KLEBERG SHERIFF CAST AS DOPER

In court documents made public Tuesday, the sheriff of Kleberg County
was portrayed as a drug user, an intimate of local dealers and the
force behind a plot to take control of the Kingsville City Commission.

The allegations against Tony Gonzalez were the most detailed yet in an
ongoing political and legal brawl that pits him and other Kingsville
elected officials against the local chief of police and city manager.

The sheriff did not respond to several calls for comment.

He previously issued general denials to having drug dealers as friends
and being involved in attempts to control the City Commission.

His chief deputy, Marcos Perez, characterized the latest allegations
as lies and loose talk by "dopers trying to impress other dopers."

They surfaced Tuesday as part of a federal racketeering lawsuit filed
Jan. 13 by Kingsville City Manager Hector Hinojosa against the city
and two city commissioners.

Hinojosa claims the recent attempts by Commissioners Art Pecos and
Horacio Castillo to fire him are motivated by local drug interests
whose real agenda is to get rid of Police Chief Sam Granato.

The two commissioners, who are being sued, deny the
allegations.

The 40 pages of new material came from Hinojosa's lawyer in response
to a Monday order by U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr. to produce
detailed evidence of the lawsuit's claims.

Head, who on Jan. 13 issued a restraining order blocking the City
Commission from firing Hinojosa, is expected to rule by Friday on
extending or dissolving the injunction.

Among the items filed Tuesday is a transcript of a secret recording
made Dec. 1, 2001, in San Antonio by an undercover agent talking to
drug dealer Elias Alvarez, who now is in prison.

In the recording, Alvarez repeatedly spoke well of Sheriff Gonzalez
and badly of Granato, who had become police chief a year earlier and
also was the head of a local drug task force.

Alvarez described an effort to get rid of Granato by putting
sympathetic candidates on the city commission.

"We just don't have the votes right now, man. We need the commission,"
Alvarez said in the recording. "And right now, we're pushing some guys
to get into the commission and we can get him out."

On the transcript, Alvarez's final recorded remark is about
Gonzalez.

"There in Kleberg ... there is no problem. Tony is my
friend."

Among the other allegations made in the various affidavits, case
summaries and police reports attached as exhibits:

Granato stated in an affidavit that a planned narcotics investigation
was immediately compromised after he gave information to Gonzalez and
Chief Deputy Perez.

Perez on Tuesday called that claim "a complete, utter
lie."

According to arrested drug dealer Alex Bazan, Gonzalez is a close
friend of Modesto Gonzalez, who was arrested Jan. 9 and charged with
selling cocaine.

"Bazan told us Sheriff Gonzalez provides Modesto Gonzalez with
information about law enforcement operations," the report states.

An informant saw Sheriff Gonzalez at Modesto Gonzalez's house in
Riviera and observed the two "making jokes about hitting the cocaine
hard and making hand gestures to the nose."

Both Granato and Hinojosa declined to comment Tuesday.

Hal George, a lawyer representing Castillo and Pecos as individuals,
said even if there was an effort by drug interests to control the City
Commission, his clients are not implicated.

"They have to get my guys involved in the conspiracy. Just because Al
Gore takes money from tobacco companies doesn't prove he's in favor of
cancer," George said.

Attorney Ricardo Navarro, who represents the two commissioners in
their official capacity, said the case will hinge on how persuasive
Judge Head finds the latest allegations.

"This is where the rubber hits the road," Navarro said. "Either he's
got something factual to go on or he doesn't. Are we talking about
real information or rumors and hearsay?"