Appeals court acquits former Socorro city rep. of bribery conviction

The Eight District Court of Appeals has reversed the May 2015 felony bribe conviction against former Socorro City Councilman Jesus “Jesse” Gandara Jr.

“The Court concludes there was error in the judgment. We therefore reverse the conviction and render a judgment of acquittal,” Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez stated in the opinion.

In his appeal, Gandara Jr. argued he should have never been convicted because “he neither requested nor received a pecuniary benefit,” the court’s opinion states.

The document further states Gandara Jr. engaged in the “constitutionally-protected political act of soliciting support for an initiative that would benefit his constituents.”

“This case is an example of how difficult it is to distinguish politics from bribery,” Justice Yvonne T. Rodriguez wrote in her opinion.

Gandara Jr. originally faced in between two and 20 years in prison. However, a jury handed down a 10-year suspended prison sentence while ordering him to pay a $10,000 fine.

Gandara Jr. was accused of trying to bribe the owners of San Elizario’s Licon Dairy in 2013 to support the City of Socorro’s plan to annex the community of San Elizario. Socorro never annexed the community and the citizens of San Elizario eventually voted to become an incorporated municipality.

ABC-7 obtained a recorded conversation where a man purported to be Gandara allegedly offered the Licon family $40,000 if they would drop their opposition to the annexation.

The money was offered in the form of an advertising campaign for Licon Dairy, and another offer was made to provide another $40,000 in business for the dairy in the form of Socorro-sponsored picnics.

In the recording, a man alleged to be Gandara, says “You don’t have to make a decision now but we’re getting close to it and I’d love to mediate that all for you if if you interested… because of my relationship with you all I wanted to come have that conversation with you all and at least propose it.”

Another man, reportedly the Licon Dairy owner’s son, says “You been talking about how the city of Socorro has changed, it sounds like the same thing. It sounds like right now you’re proposing a bribe.”

Gandara allegedly responded, “I see your parents as family, and so I talk to them very honestly… I was afraid that me speaking honest to your parents, that you would use that against me. I don’t know if you’re recording me right now. Well, not you boy, you’re all family… I would never propose this to anybody else. And it’s not a bribe, the Licon Dairy is a wonderful asset.”

In another segment of the nearly one and one-half hour recording, Gandara allegedly says, “I know the council… If you all came out and said, ‘Okay, we recognize the resources Socorro has, we’re okay with them annexing us, then I know this council, my gosh, the money they’d pump in to Licon Dairy.”

In its opinion, the court states “Gandara acknowledges he actively sought the Licons’ public support for the annexation of San Elizario in exchange for his future recommendation to Socorro City Council to award $80,000 in promotional funding to the Licon Dairy.”

The court concluded, “The benefit, that is, the public support by the Licons, inures to the City of Socorro and its citizens, not Gandara personally, and therefore, does not fall within the purview of Section 36.02.”

“Gandara correctly asserts Section 36.02 does not require the person who solicits the benefit to ultimately be the benificiary,” the opinion concludes.