WASHINGTON — A two-time Latin Grammy winner and Home Democratic candidate hoping to flip a GOP-held district in Texas has carried out greater than a dozen occasions with a registered intercourse offender who was sentenced to jail for indecent contact with an eight-year-old lady.
Democratic congressional hopeful Bobby Pulido performed and recorded his breakout hit with accordionist Frankie Caballero within the Nineties previous to his conviction — however toured once more with the bandmate many years later after Caballero’s four-year jail sentence for the second-degree felony with the lady in 2014.
Caballero appeared with the Tejano singer at concert events in Kansas Metropolis, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Tucson, Arizona and in different states between 2018 and 2021, in response to YouTube movies and social media reviewed by The Publish.
He additionally nonetheless lists his employment as “accordion participant for Bobby pulido” on Fb and posted greater than a dozen occasions over the identical time interval about exhibits with the singer in different Texas cities.
“Bobby was by no means made conscious of Caballero’s intercourse offender registration and would by no means knowingly affiliate with anybody with that sort of historical past. Bobby extends his deepest sympathies and assist to the entire victims concerned,” stated Pulido marketing campaign supervisor Abel Prado in an announcement.
Court docket data of the 2014 baby intercourse crime aren’t public as a result of the sufferer was a minor, although the cost, sentence imposed and intercourse offender registration standing can be found on a Texas Division of Public Security webpage.
Hidalgo County jail data present Caballero was additionally booked in June 1992 for aggravated sexual assault of a kid and hit with a $75,000 bond. The case disposition is unclear, and no court docket data can be found on-line.
Ramon Rodriguez, a south Texas bass participant, informed The Publish that he had carried out with Caballero as lately as 2020 and that the kid intercourse conviction grew to become “a recognized reality in music circles” within the instant years after.
“This actually raises some issues about Bobby’s judgment. You get to a sure level in music the place they vet all people round you,” Rodriguez stated, including that the Tejano scene is “a really tight-knit business.”
A former prosecutor in Hidalgo County additionally stated that there was “merely no model of this story the place Bobby Pulido didn’t know the person he employed and befriended for many years is a profession baby predator,” since Caballero would have had a “probation officer, employer verifications” and missed work for court docket dates in addition to jail time.
‘Simply can’t keep out of bother‘
Caballero has an extended rap sheet of no less than 13 fees past the kid intercourse crimes — however that additionally didn’t cease Pulido from taking credit score for bringing him into the band or talking in glowing phrases concerning the accordion afficionado’s work with him on the title music of his 1995 debut album “Desvelado.”
The singer informed a crowd at an April 2020 live performance in Arizona he was taken with Caballero’s completed enjoying once they first met, sharing that he thought to himself: “That man’s a nasty man! And so, I introduced him over.”
On the time, Caballero already had responsible pleas and convictions stretching again to 1995 for theft, trespassing, driving whereas intoxicated, in response to Hidalgo County court docket data.
State fees towards Caballero for cocaine possession had been dismissed in 2009 as a result of he had additionally pleaded responsible two months earlier than to a federal crime for transportation of an illegal alien from Mexico into the US. A decide sentenced him to 27 months, per federal court docket filings.
On Might 30, 2020, Caballero allegedly strangled a member of the family, Nancy Caballero, and was arrested for the third-degree felony — however launched on a $2,000 bond, court docket data additionally present. He was charged a yr later.
Caballero posted on Fb a handful of occasions later in 2020 that he could be at exhibits with Pulido, sharing in a Dec. 23, 2020, that he was “performing with Bobby pulido” in Austin.
In April 2021, Pulido additionally shared a video on his YouTube channel performing a medley of his songs and sharing the stage with Caballero in Las Vegas at a dwell present.
Extra photographs on Caballero’s Fb present them enjoying collectively at a pal’s birthday celebration in Might 2021.
The accordion icon was indicted for the Might 2020 assault on Nancy Caballero by a state grand jury on July 2021, at which period he was additionally hit with fees for failing to report a change of tackle as a registered intercourse offender, one other felony.
Caballero pleaded responsible in Might 2024 to the assault and was sentenced to 5 years in jail. Extra fees for failing to register as a intercourse offender had been dismissed as a part of a plea settlement for the home violence case.
He was credited with 747 days of earlier jail time, permitting him to be paroled out in January 2026.
Pulido appeared conscious of Caballero’s many run-ins with the regulation, admitting in a March 2024 interview slightly greater than a yr earlier than launching his congressional run that it was a “disgrace” his bandmate “simply can’t keep out of bother.”
“Frankie Caballero has lengthy struggled with habit points and Bobby Pulido has acknowledged and tried to assist him with that battle,” Prado added. “When Premier Administration realized of Caballero’s prison historical past in 2021 he was instantly fired and that relationship was severed.”
Social media posts counsel their public affiliation ended round Might 2021, two months earlier than Caballero was indicted for bodily assaulting his member of the family.
A supply near the marketing campaign stated that it was “business commonplace” for Premier Administration to “not conduct a background test for Caballero’s short-term performing engagement,” including that Pulido is anticipated to “quickly be making a charitable donation to assist abuse victims in Texas.”
A marketing campaign rep additionally pointed to Homero Esquivel because the accordion participant that has spent essentially the most time in Pulido’s band.
In a November 2025 interview even after launching his marketing campaign, Pulido nonetheless showered Caballero with reward for recording the the “everlasting” hit “Desvelado” with him 30 years earlier than.
“It was speculated to be completed with keyboard” performed by Brando Mireles, however “Brando likes to social gathering” and didn’t make it to the studio, so Caballero as a “prolific accordion participant” subbed in along with his personal instrument, Pulido revealed to Houston Chronicle music critic Joey Guerra.
“And I stated, ‘F–okay Brando, we’re preserving the accordion,” Pulido stated.
The ‘quinceañara’ candidate
The Texas Democrat is difficult incumbent Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ fifteenth Congressional District this November, which runs north from the border county of Hidalgo to the jap facet of San Antonio.
“This election isn’t about who you need acting at your niece’s quinceañera,” De La Cruz stated in a video assertion earlier this month after her Dem opponent received his main race.
“It’s about who you belief with your loved ones’s future. After years of neglect, South Texas lastly has a seat on the desk and we’re not going to jeopardize that.”
One of many solely polls performed within the race from a Democrat-aligned agency confirmed Pulido inside hanging distance of De La Cruz, 38% to 41%, with 21% of voters nonetheless undecided.
For his half, Pulido — who received the Latin Grammy for Greatest Tejano Album in 2022 and 2025 — has claimed the “quinceañara” jab as a badge of honor, posting photographs of himself on Instagram acting at teenage ladies’ birthday events.
The GOP congresswoman had beforehand attacked Pulido for being a “scandal-plagued celeb” whose social media posts have linked to “grownup content material” and who admitted to solely dwelling part-time in Texas.
The Publish first revealed that the two-time Latin Grammy winner had additionally starred in a bizarre music video as a serial masturbator, masking his non-public components with a pink blanket earlier than pleasing himself in entrance of a girl.
“I’ve been within the music enterprise for 30 years and by no means had a scandal,” Pulido stated in a March 22 video assertion responding to the report on X, claiming the music video was “primarily based on an actual singer that was caught in a lewd act and made worldwide headlines on the time.”
“I’m a singer, actor, songwriter — and I received’t apologize for my previous inventive endeavors,” he added. Pulido additionally accused the “Republican assault machine” of being unable to “translate Spanish to English,” which “can’t” be completed as a result of “it doesn’t translate in humor.”
Caballero didn’t reply to a request for remark.
