Scare tactics persist: Cameron County DA threatens,
intimidates defense witness
 

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Robert S. Bennett - Email: bbennett@bennettlawfirm.com
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Scare tactics persist: Cameron County DA threatens, intimidates defense witness

District investigators in the Pastor Daniel Hayes case attempted to intimidate a defense witness and supporter of the Valley Pastor indicted on charges of theft, assault and Medicaid fraud.

Early Tuesday morning Mara Padilla was visited by Dennis Zamarron of the Cameron County District Attorney’s office and two men who identified themselves as Immigration and Naturalization Services Agents. She was still in her pajamas when, without disclosing their names and without showing a warrant, the agents demanded Padilla, a US resident, answer questions about the Hayes investigation. When she refused to answer, plain-clothed INS Agents asked her to show them documentation of her legal status and threatened to take her into custody.

Padilla is a former employee of the Family Health Center, where she worked with Pastor Hayes and has worked as the youth director at his church. Since the allegations surfaced, Padilla has been a vocal supporter of Hayes. She says she believes Cameron County prosecutors are trying to scare her.

“Why else would they come to my home? INS has all my information on a computer,” Padilla said. “How can they be allowed to come in my home tell me I don’t belong here?”

Padilla said one of the agents stepped inside her home to prevent Padilla from closing the door when she wanted to go inside and get dressed. Padilla said the man asked to see her residency papers and told her she did not have permission to be in the country. Now in her thirties, Padilla has been a legal US resident since the age of 15. She has called the Valley her home for more than half her life, volunteering for the Red Cross since 1995 and for her children’s school. After yesterday’s surprise interrogation, Padilla said she now worries her involvement in the case may result in her deportation.

“I’m scared,” she said. “I feel like I’m being watched.”

The intimidation of Padilla is only the latest in a series of questionable tactics on the part of the Cameron County District Attorney’s office. First, prosecutors reneged on deal with defense lawyers, arrested Hayes and set an unreasonably high bond that was later reduced. Allegations of investigators using racial investigative procedure have also surfaced. After publicizing Hayes’ arrest and indictment and making false statements to the press, District Attorney Villalobos sought a gag order to prevent Hayes’ lawyers from responding to the public allegations. Investigators coerced false statements from witnesses and, after those witness recanted, they apparently tried to apply the same type of pressure to Padilla.

Hearing news of Padilla’s treatment, Hayes’ lawyers renewed their call issued last week for an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct in Hayes’ case. The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division has been contacted as well as the NAACP. Additionally, the Office of Inspector General of Homeland Security has been provided information concerning the two INS agents who refused to identify themselves and were out of uniform. Zamarron has refused to return telephone calls when contacted about his activities.

A hearing on the State’s Motion to Restrict Publicity and Pastor Hayes’ Motion to Recuse the District Attorney has been set for January 19, 2007 at 8:15 AM in the Courtroom of the 404th District Court of Cameron County at 974 E. Harrison St. –Judicial Building, Third Floor, Brownsville, Texas 78520. Numerous witnesses are expected to be called during this hearing.