Finally, Willacy gets grand jury

RAYMONDVILLE - The wheels of justice cranked up Tuesday in Willacy County in a court that hasn't indicted anyone in six months.

State District Judge Migdalia Lopez swore in a grand jury more than two months after she ruled that the county had improperly implemented its jury selection system.

Since October, the court hadn't indicted anyone because District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra stopped presenting cases before the grand jury he suspected was investigating him.

"The criminal justice system has basically been at a standstill," Sheriff Larry Spence said after Lopez impaneled the grand jury. "Now, hopefully, this will loosen the wheels so it'll move forward."

Early this month, county commissioners approved a plan to implement the electronic jury selection system that Lopez used to impanel jurors.

Guerra will go before the grand jury Thursday to begin presenting cases for possible indictment, District Clerk Gilbert Lozano said.

"It's important that we have a grand jury selected so criminal matters pending in the District Attorney's Office and in the county jail can proceed," Lozano said.

The clog in the judicial system denied some prisoners the right to a speedy trial, Spence said.

Some prisoners have been in jail for as long as eight months, Spence said. Among them is Pablo Hernandez, 32, charged in the Aug. 3 stabbing death of his brother-in-law Efrain Coronado, 32, Spence said.

"We have prisoners who've been in jail for a while and these cases need to move quickly," Spence said. "Hopefully, cases will get presented again and things will go smoothly."

Guerra could not be reached for comment.

Lopez disbanded a grand jury in January after she ruled the county had improperly implemented an electronic jury selection system in 2003.

Lopez's ruling was based on Guerra's motion that argued "the probability of corruption and-or irregularities (existed) within the system."

Guerra claimed Lozano could manipulate the system to pick jurors to sit on the panel, a charge Lozano called "ridiculous," noting the state computer system is used in 120 counties.

In 2003, a panel of Brownsville-based state district court judges had failed to approve a plan to implement the system that Lozano had proposed, Guerra said in an earlier interview.

Retired state District Judge Menton Murray took responsibility in January for failing to approve the plan to implement the county's electronic jury selection system.

Since October, the county hasn't indicted anyone, Lozano said.

Lozano blamed Guerra for failing to present cases to the grand jury from October through December, when the panel disbanded after its six-month term expired.

But Guerra said he refused to go before the grand jury because he believed it was investigating him.

In March 2007, a grand jury handed down three felony indictments against Guerra.

After a technicality threatened to void the indictments, he believed grand jurors were trying to re-indict him late last year, Guerra said.