Olga Hernandez, a 66-year-old former school district employee, became a unlikely target of an FBI insurance fraud investigation dubbed Operation Wicked Trust. After working for the San Antonio Independent School District as a secretary for 30 years, Hernandez was elected a trustee in 2006. She held that position for 11 years until she resigned in February 2017, when she was indicted, arrested and publicly led away in handcuffs.
Operation Wicked Trust was a public corruption investigation that reached back nearly a decade, starting with a man named Josh Cerna, employed by a San Antonio insurance brokerage firm, Mullen Pension & Benefits Group, and who later became an FBI Informant. Also targeted was a school district consultant, William Haff, who conspired to rig insurance bids for school districts, including San Antonio’s.
Insurance is a complicated product and school districts hired insurance consultant William Half. Half took bribes to provide inside information to the insurance broker The Mullen Group (Sam Mullens and his #2 Josh Cerna) who used the information to rig the bid process on behalf of their clients, the insurance companies trying to win RFP bids.
But the only problem with the Federal government’s case against Olga was she was completely innocent, and the prosecuting Assistant US Attorney, Mark T. Roomberg knew it and had no evidence for proof. A complaint was filed against Roomberg after the trial with the Dept of Justice, Office of Professional Responsibility, for ‘professional misconduct’.
The power of the federal government, when they come after you, feels like a tidal wave. And when the government uses that process, illegally, to convict an innocent person, that’s where the buck has got to stop. More than half of all wrongful criminal convictions are caused by government misconduct.
According to the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI, Olga’s case was entirely predicated on the stupid assumption, that ‘just because Olga was friends with certain people, she had to be guilty of their crimes too.’ They were looking to fit a ‘Square peg in a Round Hole’, and did not care who they hurt or what the outcome was.
IN THIS INSIDER EXCLUSIVE NETWORK TV SPECIAL, “Justice in America – Olga Hernandez’s Story” our news team sits down with her and her lawyers, ‘Bill’ Reid, @ Reid Collins & Tsai, LLP, and Alan Brown, @ Brown and Brown, who successfully won an acquittal for Olga. In one of those ‘Perry Mason’ moments that resounded in jurors’ ears like Babe Ruth hitting a home run in Yankee stadium, Bill said in his closing argument:
“You know, this system of government of ours that I’ve been talking about isn’t just a concept in the wind. It’s a core concept of our democracy.
When the government uses the legal process, in a corrupt manner, and asks you, the ladies and gentlemen of the jury to endorse it, to convict an innocent person, that’s where the buck stops.
And that’s why in this country we have the jury system we have, and that’s why we have the burdens we have on the government to prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that my client did anything wrong, which they have wholly failed to do.”
But one thing is absolutely true. At the end of the day today, most likely today, or tomorrow if you deliberate beyond, you’ll go home, government will go home, I’ll go home, the judge will go home, the lights will go off and this courthouse will be closed, but from this day forward, for every day for the rest of her life, this day will stand out in Olga Hernandez’s life.”
Bill, and Alan have earned reputations as unyielding trial lawyers who repeatedly represent individuals and families against big companies and the Goliaths of the world, including the US Government. And repeatedly win. They have earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike…. as one of the best Trial lawyers in Texas.
They have built substantial reputations nationwide by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down. And their amazing courtroom skills and headline grabbing success rate continue to provide their clients with the results they need……And the results they deserve.
You can contact Bill Reid at Reid Collins & Tsai, LLP https://reidcollins.com/ 512.647.6100