Past, Present Houston Officials Named in Bribery Indictment

Six people, including several of the city’s most prominent black and Latino politicians, were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of offering and accepting bribes to win support for a multimillion-dollar hotel project.

City Council members John E. Castillo and Michael J. Yarbrough, as well as former City Council members Ben T. Reyes and John W. Peavy Jr., allegedly took cash payments ranging from $3,000 to $50,000 in exchange for their votes last year on a proposed downtown hotel next to the city’s convention center. Two lobbyists, former City Council aide Ross C. Allyn and former city port commissioner Elizabeth “Betti” Maldonado, allegedly facilitated the transactions.

If found guilty, the defendants face maximum sentences ranging from 15 to 50 years and fines ranging from $500,000 to $1.5 million.

“These are serious offenses, serious violations that involve public corruption,” said Michael A. Attanasio, a prosecutor in the U.S. Justice Department’s public integrity section.

But several of the accused, along with their lawyers and some community activists, repeated contentions--voiced after similar undercover stings around the nation--that federal investigators are engaged in a deliberate campaign to target and entrap minority politicians.

Of the eight black and Latino members on the Houston City Council at the time the probe began, only two have been untouched by the scandal. None of the five white council members nor its one Asian American member was implicated.

“I feel like I’m a victim of a scam, and what I feel is disheartening is that the scammers are the federal government,” said Yarbrough, one of three blacks currently on the City Council.

Defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, who is representing Maldonado, predicted that once all the evidence is made public, a jury will not only acquit his client, “they’ll be ready to lynch the FBI.”

FBI Special Agent Don Clark, who heads the agency’s Houston office and is black, denied that race was a factor in the investigation.

According to the 11-count bribery and conspiracy indictment, the FBI opened its investigation in August 1995, when the Houston City Council was considering proposals for a $155-million hotel.

Times researcher Lianne Hart contributed to this story.