Spring Break
Sheriff's opponents fight ideas of inside job after jail break
By: Lynn Brezosky — The Associated Press
Issue date: 3/2/04 Section: News
HARLINGEN, Texas - Federal authorities decided Monday to transfer inmates out of the Brownsville jail where three inmates escaped late Friday, a move expected to result in up to 42 job losses for jail guards.
It's the second time in two months that U.S marshals pulled inmates from a Cameron County jail. Officials did not immediately say where the inmates were transferred.
Meanwhile, opponents in the Cameron County sheriff's race Monday scoffed at Sheriff Conrado Cantu's notions that the latest jail break was an inside job aimed at making him look bad.
''He ought to be focusing on what's going on inside the jail instead of what's going on outside,'' said Abel Perez Jr., a constable who is one of Cantu's four challengers in the March 9 primary.
Cantu said the department was investigating all angles, including that three federal inmates had help making a noisy roof escape from a downtown Brownsville jail Friday evening.
''This is real suspicious,'' Cantu said Monday. ''The guards are sitting there 15 feet from where the hole is and they couldn't hear them banging on the roof? ... Somebody had to plant this.''
Maximo Manuel Ravell, 39; Mario Alberto Hernandez Villarreal, 22; and Francisco Ramirez Guerrero, 21, were still missing Monday afternoon following their escape from the Ruben M. Torres Sr. Jail, a decades-old structure less than two miles from the Mexican border.
Ravell and Hernandez-Villarreal were serving time for illegal re-entry into the United States and Guerrero was jailed for possession of marijuana.
None were considered violent, sheriff's Capt. Rumaldo Rodriguez said.
Investigators say the three broke through a bathroom ceiling and roof, including 1-inch thick cement and wire mesh, with an industrial mop handle before fleeing the jail.
Perez, whose precinct includes the jail area, said his deputies found discarded jail uniforms near the building.
The break was the latest in a list of problems for Cantu that include a string of jail escapes, missing inmate funds and allegations of inmate sexual abuse by prison guards. On Feb. 12, Cantu was indicted on a misdemeanor charge alleging he held a mandatory meeting at the jail to talk about his re-election campaign.
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