LAREDO BAIL BONDSMAN TELLS OF ILLICIT PAYMENT

LAREDO - A bail bondsman testified Friday he paid the father of the top
local prosecutor $5,000 in lieu of a larger amount he owed the
government, and that some of that cash was shared with an assistant
district attorney.

Ricardo Tenorio told jurors the 1994 payment to JosE9 M. Rubio Sr.,
father of District Attorney Joe Rubio, was made in lieu of $12,500 he
owed as a bond forfeiture after one of his clients fled prosecution.

Tenorio took the stand in the 12th day of a closely watched federal
corruption trial.

U.S. attorneys say that five men with ties to the Webb County district
attorney solicited $200,000 in bribes during the 1990s in exchange for
fixing drug, weapons and drunken driving cases.

District Attorney Rubio, who is not charged, has said he was not aware
of any wrongdoing in his office or by his father or brother, who also
is standing trial.

Also accused is Jesse CastaF1eda, owner of Century Bail Bonds, who
federal prosecutors say acted as a kind of middleman between clients
wishing to avoid going to court and district attorney staffers who were
willing to make that happen, for a fee.

Tenorio, a bail bondsman for eight years, began his testimony in
English but seemed to not understand some of the questions put to him
by Assistant U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle.

He first said he never took money from clients to help reduce their
charges, but later said he had done so. Along with charging clients
about 10 or 15 percent of their bail, he said he would take $300 more
for his "legwork."

That involved going, on about 10 occasions, to visit District Attorney
Investigator Agustin Mendoza.

Tenorio said that at his request Mendoza would downgrade drunken
driving cases to lesser charges.

While he never paid Mendoza for those services, Tenorio said he would
on those occasions purchase about $400 worth of tickets to various fund-
raising events for District Attorney Joe Rubio.

Rubio last spring was re-elected to his fourth four-year term as the
county's top prosecutor.

Switching between English and Spanish, with a court interpreter
following along, Tenorio said it wasn't clear to him that his purchases
of those tickets were a direct exchange for Mendoza's aid.

As for his arrangement with Rubio Sr. in 1994, Tenorio said the
district attorney's father called him and said he could help with the
$12,500 bond-forfeiture fee.

Tenorio testified that Rubio Sr. promised to help him if he paid Rubio
Sr. $5,000.

He said he gave the older man the $5,000 in cash at a meeting at
Julep's, a family-style local restaurant Rubio Sr. frequented.

Later, Tenorio said he had a conversation with Assistant District
Attorney Ernesto Cavazos in which Cavazos indicated with a nod of his
head that Rubio Sr. had shared some of that cash with him.

Cavazos also has been charged in the corruption case, but his trial has
not yet been scheduled.

Defense attorneys challenged Tenorio's credibility upon cross-
examination.

JosE9 LuEDs Ramos, who is representing Rubio Sr., asked the bail bondsma
n
if he remembered hiring an attorney in 1994 to help him avoid that bond-
forfeiture claim.

Tenorio said he did not, but later was shown documents proving he
indeed had hired a lawyer - Luis Antonio Figueroa, one of the
defendant's attorneys sitting not 20 feet away from him.

"It was a long time ago. Perhaps your memory has become clouded," Ramos
said.

Ramos also introduced documents from a state court case against Tenorio
in which the bail bondsman signed the wrong name.

A flustered Tenorio initially said he wouldn't answer without his own
lawyer present.

But under questioning by U.S. District Judge George Kazen, Tenorio said
the court had typed his name incorrectly, and he signed it as such
under pressure.

"You intentionally signed the wrong name. You went to four years of
college, but you couldn't figure out this was the wrong name?" Ramos
asked.

The government will continue to call witnesses Monday.