Simple assault charge against San Benito mayor's brother questioned

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SAN BENITO — A Houston investigator is questioning the San Benito Police Department’s decision to file a simple assault complaint against Mayor Rick Guerra’s brother, while Chief Mario Perea is denying claims of preferential treatment.

On Aug. 20, Perea filed a complaint citing a Class C assault against Ramiro Guerra, the San Benito Housing Authority’s vice chairman, after he apparently used his hand to forcefully shove Wayne Dolcefino, 67, owner of a Houston-based investigative firm, as he was interviewing City Manager Fred Sandoval while Perea and the mayor stood by.

After the video-recorded incident, Dolcefino told Perea that Ramiro Guerra’s action did not inflict pain, a statement the chief said helped lead him to file the Class C assault complaint, despite Dolcefino’s age.

“He did not express that to me,” Perea said Tuesday in an interview. “I didn’t go with Class A because it was a shove. I told him I was going to charge assault and he said, ‘fine.’ There isn’t any preferential treatment. We investigate. We try to do what we can with the information we get.”

In an incident report, Officer T. Griffin wrote Ramiro Guerra “said that he shoved the victim because the victim pushed his hand away and that it was a reaction.”

Ramiro Guerra’s citation is punishable with a fine, City Attorney Javier Villalobos said.

Meanwhile, Ramiro Guerra has not responded to a message left at the housing authority.

In his video, Dolcefino appears to push Ramiro Guerra’s hand away as he’s holding a cellphone.

Then Ramiro Guerra is seen using his hand to forcefully slap Dolcefino’s back while he’s interviewing Sandoval.

“He touched me first,” Ramiro Guerra calls to Perea, before Dolcefino tells the chief, “I want to charge him with assault.”

Later, Perea filed a citation of “assault, offensive contact” against Ramiro Guerra.

According to the Texas Penal Code’s Section 22.01, an assault is committed when a person “intentionally or knowingly causes physical contact with another when the person knows or should reasonably believe that the other will regard the contact as offensive or provocative.”

On Tuesday, Dolcefino said Ramiro Guerra’s forceful shove inflicted pain.

“It hurt — I did feel pain,” he said in an interview. “Their rational is that it did not cause injury. Anyone who hears that, that thing’s pretty darn loud.”

But Dolcefino said he didn’t tell Perea he felt pain because “I didn’t want to sound like a senior-citizen whiner.”

“He assaulted me in front of the city police chief,” he said. “Would he have been charged with felony assault? Sure — and it would have stuck. He should have been in handcuffs. Any time you assault someone, you put them in handcuffs. He gave him a ticket.”

Dolcefino said he’s considering taking legal action against the city.

”I don’t walk away from a fight,” he said.

At the police department, officers are mum about the case.

But Michael Galvan, the city’s former police chief, said he believes the police department should have filed a higher assault complaint against Ramiro Guerra.

“Personally, I think it should have been charged as a higher assault and let a court decide,” Galvan, Palm Valley’s mayor, said in an interview. “There’s anger. That’s assault. That hit was hard — and especially considering he’s an elderly person. Chief Perea’s a good guy, but these are hard decisions. You’re setting precedents. No one should be allowed any preferential treatment for who they are or who they’re related to.”

The case appears to be disrupting city business.

“It breaks my heart we continue to be mired in things that don’t move us forward as a community,” City Commissioner Tom Goodman said. “At some point, I hope we can all realize we’ve made some mistakes and move forward.”

Since about June, city officials have said they believe VARCO, a Brownsville-based real estate company developing the Resaca Village plaza, hired Dolcefino.

But Paul Serafy, an attorney representing VARCO, has denied the company hired Dolcefino, who has adamantly denied he’s working for the company.

In June, Dolcefino released the first of a series of videos surrounding what he describes as an investigation into the city’s Economic Development Corporation along with claims including public officials’ nepotism.

On Dolcefino Consulting’s website, Dolcefino describes himself as a former award-winning investigative reporter with ABC 13 in Houston.

“Dolcefino Consulting is an investigative media consulting firm, hired by companies, law firms, private citizens and taxpayers to expose injustice, fraud, and abuse of power,” the website states.

In April, VARCO filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the EDC breached the parties’ contracts surrounding the development of Resaca Village, failing to “honor its obligations” under an agreement extending its construction timeline while claiming its amendments “void” because city commissioners had not approved them.

In response, the city filed a counter suit, claiming VARCO breached its contract when the company failed to comply with the city’s agreements granting extensions on the project’s completion, originally set for 2022.