January 09,2006 Victoria Hirschberg The Monitor
EDINBURG — It could be weeks before Hidalgo County District Clerk Omar Guerrero enters a courtroom following his November arrest for driving while intoxicated and possession of marijuana.
The case is currently under review in District Attorney Rene Guerra’s office and has not been assigned to a court yet.
Guerra said he will wait for a chemical analysis of the substance McAllen police officers found in Guerrero’s vehicle, which is registered to the district clerk’s father.
Guerrero, 28, was arrested the morning of Nov. 30, when officers said he showed up disoriented at a crime scene they were working, with bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. The elected official refused a blood test, citing his beliefs in the ancient African religion Ifa.
Guerrero is seeking his second term and faces Laura Hinojosa and Robert Mendoza in the March 7 Democratic Primary.
His attorney, Al Alvarez, said it is unlikely Guerrero will even have a hearing before early voting begins Feb. 20, in seven weeks.
"It’s in a pile with a whole bunch of other piles and they don’t get to it until 90 days," said Alvarez, who has represented numerous public officials. "The problem is my client doesn’t want to be treated differently than anybody else."
Alvarez said he would have asked for the district attorney’s office to consider the case early, but Guerrero said no.
"He said let it run its normal course," Alvarez said.
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Victoria Hirschberg covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4466.
6 comments:
One of the things to keep an eye out for, is the fact that Omar Guerrero receives a $5,400.00 car allowance, on top of his salary as District Clerk. Under County policy you must have a VALID driver's license to get a car allowance, else a suspended license will equal a suspencion in the allowance.
As a fact Omar is the first District Clerk to request an allowance for this office.
That's good information. Thanks. Others are telling me that he had so much going for him, being so young and running for office. The Democratic Party had high hopes for him. We'll see how the hearing turns out and whether he loses the car allowance.
I did not know until recently that Omar went to high school with me in Mission. I'm not sure when he graduated.
You may want to alert your candidate of this fact as it is obscure. Another question is where does he need to drive for work that he has a car allowance?
Are you sure he even showed up to class? Probably why you didn't recognize him.
Being elected into office at 26 presents great potential. Unfortunatley, that fizzled out very quickly with his outlandish management style, mass firings, constant absences and other indiscretions. This man does not deserve to be there. Voters beware!
I don't know about being absent. I meant he wasn't amongst the leaders with whom I hung out.
It's a well known fact that Omar Guerrero is a high school drop out.
Really? I was not aware of that. He got pretty far for having dropped out. You gotta give him kudos for that, at least.
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