MATTINGLY DERIDES "OLD" SAENZ STYLE OF JUSTICE

By Juan Montoya
By now all of us who consume Internet postings from local blogs have seen the portly countenance of GOP Cameron County District Attorney candidate Chuck Mattingly excoriating his opponent Luis Saenz's "old-fashioned" style of justice.
He, in turn, promises in his video that he will leave the "old" style behind and introduce a brand-new day to Cameron County. He does this standing before the judicial wing of the Cameron County Courthouse.
In a nutshell, Chuck states that crime is different, that criminals are more ruthless and have more money.
"They can afford to hire expensive criminal attorneys who come and manipulate our courts and corrupt our legal system."
And while giving Saenz a backhand compliment saying his opponent is a "good man," he says that it has been 20 years since he was given the oath of office. We cannot, he says, afford to prosecute cases the way we did 20 years ago. We must, says Republican Mattingly echoing Democrat Obama, move forward.
We have seen the video and, as the stranger in Mark Twain's "The War Prayer," heard another message. This time it was from Saenz, and he said:
"In the old days, the criminals we convicted stayed convicted. We did  not, as Mr. Mattingly and his boss Armando Villalobos, stand around and agree to let a judge give a man convicted of murdering a teacher and a mother 60 days to "get his affairs in order" before turning himself in to serve his 23-year sentence.
"In fact, we wonder why Mr. Mattingly chose to return to the scene of the crime to put together this ad. The very same spot where he filmed this video is the place where Amit Livingston, the murder now on the run, walked out of the courthouse and became a fugitive as Chuck looked on. And speaking of expensive lawyers defending criminals, wasn't it Mr. Villalobos' former partner, Eddie Lucio, who made out with $200,000 as a result of Chuck's boss agreeing to release the bond in a parallel civil lawsuit? A federal indictment indicates at least $80,000 of that amount made its way back to the DA and another $18,000 to Abel Limas, the judge in the case.
"If this is the 'new' way to prosecute crimes, I think the residents of Cameron County prefer the 'old-fashioned' way of dispensing justice. In this one, I'm not with Chuck."