EL PASO - As the on-going corruption case continues to unravel, one more person has pleaded guilty to corruption charges, but is public trust of local government unraveling as well?
Eleven high-ranking el paso officials including Socorro mayor willie Gandara senior and district clerk gilbert sanchez turned themselves into the F.B.I yesterday. all of them were indicted on charges ranging from racketeering to mail fraud in an investigation that has spanned six years and isn't over. the U.S. Attorney's Office is hoping our coverage of the indictments weed out even more who may be corrupt.
"The coverage that you folks are going to give the case is likely to result in more people coming forward with information about similar schemes or other activities that they think are illegal," U.S. Attorney John Murphey said.
No word yet if anyone has come forward, we'll keep you posted. in the meantime, the eleven indicted yesterday aren't the only ones that investigators have targeted for being corrupt. more than a dozen high-ranking El Pasoans have already pled guilty in the investigation. add that to the fact the county's ethics chairman has been accused of a sex crime, and it makes you wonder: Do El Pasoans trust their local government?
"I don't believe we're all bad, I believe there's lots of good people out there," Jeannie Geske said.
"I think it's terrible and I don't trust my government, especially after all this is going on," Mary Ellen Cobb said.
"They're politicians, you know, they're just normal people who don't get paid a lot to do what they do so they always have their outside interests," Guadalupe Arellano said.
Yet, despite some people's skepticism of local government, people we spoke with weren't ready to hang the accused for their crimes.
"It's very disappointing to see any public official be accused of something, but I do believe they are innocent until they are proven guilty," Geske said.
"They've just been indicted so we really don't know what's going on. Anyone can be indicted on any charge so it's important to wait to see what happens, see if they're found guilty or not guilty," Arellano said.
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