WESLACO — Frequent Mercedes city commission candidate Ramon Mejia was arrested and charged with indecent assault last month after an incident at the Vali-Ho Motel on April 4, records show.
Mejia, 69, owns an appliance service business and most recently ran for office last year, finishing second to last in the six person race for Place 3 with 558 votes.
A case report from Weslaco PD shows officers were dispatched to a possible sexual assault on April 14 that was later determined to be an indecent assault.
According to the Texas Penal Code, indecent assault includes activity that intends to arouse a person without their consent through physical contact of genitalia or exposure of genitalia.
The report, which was redacted to remove identifying details about the victim and the incident, says Mejia and the woman attended the same church.
After a Thursday church service April 1, Mejia and the woman went to the Vali-Ho Motel in Weslaco. Mejia checked into a room and the pair went in together, the report said.
“Ramon took out a bottle of vodka where they began to drink,” it read.
After five or six drinks, they went to lay on the room’s bed together, where Mejia’s behavior began to make the woman feel uncomfortable, the report said.
Redactions make it unclear precisely what happened in the bedroom, but it appears Mejia hugged the woman from behind and started to touch her over her dress while she “kept trying to pull away and kept on telling him to stop.”
According to the report, Mejia allegedly kept pulling and grabbing at her, but she eventually fled the motel room, tripping and falling in the process badly enough to cut herself and stain her dress with blood.
Mejia went out and drove the woman back home, the report said. She did not seek medical attention or call police that night. Charges weren’t filed until almost two weeks later.
Mejia was booked at the Hidalgo County Jail April 14 and released April 16 on a $10,000 bond.
The next day Mejia posted on social media about visiting the jail, writing about the inmates and their problems and lamenting the fact that he no longer went to preach to them, something he said he once did and was considering doing again.
“I need to meditate on this ordeal and I know something good will come out of it,” he wrote. “I wish I had all the answers but I can tell you one thing God was with me. Everything that I asked from him came to true he provided he never left me alone. May God bless you may God bless you and may God bless us amen and amen and amen.”
