Oh, the suspense! Will the FBI investigation of two Maverick County investigators peter out without nabbing more slimebags, or will we see the biggest local scandal since the Kickapoo Casino/Isidro Garza family fiasco?
If others are involved with this bribe-taking, Sergio Beattie and Guillermo Martinez could be the lucky ones. In any criminal conspiracy, it’s always good to be the first one caught, because you’re the first one given the chance to rat out others and cut a deal to get off easy.
Some intriguing questions linger with these two caught here recently. Which one will fink on the other first? How high up will the tattle-telling lead? The stool pigeons will get a better deal for each big fish they help land. On this note, I don’t think the FBI would lay out $14,000 in bribe money just to harass a lowly 8-liner establishment, so I’m expecting something larger to evolve over time.
And another tidbit I’d like to know is who tipped off the FBI to begin with that Beattie and Martinez were likely candidates to betray the public’s trust? That’s really a minor piece of the story, but I always like to know what screw up led to a criminal’s capture. Sometimes the most ingenious plans have some dumb little mistake or accident that blows the whole thing apart. Then, you’re thinking they would have gotten away with this heist except for this one trivial detail.
Maybe Beattie and Martinez thought they would start small and later move up in the world of criminal enterprise, otherwise, I don’t see how they thought the few thousand dollars they earned in this scheme was worth the risk. I see the allure of easy money in illegal trades – if it’s low risk. What these guys were doing left witnesses and paper trails. Why would they think they couldn’t get caught?
So, they might go to prison, they lost their jobs, they embarrassed their families, they ruined their reputations and they’ve lowered the general credibility of local law enforcement. When those are the consequences, most people with good sense would tell the bribe-giver where he could stuff his paltry offer.
It makes it worse that these two who broke the law were themselves law enforcement. If they would themselves break the law, you have to think they were incapable of fairly enforcing laws where they concerned others. How many ways in the past have they taken advantage of their positions or acted immorally, unethically or criminally?
Eagle Pass defense attorneys love the way this has played out. They can put under scrutiny any investigations against their clients involving Beattie and Martinez. A lot of work will have to be redone and probably a few cases dropped because anything with their names on it cannot be trusted.
Maybe other officials are not involved with this latest scandal. If they are, hopefully they will be caught. Hopefully, the ones who are caught will get the punishments they deserve, so that in the future, the probable consequences will deter others. Many of them will still be slimebags, but at least they won’t be criminals.
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