Witness testifies Mayor Hernandez made threats 'to destroy'

Source: Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, TexasNov.mini storage 05--BROWNSVILLE -- A prosecution witness testified Monday that San Benito Mayor Joe Hernandez said he was "going to destroy" a former city commissioner and a man who filed an ethics complaint against the mayor.Hernandez faces a Class B misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat against former Commissioner Ricardo Rodriguez in a trial before Cameron County Court at Law No. 1 Judge Arturo McDonald.The trial stems from a Nov. 6, 2012, complaint in which Rodriguez, who served as a commissioner from 1975 to 1979, accused Hernandez of threatening to burn down his house to kill him during an Oct. 27, 2012, confrontation.Testimony is expected to close today.In the first day of testimony Monday, Abel Garcia, 81, a retired Brownsville port worker and Korean War veteran, told jurors that Hernandez showed him a photograph that the mayor took of a Yoakum Street home. Garcia testified that Hernandez told him that Rodriguez was going to rent the house to Alfonso Benavides.Garcia testified Hernandez said he wanted to "destroy" Benavides because he filed a January 2012 ethics complaint that led to a two-count indictment against the mayor."He told me he was going to destroy them -- all of them -- and the house, too," Garcia told the three-man, three-woman jury.Garcia said Hernandez "never used the word 'kill.'""To me, destroy is just like killing," Garcia told jurors.Raynaldo Rodriguez, Hernandez's attorney, tried to show inconsistencies in Garcia's testimony and lapses in his memory.In opening statements, Raynaldo Rodriguez told jurors that the state's witnesses would make statements that "seem rehearsed, coerced, coaxed.""Their motives are political," Raynaldo Rodriguez told jurors, referring to Garcia and Ricardo Rodriguez. "Their primary goal is they want Mr. Hernandez to resign."San Benito Police Officer David Ortega testified Benavides joined Ricardo Rodriguez when the former commissioner filed his police report on Nov. 6."It's strange that they waited awhile (to file)," Ortega testified, noting Ricardo Rodriguez told police his confrontation with Hernandez occurred Oct. 27, 2012.Ortega told Raynalself storageo Rodriguez that he did not have probable cause to arrest Hernandez.Raynaldo Rodriguez, Hernandez's attorney, told jurors that the alleged terroristic threat lacked the element of imminent bodily harm because Ricardo Rodriguez filed his police report nearly two weeks after the alleged threat.But Assistant District Attorney Omar Saenz told jurors that the alleged threat put fear into Ricardo Rodriguez that held him back from filing his police report."It's not about whether Mr. Hernandez wanted to get rid of Mr. Rodriguez," Saenz told jurors. "It's about fear."In January 2012, Benavides filed a complaint that led to a two-count indictment against Hernandez.The complaint accused Hernandez of proposing a revision to a city ordinance to allow mobile vendors to do business in town while he profited from a snow cone stand that operated on his lot next to his barbershop.The indictment, which accused Hernandez of discussing his proposal in a July 2011 city meeting after he signed a conflict of interest affidavit, also accused him of tampering with evidence by removing the raspa stand from his property.In December 2012, Hernandez entered into the District Attorney's pre-trial diversion program, leading to an agreement in which Special Prosecutor Ruben Pe鎙 dismissed a felony charge of tampering with evidence while the state agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor charge of abuse of official capacity if Hernandez satisfactorily completes probation.As part of the agreement, prosecutors ordered Hernandez to stay out of trouble during the one-year probationary period. Pe鎙 said he dismissed the tampering with evidence charge because questions surrounding the identity of the person who moved the raspa stand made the charge difficult to prosecute.The outcome of Ricardo Rodriguez's case will not affect the Hernandez's agreement because the alleged threat occurred before the mayor entered into the pre-trial diversion program, said Melissa Zamora, the DA's spokeswoman.fdelvalle@valleystar.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) Visit Valley Morning Star (Harlingen, Texas) at .valleymorningstar.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