GARCIA STILL DEMOCRATS' TOP CHOICE

Ortiz Reassures Him On U.S. Attorney Job

By Rad Sallee
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

Houston lawyer Roland Garcia Jr. said Thursday he has been assured that
area Democratic members of Congress still want him to be the next U.S.
attorney here, despite disclosures that his brother is in a Florida prison
on federal drug and murder charges.

Garcia, 38, said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, DCorpus Christi, reassured him
last Friday that he is still the delegation's choice to be the chief
federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Texas.

Garcia said Ortiz told him that he had consulted with the other four
Democratic members from the district and all agreed.

Ortiz's press secretary, Cathy Travis, said Ortiz had gone home for the
holiday, but told her that "he talked with the other four, and their
decision was unanimous."

One of the four, U.S. Rep. Gene Green, DHouston, said he remains strongly
in Garcia's corner.

Green acknowledged Wednesday, however, that news reports of the criminal
activities of Garcia's younger brother, Arnold Garcia, came as a surprise.

"Obviously, I would have liked to have known everything (about Roland
Garcia)," Green said. "But in retrospect," he added, "I would not have
changed my decision.

"I don't think a person ought to be punished for the sins of his relatives."

The other Democrats in the delegation, Ken Bentsen and Sheila Jackson Lee,
of Houston, and Ruben Hinojosa of Mercedes, could not be reached for
comment Wednesday as Congress was adjourned.

However, in an interview telecast by a Corpus Christi TV station, Ortiz
said he had "talked with some of the other members of the Houston
delegation and they feel this should not deter (Garcia) from getting
appointed."

"The young man is very wellqualified," Ortiz said. "He worked hard to get
where he's at. He has good qualifications, a beautiful resume, and he was
recommended by many, many outstanding people."

Green said he has received many letters on behalf of Garcia, both before
and after the disclosure, including one from the Houston chapter of the
NAACP, reaffirming its support.

Garcia, of the firm of Liddell, Sapp, Zivley, Hill & Laboon, was born and
reared in Corpus Christi. His legal experience is in complex civil lawsuits.

Arnold Garcia allegedly used the family's recording business to run a
threestate drug trafficking operation and was connected to a marijuana
smuggling operation in South Texas, federal prosecutors in Florida said.

They said Arnold Garcia allegedly shot Phillip Martin Cryer nine times in a
Florida motel, over a drug debt. Prosecutors gave up the option of seeking
the death penalty in order to extradite him from Canada, which does not
have capital punishment.

During his brother's sentencing hearing last August, Roland Garcia asked
U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul to impose a lighter punishment than
federal sentencing guidelines call for. Instead, Paul imposed a stiffer
sentence.

Arnold Garcia received 17 years in a plea bargain on the murder charge and
a concurrent 30year term for drug trafficking conspiracy and possession
of a weapon during a drug crime.

The most recent U.S. attorney, Gaynelle Griffin Jones, resigned to work on
the legal staff of Compaq Computer Corp.

The recommendation that President Clinton nominate Garcia to succeed her is
subject to approval by Texas' two Republican senators, Phil Gramm and Kay
Bailey Hutchison.