EL RRUN RRUN
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THE CASE OF THE MISSING AFFIDAVIT ON AURORA DE LA GARZA
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />We've heard of Edgar Allan Poe's <em>"The Case of the Purloined Letter."</em><br />But have you heard of the case of the missing affidavit by a county employee that implicates Cameron County District Clerk Aurora De la Garza of a possible cover-up and obstruction of justice?<br />The missing letter was gathered by county administrators in their attempt to ferret our facts related to the case of Melinda Gilman Gonzalez, the intake clerk at the district clerk's child support collection branch. Gonzalez was charged by the Cameron County Sheriff's Department investigators to have taken between $8,000 to $10,000 in payments made to the courts by parents making child support payments. A review of the collection system by the Cameron County Auditor's Office found that there was a serious flaw in the way that the system was set up that allowed for the issuance of handwritten receipts instead between 4: 30 and 5 p.m. that were not being entered into the computerized system, thereby eluding detection when accounts receivable and the receipts in the ledger were reconciled.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWzgRycquoURBvdBPmUV-paGJ3JOCxZtt-mSvnwg5K8IzmvoSSOKhUNAJIwSLL5gjkVu9drYS6P6ZVib1vVQEBHX5Zd8fS15-5jjj34DAfJtNF8lSbKul8jD8NhBH06o64WewdjEVtpE/s1600/Aurora%2520De%2520La%2520Garza.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWzgRycquoURBvdBPmUV-paGJ3JOCxZtt-mSvnwg5K8IzmvoSSOKhUNAJIwSLL5gjkVu9drYS6P6ZVib1vVQEBHX5Zd8fS15-5jjj34DAfJtNF8lSbKul8jD8NhBH06o64WewdjEVtpE/s1600/Aurora%2520De%2520La%2520Garza.jpg" /></a>The payments made after 4:30 were kept in receipt books in the possession and control of the clerks working in the collections office.<br />During the investigation into the whereabouts of these receipts, news reports indicated that some may have turned up missing, thereby making it difficult to learn just who made payments and whether the funds may have been included among those that Gonzalez is said to have taken for her personal use.<br />After the employees were interviewed and their statements taken, they were given to the care of the Cameron County Auditor's Office. County administrators assumed that those statements taken from the employees that indicated that De la Garza may have instructed some not to produce the missing receipt books would be turned over to the Sheriff Department investigators to assist in the prosecution of the clerk.<br />But, lo and behold, during an update into the case there was no mention of the letter and statements taken from the employees, thereby concealing any allegations of De la Garza's alleged complicity. Neither the sheriff's report nor the Asst. DA handling the case could explain why the letters that were placed in the auditor's office custody were part of the investigation.<br />Now, we know that the auditor's office comes under the control of the county's district judges per state law. And we know that they, as attorneys, would like to keep a cordial relationship between their courts and the administrator. Did they have a hand in keeping the letters related to De la Garza out of reach of law enforcement investigators?<br />And did the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. investigator know of their existence but for some reason did not make them part of his inquiry for some ungodly reason? Was it perhaps to protect Aurorita so that this alleged obstruction of justice and attempted coverup of Gonzales, who by the way, is the stepdaughter of Peter Gilman and his wife, who both work for the DA's Office, could be carried out?<br />We have come into possession of a October 12 email from the DA's Office to Bruce Hodge, the commissioners court counsel, that reads:<br /><em>"Please allow this e-mail to memorialize our phone conversation yesterday, wherein you advised me that the County Auditor was in possession of a statement from a County employee relating to the reported theft of funds from the District Clerk’s Office, which occurred earlier this year. You further advised me that you would ask the Auditor to provide a copy of said statement to the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office, so that it can be made a part of the criminal investigative file."</em><br />So, the existence of the letter is no longer in question. Rather, it is now: Why is the auditor's office â€" which is under the direction of the district judges â€" not forthcoming in the handing of the incriminating document to the DA's Office?<br />It's been months since the crime was reported in July. We are now in November. Instead of a simple embezzlement charge, will there now need to be a cover-up and obstruction of justice probe into the same matter?<br />Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin, would have a field day with this one.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-6585300666325391660?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
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