By David Crowder
A special federal grand jury in El Paso has handed up an eight-count indictment against former El Paso school district trustee Salvador “Sal” Mena Jr. as part of an ongoing public corruption investigation.
In the past 14 months, nine individuals have pled guilty to various conspiracy and bribery charges in the federal investigation.
Mena is the first to be indicted.
Mena, who abruptly resigned a year ago during his fourth, four-year term, was indicted Aug. 14 and arrested by the FBI today in El Paso.
He is charged with mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, depriving the public of the right to honest services and making false statements to obtain credit. (Download the indictment below)
Mena could not be reached for comment.
In a statement released late today, El Paso school board president David Dodge said, "The El Paso Independent School District is deeply concerned to learn about the criminal indictment and serious allegations against Mr. Sal Mena.
"We are grateful for law enforcement’s persistence and patience to identify any individuals who have allegedly broken the law and violated the public trust. We will review the indictment carefully to determine what actions or steps, if any, the District needs to take under these circumstances.
"We also want to reassure our community that while these allegations are disappointing to everyone at the District, we will continue to focus on our core mission of education."
A statement released by the office of U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton today says Mena conspired defraud the school district and public by setting up a “sham consulting contract with a vendor whereby he received income but provided no consulting services.”
“Additionally, in exchange for his vote, support and influence for vendors, he instructed vendors seeking to do business with EPISD to make contributions to his election and re-election campaigns,” the statement reads. “The indictment also alleges Mena accepted cash bribes in exchange for his vote and official influence.”
The statement goes on to say that in January and February 2006, Mena made false statements to a financial institution to obtain a loan, purportedly for improvements to a family member’s home.
“The defendant knew the money was not intended for that purpose, in violation of federal law,” the statement from Sutton’s office says.
The FBI’s special agent in charge in El Paso, David Cuthbertson, is quoted in the statement as saying, “The El Paso division of the FBI has diligently worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on this indictment.
“The FBI will continue to aggressively pursue all logical avenues of investigation in the overall case, and we will seek similar charges against other individuals when evidence of criminal activity has been fully documented.”
At about the same time that Mena resigned from the school board citing health reasons, longtime Carlos Villa Cordova, widely known as Coach Cordova, also resigned citing his health.
Three months later, in November 2007, Cordova pled guilty before United States District Judge Frank Montalvo to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, wire fraud and the deprivation of honest services.
As part of the fraud, Cordova conspired with others to obtain money and property by false and fraudulent pretenses violating his fiduciary duty as an elected trustee and received cash money in exchange for his support and vote in his official capacity as a trustee for agreements between EPISD and a vendor seeking business with the EPISD.
Two weeks ago, El Paso school trustee Charles Roarke resigned from the board, saying he was moving out of the school district.
He has been connected to the corruption case by the government, which named him as a potential target of the investigation when the government tried to have Roark's lawyer, Mary Stillinger, disqualified from representing more than one client targeted in the investigation.
Stillinger prevailed, and in the process, expressed concern that her clients, never charged, had been linked to the investigation.
To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605
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Checho
August 30, 2008
You never want to wish anything ill upon people, unless the damage they create hurts you directly. Mena will get what he deserves, and his case proves that the rest of them will go down because they took advantage of their public position. Unfortunately, they carry the legacy of how El Paso politicians founded this city and should be punished accordingly because they perpetuated corruption versus trying to stop it.
Martin Silva
August 30, 2008
Having gone before the Board of Trustees of EPISD during hearings for a new school here in South Central El Paso, I can only say that I am sorry I was not in the courtroom to personally see Mr. Mena go before the Judge.
TONY
August 31, 2008
IT MAKES ME SICK TO HAVE KNOWN THIS INDIVIDUAL RESPECTFULLY NOT TO CALL HIM SOMETHING ELSE. AT ONE TIME IN THE MID 90'S I WORKED AN ELECTION FOR HIM, BELIEVING IN WHAT HE WAS PREACHING. BUT LIKE MOST POLITICIANS HERE IN EL PASO, MOST OF THEM ARE IN THE POLITICAL CIRCUS FOR THEIR OWN GREEDY BENEFIT.
expat Al
September 2, 2008
Hence the sorry state of EPISD schools - physical plants deteriorated and mucked up, all those vendors milking the fat cow for profit. What happens to the bribing vendors?
When schools become a money-making proposition, a venue for profit, students lose.
I am the Walrus
September 5, 2008
Justice should be served for crimes against the community, no doubt, but what is going on in El Paso right now seems a bit mafia-style, too deliberate, too planned, sort of disturbing in a sense.
Do other communities experience these kinds of white-collar sweeps? Why here in this town, at this point in time? I don't want to make excuses for criminals, but there must be more malicious criminal activity going on elsewhere, and maybe more deserving of the scrutiny that is currently hovering over El Paso.
The feds should hit the mob bosses and drug operations in the major cities with the same zeal as is being delivered to El Paso's petty white collars. What we are experiencing is too Draconian, too murky, sort of eerie. We don't know the whole picture of course, but true justice should not have this peculiar scent.
We're not even sure if these people are really guilty, or if they simply have the misfortune of knowing the wrong people and are being squeezed to provide information about those people. If they are guilty -- fine; but why use the legal system's big guns here in El Paso for what is a pretty routine crime around the country?
The investigation techniques don't fit the crimes. If you deal with anyone in any capacity that has any sort of public role, you could be the next target. That isn't American; it's like living in a police state.
With the big guns being toted around El Paso these days, anyone can be framed unjustly.