Nov. 2 -- A court hearing this week revealed that there are ongoing, unindicted investigations relating to Brownsville’s former fire chief, Carlos Elizondo.
During the Wednesday hearing, which was set for a motion to suppress two warrants relating to a May 9 search of Elizondo’s home, Cameron County Assistant District Attorney Art Teniente objected multiple times to questions directed at a detective asking whether the official determined why Elizondo allegedly accessed fire department reports after being suspended and whether he shared those reports with anyone.
Each time Teniente objected to the questions, 107th state District Judge Benjamin Euresti Jr. sustained the objections and at the end of the hearing he denied the motion to suppress.
Elizondo is currently charged in two indictments: one of which accuses him with 11 counts of computer security breach alleging that he accessed the Brownsville Fire Department’s Emergency Reporting System while being unauthorized to do so and another that charges him with theft and misapplication of fiduciary property for allegedly stealing from the Brownsville Firefighter’s Association. Elizondo has pleaded not guilty to all of these charges.
Testimony from Brownsville Police Department Detective Juan Alvarez also revealed that the Brownsville Fire Department made a mistake that allowed Elizondo to allegedly access the Emergency Reporting System.
According to Alvarez, Deputy Fire Chief Cesar Pedraza never suspended Elizondo’s username and credentials that would have been used to access the system after the former fire chief was suspended and demoted.
Pedraza informed Alvarez that while they were in the process of suspending Elizondo he overlooked removing him from the Emergency Reporting System, a fact not included in the two warrants used to search Elizondo’s home and property in relation to the computer breach investigation.
According to Alvarez, Pedraza and Brownsville Fire Department Chief Jarrett Sheldon, who at the time was interim chief, told him the mistake was due to the transition of taking on new roles after Elizondo was suspended from his position as chief and subsequently demoted.
Alvarez testified that several officials within the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, including Teniente, were aware of the oversight.
The detective’s testimony also revealed that the computer security breach investigation began in December 2017 after Sheldon reported it to Brownsville Police Department Investigations Services Commander Henry Etheridge.
Alvarez said Sheldon and Pedraza were investigating a fire incident when they discovered that Elizondo had been looking up that same incident even though he had been suspended from his position.
In the computer security breach investigation, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office initially only charged Elizondo with two counts of computer breach for accessing the system on Nov. 20, 2017, and Nov. 23, 2017, to review and print Brownsville Fire Department Report No. 2017-08087.
According to the Texas Fire Incident Reporting System 2017 Cause of Ignition Under Investigation spreadsheet, that report relates to a Nov. 19, 2017, building fire at a multifamily dwelling. Brownsville Herald records indicate that the Brownsville Police Department identified 73-year-old Cornelia Ruth Wright as a victim who died on Nov. 19, 2017, at a duplex fire at 18 A Ave.
By July, the DA’s Office had secured the indictment that includes 11 counts of computer security breach spanning from Oct. 11 to Nov. 23, 2017, one count for each time Elizondo allegedly accessed the system.
But before securing that indictment, on May 17, Elizondo’s attorney, Eddie Lucio, and the DA’s Office reached an agreement to have a special master review the items seized during the May 9 search of Elizondo’s residence for attorney-client privilege.
Attorney Adolfo Cordova, who will soon take over as the 197th state District Judge, updated Euresti on the status of his review.
According to Cordova, there is some information a local technology expert could not access that he thought should be sent off to a better equipped agency to handle that search. Euresti gave Cordova permission to do so, which could take approximately six weeks to conclude.
Because neither Lucio nor Teniente have had a chance to review any of that information, Euresti granted an unopposed motion to continue the case and reset Elizondo’s trial date until next February. The trial had been scheduled for December.
The theft and misapplication of fiduciary property case has been on hold pending an appeal in the 13th Court of Appeals, which recently ruled that it would not entertain oral arguments in that appeal.
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