BROWNSVILLE — Two county employees who were fired and then rehired after public corruption charges against them were dropped have sued Cameron County for back pay, vacation benefits, seniority and attorney fees.
Jose A. Mireles Jr. and Pedro Garza Jr. filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court.
In January 2016, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office arrested Mireles, Garza, Omar Sanchez-Paz and Cameron County Tax Assessor Tony Yzaguirre Jr. during an investigation called “Operation Dirty Deeds” on charges the men schemed to take bribes to illegally register vehicles. Claudia Elisa Sanchez was arrested later and charged with two counts of tampering with a government record, court documents show.
The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office eventually dismissed the charges against Mireles, Garza, Sanchez-Paz and Sanchez, court records show. Nearly one year ago, on Feb. 4, a Nueces County jury in Corpus Christi ruled Yzaguirre was not guilty on 15 counts of bribery, abuse of official capacity and official oppression.
Mireles and Garza are seeking a jury trial on allegations that Cameron County treated them differently than its other employees who have been cleared of criminal charges in the past.
The timeline
The men were employed with the county through the tax assessor office “each as certified peace officers, working as auto theft investigators for the Cameron County Automobile Crimes Enforcement Task Force,” according to the lawsuit.
Cameron County officials fired them from their jobs Jan. 21, 2016, “based on a pattern of punishing Plaintiffs for their political allegiance and association based on false criminal allegations that lead to an unwarranted arrest” by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, according to the lawsuit.
They were arrested along with Yzaguirre and Sanchez-Paz on Jan. 6, 2016, after Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and other federal law enforcement officials raided the Tax Assessor’s former office in the administrative wing of the Cameron County Courthouse.
One day later, on Jan. 7, 2016, Mireles and Garza allege that the Cameron County Sheriff, “without due process,” filed paperwork dishonorably discharging them from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education, the lawsuit states.
After a few days, on Jan. 11, 2016, Yzaguirre assigned the two to desk duties until their legal matters were resolved, according to the lawsuit.
But on Jan. 14, 2016, Mireles and Garza allege that the “County then improperly terminated their employment …, allegedly because they were disqualified from their position without allowing them to present their side of the story and/or otherwise providing each of them with due process of law,” according to the court document.
Mireles and Garza claim they never actually lost their commissions because they were on an administrative hold during the investigation.
And when they tried to collect unemployment, the county fought it because of their “license suspensions,” according to the lawsuit.
Getting their jobs back
The two allege that after the charges were dismissed in August of 2016, they were rehired by the county and alleged that the sheriff’s office “promised to reinstate Plaintiffs’ commissions if they would assist the Sheriff’s re-election campaign and not voice dissatisfaction with the sheriff in public,” according to the lawsuit.
That never happened, according to the litigation, which alleges that high-ranking county employees and officials put a stop to that.
According to the lawsuit, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, or TCOLE, formerly TCLEOSE, unlocked the administrative hold on both Garza and Mireles’ commissions.
More so, Mireles and Garza complain that Cameron County has a custom and practice of paying back pay or granting pay pending the outcome of criminal charges. They cite Cameron County Personnel Policy Manual Section 13.03 in the litigation, which they say is the only section addressing an employee’s arrest for a felony and requires a suspension with pay pending investigation.
“Plaintiffs were never given pay pending investigation and no meaningful ‘investigation’ was done by the County,” the lawsuit states.
After the charges were dropped and the county was going to rehire the men, they say officials insisted they take the Civil Service Exam, “something they never had to do in the past” to vie for new positions since theirs had been “eliminated during their appeal process and while they were negotiating with the county,” according to the lawsuit.
Eventually, they took the exam and were rehired to different jobs without full vacation benefits or seniority, according to the court document.
Mireles and Garza claim employees with similar incidents, including a former court bailiff, had back pay reinstated when charges were dropped, according to the lawsuit.
The men claim they’ve exhausted all remedies, including written demands for reinstatement and reimbursement, and even engaged in mediation “to no avail.”
Garza and Mireles allege Cameron County violated their First Amendment rights for their association with Yzaguirre, along with multiple other violations of their Constitutional rights.
Cameron County’s Legal Department could not be reached for comment.
