CRYSTAL CITY, Texas – Their federal indictments may be new, but their constituents' anger is months-old now.
Three Crystal City officials could face a recall after a judge ordered the Crystal City clerk to begin verifying signatures on a recall petition. Though each of the three was indicted within the past month, the effort to remove them actually dates back to last fall.
Mayor Ricardo Lopez and Mayor Pro-Tem Rogelio Mata were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges last week. Councilman Marco Rodriguez was indicted on unrelated charges for smuggling undocumented immigrants in January.
However it was in October and November that more than 1,200 people signed a petition calling for their removal. The petition's affidavit listed several grievances, including a more than $220,000 price of the contract for the also recently indicted city attorney/city manager, James Jonas. The affidavit also says "the majority of the people have lost confidence in the public officials."
Click here to read the affidavit (page 11)
Asked if voters had lost their trust in him after the court hearing Tuesday, Rodriguez said, "I would imagine some, but not all."
He may soon find out. The judge ordered City Clerk Selina Ramos to verify the signatures on the 2015 petition and either certify it or reject it by 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 11.
If she certifies it and passes it on to the officials citizens want recalled, Rodriguez, Lopez and Mata will either have to resign within five days or face a recall election.
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A recall petition normally goes through the city, but this one ended up in court after Ramos refused to verify any of the signatures. She contends the petitioners needed more, based on her interpretation of the Crystal City charter.
The charter reads that the petition must be signed "by qualified electors of the city equal in number to at least (51 percent) of the total number of votes cast at the last general municipal election at which councilmen were elected."
The petitioners say that means 51 percent of the voters who showed up. While Ramos said it meant 51 percent of the votes cast in all the races combined. Since a single voter can vote in multiple races, that added up to a lot more signatures.
In his ruling, the judge sided with the petitioners.
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"That was absurd, and the judge did specifically rule it's 51 percent of the actual voters who turned out, not who voted in every election," said Buck Wood, the attorney for one of the five petitioners named in the court documents.
His client, Richard Diaz, was confident in both the number of signatures they had, and also their validity.
"We made sure that all the people that signed that petition was a registered voter and a resident of Crystal City," Diaz said.
Speaking to the petitioners' lack of trust, both sides are allowed to have two witnesses watching her through the verification process. It's still possible Ramos could reject the petition on technicalities, which the lawyer representing another petitioner expects.
"We're expecting, 'You know what, it's not specific enough. It does not have the information,'" Javier Villalobos said of Ramos' pending decision on the petition. "We'll work through it, we'll fight it and we will have a recall."
That's what the citizens who packed the courtroom and applauded the judge's order are hoping for. While the federal indictments aren't part of the petition, they aren't helping the officials' credibility.
"It gives the community more power to not trust the ones who are actually in office right now," said petition signer Yubanca Mata, who is unrelated to the Rogelio Mata named in the petition.
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As far as anyone knows, the indicted city officials, including the four City Council members and city attorney/city manager James Jonas, all retain their positions. The Defenders wanted to know what their plans were and went looking unsuccessfully for the council members last week.
Since Rodriguez was at the court Tuesday, they got another swing.
Walking away from the courthouse with a trail of reporters, Rodriguez said the federal indictment against him should not affect his role as a councilman, nor does he have plans to step down right now.
Asked why not, Rodriguez said, "I don't see the purpose of it."
Click through the interactive timeline below for more details on the Crystal City corruption case.