CORRUPTION TRIAL OF EX-WEBB OFFICIAL IS SLATED TO BEGIN

LAREDO -- Secretly recorded audio and videotapes, cash and his business
card are among the arsenal of evidence federal prosecutors plan to
unleash against a former assistant district attorney accused of
corruption, court documents showed Monday.

Attorneys for Ramon Villafranca, who goes on trial here next week,
have armed themselves with past indictments against two key government
witness, and a confidential employment contract for a bounty hunter
working as an FBI informant, according to the documents filed in U.S.
District Court.

The two sides are set to clash Jan. 4 in a high-stakes trial in which
Villafranca, a former assistant district attorney for Webb County, is
accused of taking cash in exchange for leniency for drug defendants.

Villafranca, 58, a former band director and elementary school
principal, is charged with conspiracy and three counts of bribery.

He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The case marks the first courtroom battle in an seven-month feud
between the FBI and Webb County law-enforcement officials.

Tempers flared in May when FBI agents with a U-Haul van and hand
trucks raided the Webb County Courthouse and carted away more than
5,000 criminal case files as well as phone directories, check books
and daily planners used by District Attorney Joe Rubio and his staff.

Other raids included the home of Rubio's father, as well as the homes
and offices of a local bail bondsman and a Justice of the Peace.

Among the evidence prosecutors plan to present to jurors are documents
showing how criminal cases were handled by Rubio's office, and files
from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Webb County
Sheriff's Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety,
according to court documents.

There are also secretly snapped photographs of Villafranca outside his
office and snapshots of meetings between drug defendants and Jesse
Salas, a controversial former law enforcement officer in Atascosa
County who'd been working for the FBI since March 1996, according to
court documents.

Court documents show defense attorneys plan to delve into Salas'
past.

The defense team also will try to discredit Ruben Garcia, a former
state district judge who -- in a plea bargain 97 admitted he paid bribes
at the DA's office while working as an attorney.

This case won't mark the first time Garcia has come under
fire.

In October 1981, Garcia was indicted by a Dimmit County grand jury for
misapplication of county funds stemming from padded travel and expense
accounts when he tried cases in that county.

He was suspended without pay by the State Commission on Judicial
Conduct, but the criminal charges were later dropped when key
witnesses refused to testify.

Garcia later was indicted in Travis County for theft of cash from the
state, but those charges also were dropped.

As for Salas, while an undercover officer in 1992, he leveled
corruption charges against fellow members of the Pleasanton-based 81st
Judicial District task force, which covers five counties in South
Central Texas.

A state grand jury didn't believe Salas, who was indicted on perjury
charges later dropped. He was acquitted in 1993 on charges he
threatened a suspect with a gun.

Prosecutors also plan to show jurors a videotape of Salas and another
defendant in the case meeting and exchanging cash at Salas' Laredo
apartment, according to court documents.

Other potential witnesses include Roy McCoy III, a Tennessee man and

admitted drug addict who's pleaded guilty to paying bribe money to
Garcia.

Checked-by: Rich O'Grady