SALAZAR WEDS COUPLE NEW YEAR'S DAY: COURT WORKERS INSECURE

By Juan Montoya
Put on your Tuesday best in 2013 so you can take part in the wedding ceremonies to be hosted by Justice of the Peace Linda Salazar in the judicial wing of the Cameron County Courthouse.
In case you don't know it, the the courthouse will be open and Salazar will have the manteles largos at her cubbyhole office on the second floor to perform the wedding rites on the happy couple that day.
Salazar is known for keeping the county facilities open on festive days and weekends to take advantage of the nuptial market. Why, at $250 per ceremony, it ain't nothing to sneeze at.
We also hear that Salazar and newly-elected JP 2-2 Erin Hernandez Garcia have been seen cavorting together in the hallways of the second floor, apparently havi9ng reached a modus operandi in the division of spoils from the wedding racket.
It's not as if performing her wedding her business when there are no security measures in place isn't a breach of security for the rest of the court employees and judiciary. But so far, no one has left a weapon or weapon during these occasions which they can pick up later without having to go through the security scanners at the door.
And while we're at it, we understand that security there has gotten lax to the point where local attorneys and their bulging portfolios aren't even scanned at the doors anymore but are allowed to slip their bags through the side.
What if one of them gets a negative verdict in one of their cases and goes postal inside the court with a weapon that wasn't passed through the scanner and detected?
It's not like this hasn't happened before. Remember Chuy Hinojosa, from Hidalgo County? Or how about Rene Oliveira at the Valley International Airport in Harlingen. Both were caught carrying weapons in their person or in their baggage. What makes security personnel think that it couldn't happen to lesser beings?
Knowing what we know about local attorneys bending the rules and sometimes even breaking them, it's not that farfetched to think one of these fine people could want to take matters into his or her own hands if things don't work out in one of their cases, is it?
We are curious to see what Abelardo Gomez, the incoming Constable for Pct. 2 is going to do about these matters. As you know, the commissioners court made courthouse security the constable's responsibility. From what we hear, courthouse employees don't feel safe when Linda holds her hitching sessions or the lawyers get a free security pass through the front door.