The school district in the border community of Donna continues to make headlines when it comes to corruption. In the most recent turn of events, what appears to be a politically motivated vendetta has resulted in the school board police chief arresting the superintendent who fired him the previous year. The chief claims that the school official paid him a bribe, and is trying to retaliate against him for continuing an investigation that was supposed to be dropped.
Donna ISD Superintendent Jesus Rene Reyna was arrested at his office by the school police chief, Roy Padilla, on one count of retaliation and one count of bribery. Reyna then went before Justice of the Peace Bobby Contreras, who set his bond at $25,000.
In the criminal complaint obtained by Breitbart Texas, Padilla and his investigators claim that Reyna tried to fire them for investigating him in relation to insurance fraud. Padilla claims that Reyna and a school board member spoke with him about halting the investigation. He said they offered him mileage reimbursement for using his personal vehicle during work hours as an inducement to make the case go away.
The criminal complaint raises some troubling questions since Padilla had been fired in 2014 by Reyna and was hired by a newly elected board. As Breitbart Texas previously reported, the new board has been sued in federal court for retaliation. Padilla is now one of the main parties who alleges retaliation in Reyna’s case, along with claims he was approached with a bribe.
In what appears to be a lack of transparency, Padilla didn’t turn the case over to Donna Police, the Texas Rangers or the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office. Instead, it appears one of his investigators wrote the complaint based solely on his allegations.
The criminal complaint shows that Padilla was paid a stipend of less than $500, which he regards as a bribe. However, the complaint does not state if Padilla withdrew the money and submitted it as evidence, kept an appropriate paper trail, and returned the money to the district, or if he kept it.
Padilla, a lifetime law enforcement official, has seen his family name tarnished by another corruption scandal, as previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Padilla is the brother of former Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office Commander Joe Padilla, who is currently serving prison time for taking bribes from a Mexican drug cartel crime boss.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Donna ISD is the same district that hired Robert Salinas, a previously convicted felon, as their school attorney… and paying him 300,000 a year, or three times the salary of the previous attorney.
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