JUDGE IS UPSET BY LOWER BAIL 2 DRUG TRAFFICKING SUSPECTS WERE RELEASED, NOW
DECLARED FUGITIVES

A visibly upset District Court Judge Bert Richardson ordered an inquiry
Thursday to determine the details of how the $1 million bail bonds he set
for two suspected drug traffickers were lowered, allowing them to walk out
of jail despite his orders.

The men, who were charged with drug possession for allegedly having $1.8
million worth of cocaine and more than $200,000 in cash in their
possession, were released after their bail was lowered from $1 million each
to $100,000 on the Fourth of July.

At a special hearing Thursday, Richardson, who was out of town when the
reductions were made, ordered the men's bail bonds to be forfeited and
officially declared the pair fugitives.

District Court Judge Raymond Angelini authorized the bail reductions after
defense attorney Roland Esparza called him to request the change, even
though Angelini was not the judge assigned to the cases.

Angelini has said he spent nearly an hour trying to find out why the bail
was set so high. He said he found no immediate red flags, so he authorized
a city magistrate to reduce the bail. He also said that lowering another
judge's bail "is an institutional thing in this courthouse."

At the hearing Thursday, Richardson scolded the three defense attorneys for
calling his colleague "in the middle of the night," stopping short of
accusing them of shopping for a judge.

"It's a case involving an extraordinary amount of drugs and money, and
contacting a judge in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July to ask
for a bond to be reduced by $900,000 just smacks...," he said, pausing in
anger. "It just appears highly unethical."

On Monday, a third judge raised the bonds back to $1 million and ordered
the men to turn themselves in. Neither had done so as of late Thursday.

The men reportedly gave authorities false information in their bail bond
applications.

The duo's disappearance has hurt the Bexar County District Attorney's
Office ability to prosecute a case that could be a major feather in their
cap, if they get a conviction. Cases involving such a high amount of drugs
are usually handled at the federal level.

Esparza explained to Richardson that he didn't know the cases had been
assigned to his court.

He said he made the call on the Fourth of July because his client had
already been in jail for several days.

"I checked for over an hour and I couldn't find whose court it was in, and
no indication that you left instructions (not to lower the bail bonds),"
Esparza told Richardson.

Richardson said Esparza a " a part-time city magistrate a " should know
that cases are assigned to a court and placed in a computer system almost
immediately after a person is booked.

Richardson asked the District Attorney's Office and the Bexar County
Sheriff's Department to look into Esparza's claim that the cases didn't
appear to be assigned to the 379th District Court at the time the bail
bonds were reduced.

A hearing to discuss the results of the probe has not been set.

The two men, Hector Rodriguez Del Rio, 31, and Jose Garza, 29, were
arrested July 1 after a weeklong investigation by the narcotics division of
the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The two men were allegedly caught with 19 kilos of cocaine that were hidden
inside a compartment built into the car they were riding in.