A summer trial has been scheduled for former Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina, who was accused of engaging in organized voter fraud in 2017.
Court records indicate his trial has been scheduled for Aug. 15.
The trial date comes months after a contentious hearing in late November in which Molina’s attorney Carlos A. Garcia unsuccessfully sought to disqualify Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez Jr. from the case. Garcia argued Rodriguez had a conflict of interest because his aunt, Mary Alice Palacios, filed the complaint against the former mayor with the Texas Secretary of State’s office following the 2017 municipal election in which Molina unseated the city’s longtime mayor Richard Garcia.
That effort followed a motion prosecutors filed Oct. 21 asking a visiting judge to set a trial date.
The state said it filed that motion after the Hidalgo County Board of Judges opened jury empanelments back up for trials, but Garcia, the defense attorney, argued the timing was suspect because it was filed while Molina was in a run-off election with Ramiro Garza, who eventually won the mayoral election.
The pandemic effectively halted the case against Molina and there had been no status, pre-trial or jury trial dates until the state’s Oct. 21 motion.
Molina’s last trial date had been set for June 1, 2020.
The former Edinburg mayor is charged with 11 counts of illegal voting and one count of engaging in organized election fraud.
He has pleaded not guilty.
Approximately a dozen other people, including Molina’s wife, Dalia Molina, are facing various charges related to the investigation initiated by Palacios’ complaint.
They have all pleaded not guilty.
