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Eight-time DWI offender released from jail after serving 36 days[of 7 year sentence]
The Monitor/Valley Morning Star ^ | December 13, 2007 | Allen Essex

Posted on 12/14/2007 3:46:30 PM PST by SwinneySwitch

BROWNSVILLE — A repeat drunken driving offender whose seven-year prison sentence was suspended got out of jail after serving just 36 days, records show.

Hector de la Torre, 34, was released Dec. 6, the same day state District Judge Ben Euresti Jr. reconsidered the seven-year prison sentence he gave De la Torre for violating probation from a 2004 drunken driving arrest, court records show. Euresti suspended the sentence and reinstated probation.

The revised sentence included a condition that De la Torre spend 60 days in jail, minus time already served, the court records show. He was released the same day his sentence was relaxed, after spending 36 days in the jail.

Euresti had ordered the original seven-year prison sentence on Nov. 1, after De la Torre was charged with violating the terms of his probation from the 2004 drunken driving conviction by tampering with a breath-testing device installed in his car.

The judge ordered De la Torre jailed on Nov. 1 and released him on Dec. 6, according to jail records.

Court documents show that De la Torre has eight convictions for driving while intoxicated, including four felony DWI convictions, on April 9, 1994; Aug. 6, 1995; Dec. 25, 1995; and Dec. 26, 2004.

Chief Cameron County Sheriff’s Deputy Gus Reyna provided a copy of a Dec. 6 order signed by Isaac Cantu, a bailiff in Euresti’s court, ordering De la Torre’s release that same day “if nothing else (sic) pending.”

Reyna said it is standard procedure for a prisoner to be released immediately if a judge orders credit for time served.

But De la Torre’s attorney, Ernesto Gamez of Brownsville, said the sheriff — not the judge — released his client from jail early.

“That would be the sheriff’s department,” Gamez said of the decision to release De la Torre.

In court on Dec. 6, Gamez argued that his client is a valuable worker in the medical field and that he should continue making a contribution to society by returning to work as an X-ray technician.

There were solid reasons to release De la Torre from jail and allow him to go back to work, Gamez said.

“It was a doctor (Dr. Juan Rocha) who gave a letter that was most compelling,” he said. “And it was a guy from the imaging (center) who asked for (De la Torre) to let him run his business. …

“Don’t just make it seem like the judge did this on his own. There was good, strong evidence why to let him go after 60 days.”

The sheriff made the decision to release De la Torre after only 36 days even though the judge ordered 60 days, Gamez said.

“That’s the sheriff’s deal,” he said. “The judge orders 60 days, 60 days is what he gets. After that, it’s the sheriff who does what he does.”

Reyna denied that Sheriff Omar Lucio or anyone in his department had anything to do with De la Torre’s early release from jail.

“Maybe he got two-for-two,” Reyna said of Euresti giving De la Torre credit for serving 60 days in jail after serving 36 days. There is nothing unusual about a prisoner being released early on “credit for time served,” Reyna said.

Other conditions of De la Torre’s latest probation ordered by Euresti include that De la Torre attend drug and alcohol counseling, complete community service, submit to random drug testing and comply with intensive supervision and electronic monitoring by the Cameron County Probation Department.

Court records show that De la Torre has 17 misdemeanor arrests, of which several charges were later dismissed.

The status of his driving privileges was not available.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: dwi
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Don't they need X-ray technicians in prison, judge?
1 posted on 12/14/2007 3:46:32 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
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To: SwinneySwitch

Time to shoot the damned judge.


2 posted on 12/14/2007 3:47:51 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: SwinneySwitch
17 arrests? 4 DUIs?

Apparently the American College of Radiology
decided standards are no longer needed for mammography.

3 posted on 12/14/2007 3:53:49 PM PST by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: SwinneySwitch

another illegal doing jobs americans won’t???


