Navarro pleads not guilty

EDINBURG - Former Hidalgo County elections chief Teresa Navarro pleaded not guilty this morning to multiple counts of theft, document tampering and engaging in orgazined criminal activity.

Prosecutors alleged she and three other ex-employees rented several cars and made personal purchases over a two year period using government money.

"Those documents showed an ongoing process among the four individuals," Assistant District Attorney Murray Moore said. "They rented cards and used government credit cards and then hid them from the auditor.

Thursday's arraignment offered the first glimpse of the government's case against the former administrator and her three co-defendants.

Investigators have amassed hundreds of pages of e-mails, instant messaging conversations and receipts detailing the alleged criminal scheme.

The documents detail purchases from stores such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Armani Exchange and the North McAllen Italian restaurant Fresco's that were then covered up in invoices sent to the auditor's office, Moore said.

"We basically went through and picked out specific offences," she said. "There are others we could have indicted on."

Navarro remained silent standing before State District Judge Rudy Delgado, only answering his questions in clipped one-word answers. She declined to comment after the court hearing.

Her co-defendants also entered not guilty pleas. They include former department Operations Director Rene Solis, 42, of Weslaco, former office bookkeeper Patricia Zapata, 35, of McAllen, and former elections clerk Amado Cavazos Jr., 27, of Edinburg.

A county audit earlier this year set off the criminal investigation into Navarro and her former employees.

In a report released March 28, Auditor Ray Eufracio detailed several instances of receipt discrepancies, questionable travel records and problematic credit card expenditures.

Navarro resigned her post as the head of the elections administrator June 17 during a county commissioner's court meeting to discuss her fate.

Each of the other employee resigned before a grand jury handed down indictments against them earlier this month.