Tony Yzaguirre Jr, goes down in flames. What does it mean?

So I was flying back home today from Mexico (more on that later) and my phone starts blowing up with notifications about Tony Yzaguirre Jr getting arrested and other employees of the Cameron County Tax Office.   So who the hell is this guy and why is everyone talking about it.  Well if you live in Cameron County and own a vehicle, chances are that you probably have renewed your vehicle registration sticker at the court house in downtown or more than likely mailed a check in and read somewhere “Make payable to Tony Yzaguirre Jr, Tax Assessor-Collector “, well this is the same guy.

As far as I remember, this guy has been around for almost 30 years, being elected back in 1989 and has been there ever since.   Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler, Fidel Castro, Barack Obama, etc… the list goes on, history has shown countless times that once you gain the power and rule for a very long time, it consumes you and corrupts you.

Luis Saenz who is the District Attorney for Cameron County put this statement out there. It says that Tony Yzaguirre is charged with four counts of bribery, engaging in criminal activity and official oppression.  I’ll explain what these possible charges may mean to the best of my ability.

Bribery.  So let’s say you’re in the real estate business or just shopping around for some foreclosed properties and head out to the Tax Assessor’s office.  Since “technically” all that information is public information, you should be able to file a request on foreclosed properties and maybe snag a deal at the auction but what you find at the auction is pretty much junk and not anything you could really invest in.  What is probably happening is that when one of these nice properties is delinquent on taxes for several years, the employees are the first to know and have the inside scoop and tell their buddies “Hey broski, remember that nice house I told you about that is worth $150,000 but they only owe about $9000 in taxes?, it’s going to be foreclosed soon…. give me $15,000 and it’s yours” and sure enough the house that is worth $150,000 all of a sudden is owned by someone else who coincidentally knows one of the employees there and somehow bought it for $9000 and never made it to auction as it should, shady right?  Another suspicious activity that may be happening, is that one of the buddies of the employees is buying houses by the dozen and perhaps in a particular block the guy buys 3 houses.  All the houses in the block are appraised from $80,000 – $120,000 but somehow one of three houses the guy bought is “appraised at $40,000” meaning that the taxes owed on the property could be about $400 dollars and if you buy 100 houses but paying less taxes than everyone else, you’re basically cheating everyone else, pues la verdad no se vale.

Official Opression.  I’m not a lawyer so I may not be 100% sure what this particular means but according to the Texas State Penal Code Chapter 39.02, it says the following,
A public servant commits an offense if, with intent to obtain a benefit or with intent to harm or defraud another, he intentionally or knowingly:

(1) violates a law relating to the public servant’s office or employment; or

(2) misuses government property, services, personnel, or any other thing of value belonging to the government that has come into the public servant’s custody or possession by virtue of the public servant’s office or employment.

(b) An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A misdemeanor.

and that is pretty much what this guy may be doing, is abusing his power of being a public official for his own benefit and raking in the cash.

So how did it all go down? Well the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security, Texas Rangers, State Troopers, you name it, they were after this guy and other employees and once you mess with law enforcement at the federal level, you’re pretty much fucked.  Strangely enough the magistrate of Cameron Court, Alfredo Padilla released these guys on PR Bond, what is a PR Bond? basically you don’t have to pay bail because you’re a good boy…..  funny that if you’re caught smoking marijuana you have to pay quiet a dime to make bail and yet the judge gives these guys a get out jail free card? Well I guess if you’re good at playing monopoly it helps.

I wonder what connections does the magistrate and Yzaguirre have, …. huele a pura tranza, y eso la verdad… no se vale. Will keep everyone up to date as the investigation on folds, it wouldn’t surprise me of these guys don’t show up and their lawyers claim affluenza.  Until next time, #nomorecheezmeh.