04/15/2014
To say Virginia Townsend is shocked by the news that Lupe Trevino, Hidalgo County's former sheriff, plead guilty to money laundering, is an understatement.
"We're sorely disappointed."
Virginia and her fellow OWLS, which stands for Objective Watchers of the Legal System, stood by their sheriff through years of campaigning and years of rumored corruption.
"We trusted him."
But even with Trevino pleading guilty to taking $5,000 in donations from a known criminal, Virginia says the OWLS don't think the blame is all his.
"Get real. There shouldn't be hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent on campaigns. These candidates have to get money from different places and sometimes they don't know who these people are."
You heard correctly, Virginia says it's the voters who demand elaborate campaigns when it comes to deciding on who should run their county.
"It's our fault for demanding so much from someone who runs for office. We should have laws to stop that."
The local watch group believes moving forward laws should prohibit excessive campaigning to ensure candidates don't feel forced to spend more than they can comfortably garner from outside sources.
So what about the man who says he knowingly took the money and then built smoke screens to hide its source? Virginia says Trevino does deserve the penalties for lying to her and the residents of the county who were hopeful he would turn out to be one of the good guys.
"We should have seen this coming. He knows he let us down."
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