WASHINGTON — Latin Grammy winner and Texas Home Democratic candidate Bobby Pulido as soon as bragged about getting his longtime bandmate Frankie Caballero, who went on to be convicted of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old lady, “out of jail,” The Publish has discovered.
Pulido advised comic Jose Luis Zagar on a Could 2019 YouTube present that Caballero — who had at that time served 4 years in jail for indecent sexual contact with an eight-year-old lady — was a “grasp” keyboard participant.
“He can do something with the accordion,” the singer stated, in accordance with a translation by Laura Rodriguez O’Dwyer of ProntoTranslations, who additionally works as a New York State court docket interpreter. “However get this, they locked him up.”
“I keep in mind once I began out, I went to get him out of jail,” Pulido added, with out referencing what cost. Different translators indicated that the phrase for “jail” was a slang time period that could possibly be interpreted as “jail” or the colloquial English “slammer.” It’s unclear whether or not Pulido visited Caballero in a jail or a jail.
The resurfaced interview suggests Pulido’s information of his bandmate’s felony historical past was extra intensive than his marketing campaign beforehand acknowledged — and simply the most recent occasion through which his music background has drawn scrutiny in an in depth race together with his GOP opponent.
Courtroom information point out Caballero posted bail — both by a private recognizance bond, surety bond or with money — after a number of arrests between 1990 and 2000, as Pulido was ramping up his music profession.
The accordionist was additionally sentenced to 4 years in jail in Could 2014 for indecent sexual contact with a minor that resulted in Caballero registering as a intercourse offender — however that didn’t cease him from touring with Pulido after his launch, The Publish beforehand reported.
The New Yorker, The New York Instances, The Wall Avenue Journal and different shops have all cited the report in articles highlighting Pulido’s repeated appearances at quinceañeras, a Latino coming-of-age ceremony for teen ladies.
Pulido, who’s difficult incumbent Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ fifteenth Congressional District this November, didn’t specify to which cost he was referring within the Zagar interview, however his marketing campaign beforehand acknowledged the singer was conscious of Caballero’s drug issues.
A Pulido marketing campaign spokesperson stated that the musician’s feedback had been meant to convey having given Caballero an opportunity to carry out however didn’t make clear whether or not he picked him up from a jail or jail. “Bobby Pulido didn’t put up his [Caballero’s] bail,” the rep added.
“This determined smear marketing campaign received’t distract South Texas voters from the actual fact Monica voted to intestine their healthcare, elevate their grocery payments, and drive up fuel costs,” the spokesperson additionally stated.
Rene Ortega, Jr., a bondsman and member of the Hidalgo County Bail Bond Board, stated that “clerk’s information usually received’t present the identify of a bondsman’s shopper, as a result of that’s a personal transaction. But when somebody bypasses a bondsman and bails the defendant out instantly, their identify needs to be on the bond paperwork.”
As Pulido was launching his profession within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, he recruited Caballero to play within the band that recorded the Tejano singer’s debut album, “Desvelado” — months after the accordion participant had been launched on a private recognizance bond in a June 1994 intercourse assault case, in accordance with court docket paperwork.
A July 18, 1994, court docket submitting for the intercourse assault case reveals that Caballero was let loose of jail with out having to fork over any bail — on the situation that he can be ordered to pay the court docket $75,000 “within the occasion I fail to look and violate the circumstances of this bond.”
A former Hidalgo County prosecutor stated that the non-public recognizance bond in a felony rape case was “outrageous” and “solely may have occurred with the blessing of the DA’s workplace.”
Caballero was solely held for 10 days over the alleged intercourse assault — from July 8 to July 18, 1994 — earlier than being launched. When he was launched, the bond file listed his employment as a musician taking part in with Arturo Montes.
Pulido has recounted how Caballero joined him within the studio in January 1995 to file the singer’s first album, one month earlier than a Hidalgo County grand jury indicted him for the second-degree felony.
