Raffle Fraud in SD, TX

Raffle Fraud. On Monday, August 29, when Armando Sepulveda of Houston went to pick up the title of a 2012 Ford Mustang he’d won at a raffle at the Jim Wells County Fairgrounds the previous Saturday, he was told the car had not yet been paid for. Two days later, Sepulveda went to the Jim Wells County sheriff’s department and filed a fraud complaint against the raffle organizers, Hope and Faith Ministries. The raffle was to benefit the ministry and pay the expenses of a volunteer group, the Cheerstrike Cobras, a local cheer organization. Directors of both organizations blamed each other for the missing money, but the Hernandez family, founders of the ministry, had to ask family and friends for the $21,000 needed to pay off the car. Sepulveda drove his new Mustang back to Houston the week after he filed the complaint.

Facebook Made Me Do It. Two women, Mercedes Buentello and Miranda Salas, filed assault reports against each other on Saturday, September 10, after Salas allegedly wrote a negative comment about Buentello on Facebook. According to a report, Buentello drove to Salas’s home to confront her about the comment. A man named Cesar Garcia, who was inside the home at the time, attempted to break up the fight that developed between the two women. Garcia was then allegedly struck across the ear by Enrique Luís, who had accompanied Buentello. Each woman accused the other of starting the fight. Luís was arrested for assault causing bodily injury.

A Day in District Court. Of the 13 cases seen in the 79th District Court of Jim Wells County by judge Richard Terrell on Tuesday, September 13, five defendants pled not guilty and chose to take their cases before juries. Four pled guilty, resulting in three probations and one 15-month prison term for evading arrest. In two cases, the defendants asked Judge Terrell to reduce their bonds. The judge denied one and approved the other. The judge also released one man, who had been in the court’s custody since May for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, on a personal recognizance bond; and another, in court for a DWI charge while under probation for the same charge, who asked to be let out on bond, was denied. According to Alice Echo News, the judge called the latter “a menace to society.”