Posted on 09/25/2008 6:57:59 AM PDT by laotzu
POTEET — Six weeks before his trial last year on charges of indecency with a child, Poteet Mayor Lino Donato fondled and inappropriately touched a young girl, according to indictments released Wednesday.
The mayor was indicted Monday on three felony child sex charges stemming from two incidents that occurred Aug. 15 and 17, 2007, according to the indictments.
District Attorney Rene Peña said law enforcement officials were informed of the allegations, which involved a girl younger than 14, on Aug. 15 of this year — the same month Peña and City Council members were separately beginning to take action to oust Donato as mayor.
For 11 months, Poteet has had a registered sex offender as mayor, but because the deferred adjudication Donato received for the earlier charges he pleaded guilty to was not a final conviction, he could not be forced out of office until he missed three regular council meetings. He deferred a showdown by ceding his duties to another council member who left office in May, and has missed four meetings since then.
Peña asked the Texas Rangers to investigate Donato early this month. He was arrested at midday Tuesday shortly after the indictments were made public and has been in Atascosa County Jail on $200,000 bond since, officials there said.
The latest indictments allege that on Aug. 15, 2007, Donato touched a girl younger than 14 on her genitals and breasts, resulting in a first-degree felony charge of aggravated sexual assault and a second-degree felony charge of indecency with a child by contact, respectively.
Donato is also accused of kissing the girl Aug. 17, 2007, and is charged with a third-degree felony of attempted indecency with a child by contact.
Peña declined to provide information about the victim, about who made the complaint or how law enforcement officials became aware of it.
Donato's arraignment is set for Oct. 15. A message left for his attorney, Gary Churak, who is representing him on an appeal of the 2007 case, was not returned Wednesday.
Donato pleaded guilty to two counts of indecency by exposure and no contest to one count of indecency by contact in October, cutting his jury trial short, and accepted deferred adjudication and probation.
Part of his probation prohibited Donato from going within 1,000 feet of places where children congregate. Consequently, he has been absent from City Council meetings since then; City Hall is within 1,000 feet of the city library, where children may congregate.
Mayor pro tem Fred Catala said the matter was of concern to the council, but members had yet to reach consensus on how to proceed.
Last month, Catala said the council would consider voting to remove Donato from his post because of his continued absences.
The vote never came but the council may address the issue at its regular meeting Oct. 21, said City Manager Pete Maldonado.
Peña, the district attorney, had filed a petition last month asking a judge to remove Donato for failing to attend meetings and thus not performing his mayoral duties. Peña said those proceedings would continue despite the new charges. A pre-trial hearing on the petition is scheduled for Nov. 17.
Peña said the council's efforts to remove Donato would not affect his pursuit of the mayor's removal or a trial on the new charges.
Donato's term as mayor expires in May 2009.
Poteet is just south of San Antonio. It is known for its strawberries, and child-molesting mayor.
He should move to the great Northeast (New England). The judges really know how to coddle their child molesters up there...
Why do molesters get deferred adjudication? An incredibly high percentage re-offend.
And Poteet actually trucks in all those strawberries - they grow virtually none. I was so disillusioned I had to have a strawberry margarita to drown my sorrows.
Colonel, USAFR
That explains a lot. I went to their 'strawberry festival' once, and was surprised at how many frozen strawberries were used.
I've seen better festivals in K-Mart parking lots.
I guess the days of politicians kissing babies are over.
What’s with the city council and local officials coddling this mayor???
Is it because they’re all latino?
Doesn’t anyone in that entire town have one little bit of decency???
If the council won’t throw him out, is tarring and feathering out of the question?
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