4 posted on 12/14/2007 3:55:45 PM PST by nyyankeefan
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To: SwinneySwitch

Related to the perp ?

District Judge Ben Euresti Jr


5 posted on 12/14/2007 4:04:26 PM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: nyyankeefan
How silly of me. I forgot.
Illegal aliens don't need no (stinking) license to practice medicine or operate radiologic equipment.


6 posted on 12/14/2007 4:05:29 PM PST by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
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To: SwinneySwitch
Other conditions of De la Torre’s latest probation ordered by Euresti include that De la Torre attend drug and alcohol counseling, complete community service, submit to random drug testing and comply with intensive supervision and electronic monitoring by the Cameron County Probation Department.

All at the taxpayer expense. I wonder how all these people are going to feel when he kills someone while DUI?

7 posted on 12/14/2007 4:07:03 PM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote!)
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To: SwinneySwitch
"Other conditions of De la Torre’s latest probation ordered by Euresti include that De la Torre attend drug and alcohol counseling, complete community service, submit to random drug testing and comply with intensive supervision and electronic monitoring by the Cameron County Probation Department."

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that they tell him that getting loaded and driving might also violate his probation. JMHO.

8 posted on 12/14/2007 4:17:47 PM PST by sig226 (New additions to the list of democrat criminals - see my profile)
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To: flattorney; bigjoesaddle; FryingPan101; AnimalLover; backtothestreets; Olephart; pulaskibush; ...

Ping!

If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.


9 posted on 12/14/2007 4:21:27 PM PST by SwinneySwitch (US Constitution Article 4 Section 4..shall protect each of them against Invasion...domestic Violence)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Liberal judges and Mexican Sheriffs making our laws a laughing stock!!


10 posted on 12/14/2007 4:25:18 PM PST by HardStarboard (Take No Prisoners - We're Out Of Qurans)
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To: All

This is bullshit. God forbid, but the day he harms someone’s loved ones, I hope to read a headline about an angry family member dispatching of both the judge and the perp....


11 posted on 12/14/2007 4:39:26 PM PST by Maverick68 (w)
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To: SwinneySwitch

“It was a doctor (Dr. Juan Rocha) who gave a letter that was most compelling,” he said. “And it was a guy from the imaging (center) who asked for (De la Torre) to let him run his business.”

So...who’s gonna X-ray De la Torr-up when he has that future head-on collision with a semi?


12 posted on 12/14/2007 5:26:08 PM PST by Into the Vortex
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To: SwinneySwitch

Gotta make some room for the Marijuana smokers.


13 posted on 12/14/2007 5:26:22 PM PST by Doe Eyes
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To: SwinneySwitch
He must be a friend of the Clintons.
14 posted on 12/14/2007 5:31:13 PM PST by mtg
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To: SwinneySwitch
One can only hope that this POS meets up with the judge about midnight sometime, at about 100 miles and hour. If not maybe someone in the judges family!
15 posted on 12/14/2007 5:45:12 PM PST by org.whodat (What's the difference between a Democrat and a republican????)
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To: SwinneySwitch

Will the judge, the sheriff, the doctor and whoever else be held accountable when this drunk kills a family?


16 posted on 12/15/2007 4:28:10 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: Diogenesis

Did the article mention he was an illegal?


17 posted on 12/15/2007 8:45:46 AM PST by Bob J
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To: SwinneySwitch

How can a Sheriff just “release” a convict from jail?


18 posted on 12/15/2007 8:47:03 AM PST by Bob J
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To: SwinneySwitch

This guy obviously has some things going for him that the average mutt wouldn’t have. We all know people who go directly to jail for ONE DUI.

For one thing, he has a super lawyer to come up with this excuse and sell it to a judge. But that doesn’t explain it all.

The Valley is a different culture with the justice system more akin to Mexico than the U.S. So I’d guess the guy has family or criminal connections.


19 posted on 12/15/2007 8:53:55 AM PST by wildbill
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Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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