., and before the making and filing of this complaint, in Cameron County, Texas, Joe H. Hernandez, the defendant, did then and there intentionally or knowingly threaten to commit an offense involving violence to person, namely, that the defendant was going to kill the victim, with intent to place Ricardo Robles Rodriguez in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.”

Attempts to reach Cassidy for comment were unsuccessful as of presstime Tuesday.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.sbnewspaper.com/2013/11/05/jury-dismisses-terroristic-threat-charge-against-mayor/

5 comments

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    • WeThePeople on November 10, 2013 at 8:16 pm
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    Word on the street is there will be lots of competition for the Mayor position next time around. Local businessman and tax consultant, Federico (Fred) Garza is ready to throw his hat in the ring. Others mentioned include Tony Gonzalez, Celeste Sanchez and Julio Santana. Maybe even SB News Editor Michael Rodriguez?
    Those are the just the Mayoral candidates, so it looks to be an interesting political season. Whatever the case you can be sure election officials will watch the results closely for any of the shenanigans as happened recently in the Brownsville cases.

    • Alberto Einstein on November 8, 2013 at 8:12 pm
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    Quotes from Mayor Joe Hernandez::::

    “I knew God was on my side all the time.”

    What is more pathetic than a religious personality invoking God to justify their actions? Answer: A career politician!

    “It’s very evident it was all political,”

    This is referred to as a “canard”; a false belief that is not true! It is just a self-serving statement meant to obfuscate the truth.

    If Mayor Hernandez was as innocent as he claimed to be, why didn’t he testify on his own behalf? Instead, he exercised his legal option not to testify because he was probably afraid to answer questions from the prosecuting attorney. In a very smart move Mayor Joe Hernandez’ attorney managed to have Sgt. Michael Cortez testify or read to the jury the statement made by Mayor Joe Hernandez.

    In essence, Mayor Joe Hernandez managed to make his statement or his version of the story through Sgt. Michael Cortez without having to take the witness stand and subject himself to questioning by the prosecution.
    Really, who carries a camera with them anymore unless you plan on taking some pictures? “He was only joking”!

    Mayor Joe Hernandez is nothing more than a “Hector” (look it up in your Webster dictionary). He is part of a cabal or oligarchy who is willing to take credit when something good happens in the city but will throw you under the bus and hold you responsible whether you deserve it or not when something goes wrong while he is in office.
    Bottom line is that it’s “never his fault”.

    The City of San Benito deserves what they get for re-electing the same individual(s) year after year, even when they don’t pay their property taxes until getting exposed.

    The Mayor and the City Manager and their respective spouses spend two weeks in China and what did the citizens get for it; zilch, nada, diddly, naught, nought, zip, goose egg, nihility, etc., not even a tee-shirt! Where are the jobs and businesses the trip was supposed to provide?

    Greetings from ATX!

    • Henry M. on November 6, 2013 at 8:23 pm
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    Another BLACK CLOUD on this fine city….

      • sbperson on November 7, 2013 at 1:20 pm
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      I have a feeling this mayor sees someone that does black magic, I wouldn’t doubt he was the one that left the santa muerte at the city cemetery… then again this is Cameron County where they delay delay and justice has a price

    • Mr. X on November 5, 2013 at 10:02 pm
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    And how much were the jurors bribed to make this possible?

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