Free Republic

A Travis County jury today found South Texas lawmaker Kino Flores guilty of multiple counts of tampering with a governmental record and perjury in connection with omissions Flores made on financial disclosure forms required to be filed by state elected officials. Flores, a 14-year state representative, was convicted of five counts of misdemeanor tampering with a governmental record, four counts of felony tampering with a governmental record and two counts of misdemeanor perjury. He faces up to two years in a state jail and a $10,000 fine on each of the felony counts. Any state jail time assessed for each...

MISSION – Embattled state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election to an eighth term in 2010. Citing recent indictments handed down against him, the legislator said in a statement that he must concentrate on clearing his name and spending time with his family. “I worked effectively, fought hard and delivered for South Texas,” he said. “I will not apologize for standing up for our region.” In July, a Travis County grand jury charged Flores with 16 counts of tampering with government documents and three counts of perjury, alleging he hid more than $847,000 in...

AUSTIN — Prosecutors are investigating the growing real estate portfolio of a powerful South Texas lawmaker who acquired valuable land from convicted drug dealers. The Travis County investigation of state Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, began over questions about discounted air travel he allegedly received from a major political contributor who is developing a racetrack. But the probe has since widened to include Flores' land holdings, his lawyer, Roy Minton, said Friday. One of those holdings is a South Texas ranch where an illegal immigrant was allegedly beaten to death by one of Flores' ranch hands, another illegal immigrant, who...

The Travis County district attorney's office is reviewing more than just travel records in its ongoing criminal investigation into state Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores. Prosecutors have requested documents connected to the September slaying of a ranch hand on Flores' Mission property and federal agents have also taken an interest in the representative's past, authorities said Monday. "(They) asked us if we would supply them all the reports and affidavits on the murder case," Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. "We sent them what we had." Treviño said he did not know why Austin authorities were interested in records involving the...

NEAR MISSION - Police say a suspected illegal immigrant working for a Democratic state representative brutally beat another man to death with a bat Monday morning. Froylen Casares, 24, was working at a ranch owned by state Rep. Kino Flores near the intersection of North Tropser and Yukon Roads when he killed a young Hispanic male whose name authorities have not released, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño. "It was a very bloody, very bloody, very gruesome crime scene," Treviño said. Authorities continue to search for Casares, of Honduras, who fled the scene before they arrived at about 5:30 a.m....