Eagle Pass City Manager Hector Chavez, Sr.’s Bond Hearing rescheduled to April 21, 2016

By: Jose G. Landa, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2016

Eagle Pass City Manager Hector Chavez, Sr.’s Bond hearing scheduled for Friday, April 15, 2016 was rescheduled for Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 9 A.M. by United States Magistrate Judge Victor Roberto Garcia of the Western District of Texas, Del Rio Division, in Del Rio, Texas.

Chavez is currently detained at the Val Verde County Correctional Center-GEO in Del Rio, Texas and will remain detained until his Bond hearing is held and Judge Garcia decides whether to release him conditionally on a pre-trial bond or not.

Chavez was arrested by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Agents on Thursday, April 14, 2016 at his home in Eagle Pass, Texas as a result of a federal grand jury indictment charging him with four counts, including paying a bribe to an agent of an organization receiving federal funds, falsification of records in a federal investigation, obstruction of justice, and making a false statement or representation to a federal agent.

Chavez’s arrest stems from the continuing joint investigation by the FBI and the Texas Rangers of corruption and bribery in Maverick County, Texas.

Chavez owns Chace Management which acted as a sub-contractor for a general contractor who obtained a $270,000 contract with the Maverick County Solid Waste Authority, also known as Maverick County Landfill.

The federal grand jury indictment alleges that Chavez paid at least on four occasions during 2012 financial kickbacks of $5,000 each to a Maverick County Commissioner to to secure the landfill contract for the undisclosed general contractor whom Chavez worked for.

The indictment alleges that between August 20, 2014 and September 22, 2014, Chavez devised to create, and did in fact falsify and forge, a professional services contract between Chavez’s Chace Management company and the undisclosed Contractor to conceal from law enforcement authorities the $20,000 kickbacks made in cash to a Maverick County Commissioner.

The indictment also alleges that on May 4, 2015, a federal Grand Jury subpoena to Chavez’s Chace Management for “any and all records regarding any subcontracting or consulting work done for, with, on behalf of, or in association with” the Contractor, and that Chavez provided in response to the subpoena forged and falsified records.

The indictment further alleges that on June 25, 2015, Chavez made material false oral representations to two federal law enforcement agents concerning the forged records Chavez produced subject to the subpoena.

If convicted, Chavez faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000, three years of community supervision, a $100 special assessment, and restitution of monies unlawfully received.

A person charged and arrested under an indictment are presumed to be innocent and the indictment is not evidence of guilt.  A person accused is innocent until proven guilty in a Court of Law.