The pair toured collectively in help of the “Desvelado” album, and they are often seen on stage in a November 1995 look on KGBT-TV’s “Aquí Rogelio” present.
Three months earlier, Cabaellero had landed again in jail for 9 days on a cost of stealing a lawnmower earlier than he was launched with out having to pay bond once more. That resulted in a 15-day sentence and a $100 superb.
The duo collaborated on different studio albums whereas Caballero had the intercourse assault indictment hanging over his head earlier than the cost was dismissed by county prosecutors on April 12, 2000.
Pulido’s great-uncle, Rene Guerra, served as Hidalgo County District Legal professional from 1982 to 2014, and his identify seems on the court docket papers requesting the dismissal, which a choose granted.
When contacted, Guerra couldn’t recall particulars of the case however stated both he or the primary assistant prosecutor in his workplace would have needed to approve the dismissal.
“The DA’s workplace, as a common coverage, we might not dismiss a sexual assault,” he stated.
“Now, if the sufferer got here ahead and had some inconsistencies on tales and what have you ever — whether or not it was a date rape or a relationship — properly, these circumstances had been in all probability given a harsher look as a matter of coverage, OK, relying on motivation, relationship and what have you ever.”
“We did intensive makes an attempt to corroborate,” he added.
Guerra additionally stated his great-nephew Pulido had by no means retained Caballero as a everlasting worker and solely used him as a contract participant.
“I don’t know that you simply’re gonna discover a higher one who’s compassionate than Bobby, OK. And I do know as a result of I’ve seen it,” he continued, recalling Pulido’s time finding out music in faculty whereas recovering from a damaged leg.
Requested about federal marketing campaign finance information displaying he donated $3,500 to his relative’s marketing campaign, Guerra added: “Oh yeah, and I’m gonna donate some extra.”
Over a three-decade interval, Caballero was additionally charged in Hidalgo County with driving whereas intoxicated, cocaine possession, the 1994 intercourse assault, indecent sexual contact with a minor and assault on a member of the family by strangulation.
The assault by strangulation resulted in a five-year jail sentence, however he was credited with 747 days of earlier jail time, permitting him to be paroled out in January 2026.
Cocaine possession expenses had been dismissed in 2009 as a part of a plea settlement involving a federal cost for transportation of an illegal alien from Mexico into the US. A choose sentenced him to 27 months.
Driving beneath the affect earned Caballero a 30-day sentence and a $350 superb.
Pulido’s marketing campaign supervisor Abel Prado has stated the singer was by no means conscious of Caballero’s look on the intercourse offender registry however knew his on-again, off-again bandmate “lengthy struggled with habit points.”
Pulido’s supervisor, Jimmy Montez, severed ties with Caballero after studying of his felony historical past in 2021.
The accordion participant was jailed in January, February and October of that yr, per Hidalgo County court docket information.
A Jan. 8, 2021, court docket file reveals that Caballero, when paying bond for expenses of failing to conform together with his intercourse offender registration responsibility, listed his employment as: “Bobby Pullido [sic] Band.”
In public performances and interviews, Pulido has talked about Caballero’s run-ins with the regulation, saying in a March 2024 interview that it was a “disgrace” his bandmate “simply can’t keep out of bother.”
On the time of that interview, Caballero was sitting once more in a Hidalgo County jail on new expenses of indecency with a baby by sexual contact relationship again to Could 2020. These had been dismissed too, in accordance with Hidalgo County jail information.
In a current leaked audio recording reported by Punchbowl Information, De La Cruz recommended that her marketing campaign’s inner polling has proven her main Pulido by only one proportion level, a report back to which the Democrat’s marketing campaign additionally drew consideration in its assertion.
A De La Cruz marketing campaign rep stated it was “completely pathetic” for Pulido’s staff to “speak about some ballot” after having “spent a long time knowingly bringing a serial predator round our households.”
