Jose A. Padilla, once one of the most high-ranking officers in the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office who fell from grace after being convicted of taking money from known drug traffickers, has been ordered back to federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane ordered Padilla back to prison on Tuesday for violating the terms of his supervised release due to new criminal charges that have been filed against him in state court.
In November 2014, Padilla was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Padilla had pleaded guilty to a charging document known as a “criminal information” for his role in taking tens of thousands of dollars from Tomas Reyes Gonzalez, a prolific drug trafficker more commonly known as “El Gallo.”
At the time of his arrest in late 2013, Padilla had been a commander in the sheriff’s office — one of the highest-ranking officers working under Sheriff Lupe Treviño.
But both Padilla and the sheriff had become ensnared in an expansive scheme that involved accepting money from El Gallo in exchange for favors.
Prosecutors alleged that Treviño had taken some $335,000 from the drug trafficker over the course of several years, though the disgraced former sheriff would later go on to admit to only about $25,000.
Portions of the payments from Gonzalez were disguised as contributions to Treviño’s 2012 reelection campaign, while tens of thousands more went to fund lavish trips to Las Vegas, Colorado, and to buy a boat.
Padilla served as an intermediary between the Weslaco drug trafficker and the sheriff. Gonzalez would give Padilla money meant to go to the sheriff and, in return, kept some for himself.
During his sentencing hearing nearly a decade ago, Padilla explained how he was required to give weekly payments to the sheriff.
In all, Padilla is estimated to have accepted between $90,000-$120,000 in cash for himself.
Once the federal criminal investigation broke, however, Padilla became a cooperating government witness. He also returned $30,000 of his ill-gotten gains.
Those two facts, along with his acceptance of responsibility, held weight with the judge who was tasked with deciding Padilla’s punishment.
“I am convinced that but for your cooperation with the government that the conviction of Sheriff Treviño would not have occurred in the manner and quickness that it did and that it was your decision to assist the government… that I think merits your reward,” Crane said in 2014.
Padilla was incarcerated and later released from federal prison in September 2017.
In August 2019, however, Padilla once again found himself in trouble with the law when he was arrested over allegations he had committed financial crimes while working for a trucking company called Unimex Logistics.
In November 2020, a grand jury found enough probable cause related to the 2019 arrest to hand up a six-count indictment against him in state court.
Padilla is facing felony charges for theft of between $30,000-$150,000 in cash, credit card abuse, forgery and engaging in organized crime.
But Padilla’s defense attorney, Javier Peña, said his client has become unwittingly entangled in a scheme with a web that spreads far beyond these new criminal charges against him.
“The owner of that company, who’s been involved in a lot of shady practices… started blaming other people for spending money from the company, and one of the people he accused was Padilla,” Peña said.
“In the indictments and in the accusations, they’re alleging that there was a bunch of money stolen, but even from before Joe Padilla was actually employed by this company.”
The allegations have spawned charges against another Unimex employee, Kathy Judith Morales, as well as two civil lawsuits, including one against Padilla.
Padilla continues to maintain his innocence, pleading “not true’ — which is akin to not guilty — to the allegations in federal court as they related to the revocation of his supervised release.
He pleaded ‘true,’ however, to one indisputable allegation: that he had worked with an employee at Unimex who is also a convicted felon.
“The office manager had a previous conviction for theft or fraud… That was true, so that’s what he pled ‘true’ to — working at a place where there was another convict,” Peña said.
“He didn’t hire her, but still, essentially, the government’s position is he should have quit,” he said.
One of the standard conditions for supervised release is that a defendant must not associate with other convicted felons.
Working with that employee, along with the criminal charges, triggered the revocation of Padilla’s court supervised release; however, his sentencing hearing had been delayed multiple times since 2019 while the state court case progressed.
On Tuesday, despite the state case remaining unresolved, those postponements ran out.
Judge Crane — the same judge who had sentenced Padilla in 2014 — ordered him to return to federal prison for six months. Padilla must turn himself in to the U.S. Marshals by Sept. 9.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information from the defense attorney.
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