DONNA, Texas – A political witch hunt in corrupt Texas border school district has begun to fall apart. The most recent turn of events in the saga of Donna ISD came on Thursday afternoon when a Grand Jury in Hidalgo County no-billed Superintendent Jesus Rene Reyna and Board Member Ernest Lugo clearing their names of the charges that had been made up by their political rivals.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Reyna and Lugo had been targeted by Donna ISD Police Chief Roy Padilla who handled the investigation targeting his bosses claiming they had tried to bribe him and retaliate against him.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, Reyna had fired Padilla in the past and was moving to fire him a second time after a new hostile board majority had re-hired him.
Since being re-hired, Padilla kicked off an investigation into Reyna alleging that he superintendent was involved in insurance fraud since he was having the school board pay for the insurance for him and his family; The Monitor newspaper spoke with the Hidalgo County District Attorney who stated that he didn’t take Padilla’s case against Reyna because it lacked evidence.
After getting his case kicked back, Padilla carried out another investigation into Reyna and school board member Lugo, claiming the two had offered to bribe him at a McAllen restaurant, and had the two arrested, Breitbart Texas previously reported. The bribe, claimed by Padilla was in fact, a $400 gasoline reimbursement voucher.
In the border city of Donna, one group in control of the school board led by Albert Sandoval has been carrying out a series of questionable business moves and retaliation tactics that have hurt all of the district employees who had supported their rivals. The retaliations have resulted in various lawsuits that the district has settled rather than fight out in court.
One of the questionable moves deals with the hiring of Robert J. Salinas, a convicted felon who spent time in federal prison for money laundering, to be the board’s general counsel. As reported by Breitbart Texas, Salinas was hired with a retainer of $300,000 a year plus $250 per hour for billable services. Since Salinas is a convicted felon he is not able to represent the school district in federal court.
Another questionable move deals with the board travelling to Las Vegas to attend a Hispanic leadership convention where the guest speaker was presidential candidate Hillary Clinton; as reported by Breitbart Texas, the convention was not tied to the education field. It was during that convention in Las Vegas that board member Tomasa Ramos got married; her now husband is a relative of Donna ISD Police Chief Roy Padilla.
Padilla’s family is no stranger to making headlines; his brother Jose Padilla was a commander in the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office and is now in prison for having taken money from a Mexican drug lord. Padilla’s son Daniel, an employee with the district also spent time in jail after a deputy with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office found drugs in his car.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.