ROCKSPRINGS, Texas — Edwards County, located about an hour from the U.S.-Mexico Border, is nearly 2,200 miles of vast ranchland.
“I would say we’re not even rural. We’re more frontier,” said Edwards County Sheriff Pam Elliott.
The county has a population of less than 2,000 people, and, except for deer hunting season, you won’t find a stranger for miles.
“Here you know everybody. Hell, you even know their dog’s name,” said Edwards County Judge Souli Shanklin.
That’s why Elliott and Shanklin said people in the Edwards County seat of Rocksprings were shocked to find out their neighbors are accused of robbing taxpayers of half a million dollars.
“You’re not stealing from rich people,” Shanklin said. “That’s the thing—these folks that lost this money are not wealthy people. You can drive around this town and see that.”
Elliott told KENS 5 the story begins back in 2016, when then-Rocksprings Mayor Pauline Gonzales was indicted on several charges, including abuse of office.
Officials said Gonzales was offered a plea deal: step down from office and plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. Elliott said the felony charges were dropped in the plea agreement, and Gonzales was given six months deferred adjudication on the misdemeanor.
Then, in the 2017 Rocksprings mayoral election, Gonzales ran for the seat again. And won.
But only a few months into her term, new allegations surfaced.
Elliott said someone filed a complaint of illegal voting, accusing Gonzales and the city secretary, Romana Bienek, who was put in charge of the election, of stuffing the ballot boxes.
Elliott said when she went down to city hall, “the ballot box is open, and sitting on the floor with ballots hanging out of it.”
“There was more ballots than there was people,” Shanklin added.
Elliott said that case has yet to be brought to a grand jury.
In February of 2019, Gonzales stepped down once again from her duties as the mayor of Rocksprings. Around the same time, Bienek also left her position as city secretary.
Investigators said that seven days after Gonzales’ resignation, they got a call from city officials saying, “We got a problem.”
“The numbers aren’t adding up. Money isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Money is being moved out of the account without the authorization from city council,” Elliott recalled.
Authorities launched an investigation, going back five years to follow the paper trail.
“It just kind of surfaced from there," Elliott said. "Like everything just kind of started bubbling up to the surface."
Investigators said they gathered at least 4,700 pages of documents that tell the story of a grand scheme to embezzle thousand of dollars from the City of Rocksprings.
“It was more of a laundering scheme,” Elliott said.
Gonzales and her husband, Ramiro Gonzales, Jr., were arrested in August on multiple charges, including engaging in organized criminal activity and credit card abuse.
Investigators said the couple was allegedly using city credit cards to fill up their personal gas tanks.
“Then, at the same time, she was turning in a voucher for fuel—so paying herself twice for the same thing,” Elliott said.
And they weren’t alone in the scheme.
Daniel Garcia, the former city public works director, and Bienek were also arrested and charged for credit card abuse and engaging in organized criminal activity.
The four suspects are also accused of using city credit cards to buy equipment and tools for personal use.
“You go into Lowe’s and you buy stuff on a city credit card, and you’re on camera,” Elliott said.
The allegations don't end there. The four are also accused of forging timecards, adding overtime hours that adds up to thousands of dollars.
“You had a person making $15 an hour, but he made $75,000 in one year,” Elliott said.
She said they also discovered that the suspects were pocketing cash payments made by citizens for water bills, then made up the difference by overcharging larger accounts.
“So basically robbing Peter to pay Paul, which was themselves in cash that never got deposited,” Elliott said.
Investigators also said they even tried to destroy documents filed in city hall, after they left office.
Bienek is also charged with tampering with government documents. Officials said she walked into city hall and tried accessing city financial records, requesting financial statements be printed for her.
An arrest warrant states Bienek told the current city secretary that payments for the street repair were incorrect, and needed to be transferred back into the street repair/sales tax checking account.
Elliott said the four got away with close to $500,000 in city money, leaving the little town of Rocksprings almost broke.
“When this money’s missing from the people that live here, it’s an offense because they don’t have any extra money. Then their town falls down around them, and turns into disrepair because someone else thinks that they have the right to steal that money,” Shanklin said.
All four suspects have since been released from jail on bond.
KENS 5 asked Gonzales if she’d like to tell her side of the story, and she said we could talk to her attorney.
Elliott said they are trying to bypass the local district attorney and have instead asked the attorney general to prosecute the case to get all this resolved.
She said they’ve also called in a forensic accountant to review the evidence.
In the meantime, Shanklin and Elliott said they will keep fighting for their citizens.
“That’s what crime and punishment is about,” Shanklin said. “Prosecute the case, prosecute them, and they’re brought to justice. You put a stop to the next person thinking they can get away with it.”
“The citizens deserve better," Elliott added. "They deserve justice."