Escobar
The Texas Attorney General’s Office has forced Hidalgo County to turn over the probable cause affidavit for a woman accused of stealing a Pharr EMS ambulance in July.
Civil attorneys with the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office had sought to withhold information from The Monitor about 31-year-old Alton resident Isela Escobar and asked the Texas Attorney General’s office for an opinion on the matter. The county’s attorneys claimed it contained privileged medical information regarding Escobar.
That turned out to be false. The affidavit did not contain any medical information such as a diagnosis, any sickness, any prior conditions, any symptoms of illness, any prescribed medications or even the reason Escobar was at the hospital in the first place.
Escobar was charged with robbery for allegedly stealing a Pharr EMS ambulance from the Mission Regional Medical Center at 11:59 a.m. on July 15 and leading Mission and Palmview police on a lunch-hour chase.
The affidavit largely matches the narrative the Pharr Police Department issued in a news release that day, but also sheds some light on the events leading up to the theft, which was caught on camera and published by media outlets throughout the Rio Grande Valley.
By 10:40 a.m. that morning, staff at the Mission hospital had assigned a security guard to watch Escobar because she had been displaying “erratic behavior.”
At about noon, Escobar had been waiting on discharge papers and walked outside.
She was sitting on a bench with the security guard when the guard said Escobar stood up and started walking toward an idling ambulance, according to the affidavit, which said the guard told her to stay away from the vehicle but she instead opened the driver’s side door.
The guard told a detective with the Mission Police Department that she tried to remove the key from the ignition, but Escobar pushed her away, according to the affidavit.
A struggle ensued and it ended with Escobar allegedly pushing and kicking the guard to the ground before taking off in the Pharr EMS ambulance.
Officers with the Mission and Palmview police departments arrested her at 4126 Farm-to-Market Road 492.
She was initially booked on a charge of robbery and received a $100,000 bond. That amount has since been reduced to $10,000, but she remains held on the sum at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center.
A Hidalgo County ground jury indicted her on Aug. 8 and she has since pleaded not guilty to the robbery charge.
