Cameron County's Civil War Rages On

By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

Eric Garza promised change during his campaign for Cameron County Sheriff. He said the old guard spearheaded by former Sheriff Omar Lucio and the Reyna brothers was too complacent; too set in the South Texas compadrismo system, and if he was able to defeat Lucio in the primary and John Chambers in the general election, the spoils system would end in the Cameron County Sheriff's office.

Depending on who you ask, that promise seems to have been a questionable one.

Ask any one person well versed in the sheriff's department drama and they'll say Garza is either cleaning house and shaking up the sheriff's department by getting rid of people who haven't been pulling their weight for a long time, or he is getting rid of good deputies and administrators to make room for his cronies and people who donated large sums of money to his campaign.

In any event, it's safe to say the lines have been drawn and there are two factions rising among the ranks of the sheriff's department — those who were loyal to the previous administration and those who are loyal to Sheriff Garza.

The Brownsville blogosphere has been filled with stories about all the changes going on in the department. El Rrun Rrun has published several articles about the changes. In a nutshell, Juan Montoya has published stories saying the compadrismo has not been eliminated — it has merely changed from those who supported Lucio to those who supported Garza. Among the biggest stories Montoya has written about is the hiring of Robert Gracia to replace Gus Reyna as chief deputy. Gracia was one of Garza's biggest campaign contributors. Despite not having the appropriate Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) certification, the former federal law enforcement officer has been issuing orders across the department with no official title. According to Montoya's reporting, Gracia allegedly ordered all deputies not on patrol to attend Garza's swearing in. He also allegedly asked deputies and other employees to resubmit applications for employment with the department, asking employees for information the department and human resources already had. 

Aside of Gracia not having the appropriate certification (according to Montoya a third time was the charm — Gracia finally was finally able to pass the certification exam after being tutored by another deputy), the position of Chief Deputy was never opened for other applicants. 

Apparently compadrismo is alive and well according to some reports.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Gracia is not the only storm Garza has had to weather in his first three months as Cameron County's top cop. The downtown detention facility has been a thorn in the side of Cameron County for a while (anybody remember the fajita bandit), and it still is. With personnel being shifted around the sheriff's department like pieces on a chessboard, the jail administration has suffered greatly. 

Deputies have been reassigned as jailors, jailors have been shifted to other positions, and a former Investigator was demoted to sergeant, then eventually demoted again and reassigned to the jail. Recently an inmate was left unsupervised and attempted suicide.

The problems don't end there. Sources inside the sheriff's department say several high ranking positions have been left unfilled. The sheriff's department is lacking at least one Investigator, and sources say there aren't enough deputies on patrol at any given time throughout the day. Response time was already bad for a department where one deputy is usually assigned to cover a large swath of territory. Those same sources say unqualified employees of the department have been promoted to administrative or command positions, including a mechanic at the county repair garage who was given a brand new unmarked sheriff's department vehicle to drive around in his new "administrative" role.

Now the split in the department seems to be spreading to other branches of the Cameron County law enforcement tree.

The constables, up until now, have been able to stay away from the infighting at the sheriff's office at the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center located in the outskirts of Brownsville. That seems to be changing.

According to sources inside the sheriff's department, Sheriff Garza sent a letter to Precinct 2 Cameron County Constable Abelardo Gomez, Jr. stating Garza is going to be setting up an office inside the Cameron County Courthouse — Gomez's current office — on East Harrison Street, and Gomez is going to have to find a new place for his office, and that change will be happening this coming Monday.

Gomez is not happy with this decision and has told the sheriff he has no plans of vacating his office on Monday, or anytime after that. 

There are those who speculate there will be some fireworks at the courthouse on Monday. There are those who even believe the sheriff would go as far as deputizing the Precinct 2 deputy constables to aid him in his quest to reconquer the old sheriff's offices again.

Does Sheriff Garza miss his old coworkers when he was County Clerk? Why does he want offices at Carrizales-Rucker and at the Courthouse? Will the County Commissioners or the County Judge intervene? Will Garza back down, will Gomez back down, or will they both srand their ground?

One thing is for certain — the soap opera that is the Cameron County Sheriff's Department doesn't show signs of stopping anytime soon.