DA REMAINS CALM IN EYE OF SCANDAL

South Texas Official Goes To Work While Colleagues, Family Face Prison

LAREDO -- Joe Rubio sits in his quiet, bright office on the fourth floor of
the Webb County Justice Center. A family man, the 46-year-old district
attorney is surrounded by snapshots of his wife and four children.

Joe Rubio ... the Webb County district attorney was re-elected after family
and colleagues were arrested on charges of fixing cases.

A short walk away, Mr. Rubio's father and brother sit before a federal jury,
along with two investigators from Mr. Rubio's office and a local bail
bondsman.

The five are accused of soliciting $200,000 in bribes for pledges to drop or
reduce charges in 40 drug, weapon and drunken driving cases between 1992 and
1998.

Already, a cousin of Mr. Rubio's and a former state district judge have
pleaded guilty. A prosecutor from Mr. Rubio's office has also been convicted
- -- all part of a case-fixing scandal that has rocked this border city of
nearly 200,000.

Yet Mr. Rubio, the district attorney for Webb and Zapata counties since
1988, remains in the justice center, toiling over his programs to cut down
on child abuse and domestic violence.

He has not been charged with any crime or accused of wrongdoing.

Four months ago, the native of Laredo was re-elected to a fourth term. Even
he was amazed.

Mr. Rubio maintains he knew nothing of the activities of assistant district
attorney Ramon Villafranca, convicted and serving a five-year sentence, or
Rubén García, the former state district judge who has admitted taking bribes
while working as a public defender. Mr. Rubio says he doesn't keep up with
cousin José Juan Rubio, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy. And he said he
believes the men on trial now are innocent.

"If we could know that someone was going to commit a crime, then you
wouldn't need me," said Mr. Rubio, a man with the gift of gab who resembles
actor Richard Gere but with a neatly groomed mustache.

"Did the police chief in L.A. know that some of his officers were doing
something wrong? Did Janet Reno know what they were doing in Waco? Did the
FBI director know that those guys were going to shoot those people at Ruby
Ridge? I mean, they all report to someone, you know."

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Lenoir said he could not disclose whether Mr.
Rubio was or is under investigation. "We go where the evidence takes us," he
said, and "there is a continuing vigilance through the FBI's public
corruption task force."

Both sides in the trial -- the FBI and defense attorneys -- said they could
not comment on the case, citing U.S. District Judge George Kazen's gag
order.

After 15 days of testimony, federal prosecutors rested their case Thursday.

Their star witness was an FBI informant who testified that he acted as a
middleman between would-be criminal defendants and the district attorney's
a. The informant said he gave the two men thousands of dollars he collected
from possible defendants.

But the informant admitted under cross-examination that he never saw José
Rubio or Mr. Castaneda give the money to anyone in the prosecutor's office.

In other testimony, four women said they paid Mr. Castaneda to get their men
out of jail, but they also said they didn't know what the bondsman did with
the money. A convicted drug trafficker testified that he gave a bondsman
$25,000 for dismissal of charges, and that bondsman testified that he gave
$20,000 to Mr. Rubio Sr.

And the district attorney's cousin who has pleaded guilty testified that he
overheard Mr. Rubio Sr. plotting to fix a case with younger son Carlos that
would have brought them $18,000.

Prosecutors presented 125 witnesses and dozens of taped conversations,
wrapping up by listing hundreds of phone calls between the defendants as six
cases allegedly were being fixed.

Now, defense attorneys are calling their own witnesses and working to dispel
the accusations.

At least one former public official hopes to see convictions.

Anna L. Cavazos Ramírez, who worked next door to Mr. Rubio from 1989 to 1996
as county attorney, said case fixing was common knowledge in the office.

"Everybody knew who had an inside track on special deals, and everyone knew
a bondsman could be doing just about anything with a case," said Ms.
Cavazos, who ran against Mr. Rubio twice but lost and now is a private
attorney. "It had been going on for so long that they became so confident
that they were the ultimate law enforcement here. Who was going to prosecute
them?"

Ms. Cavazos was one of several people who complained to the FBI. Then, on
May 29, 1998, federal agents raided Mr. Rubio's office, hauling away 5,000
files in a moving truck.

Mr. Rubio, who rushed to the office from his son's little-league game still
wearing his cap and jersey, believes the agents made a scene to punish him
for a stand he took regarding drug arrests at border checkpoints.

Mr. Rubio and other district attorneys along the border had been prosecuting
smaller cases handed off by federal agents for many years, but in 1997,
saying an explosion of arrests was costing Webb County $1 million a year,
Mr. Rubio declared he would take no more. He said the cases were the federal
government's responsibility.

The months after the raid, Mr. Rubio said, were tough for his family as the
accusations and indictments regularly made front-page news.

But in April, Mr. Rubio was re-elected. Ultimately, he says, voters looked
at his accomplishments, such as the creation of new child abuse and domestic
violence programs, and at his high conviction rate for violent crime.

"I'm very grateful and I'm very fortunate," he says. "On election night if I
would have lost, I would've been disappointed, but I would not have been
surprised."

Some supporters, such as Laredo Mayor Betty Flores, viewed the stance Mr.
Rubio took with the federal government as gutsy.

"Joe Rubio doesn't take anything lying down. He doesn't accept the status
quo," she said. "We need risk-takers."

When Election Day came, the people of Laredo didn't turn their backs on him,
she said.

"I think we shouldn't be so fast to judge," Ms. Flores said. "I think people
saw a lot of good in him."