OFF THE WIRE
By Guillermo Contreras
SAN ANTONIO — Judges in Bexar County got them. State and federal
prosecutors in San Antonio and South Texas got them. So did defense
lawyers, court clerks, secretaries and bondsmen.
And now
courthouse regulars are scratching their heads, struggling to remember
what they spoke about with a defense lawyer at the center of a federal
corruption investigation.
The San Antonio Express-News has learned
that hundreds of letters have been sent by federal authorities
notifying people that a wiretap was used to eavesdrop on their phone
calls and texts with Al Acevedo
Jr., who is under investigation over allegations that he provided gifts
or bribes to people within the criminal justice system for favors on
his cases.
The letters do not mention Acevedo's name, but they
list a target phone number that the Express-News confirmed Acevedo has
used. What the letters also don't say is what evidence the FBI has
collected, and against whom. Acevedo has been a lawyer for almost 30
years, with hundreds of clients in the state and federal systems in San
Antonio and South Texas.
“This letter is being sent to you as a
notice that you, or someone using a telephone on which you are the
listed subscriber, were intercepted pursuant to a series of federally
authorized wiretaps between August 20, 2013, and November 15, 2013,”
said one version of the letters, which the Express-News reviewed.
A
retired veteran FBI agent said the letters are telling because agents
generally have to show a federal judge that the eavesdropping picked up
on criminal activity in order to get more time to listen in.
“That (duration of the tap mentioned in the letter) suggests the wire definitely has criminal activity on it,” said James Wedich,
who spent nearly 35 years with the FBI. “The judge gave them a number
of extensions because he saw criminal activity. You've got one serious
investigation going on.”
State District Judge Angus McGinty
appears to have been the first major casualty of the federal probe. He
announced his immediate resignation last Friday in the face of
allegations that he reduced bail on defendants who appeared before him
in exchange for auto repairs on his personal vehicles, sources said.
For more on this story, read the Saturday edition of the San Antonio Express-News or visit ExpressNews.com.
gcontreras@express-news.net
