Whipped Cream Difficulties

Today’s Statesman has a long backgrounder about Amado Pardo and Jovita’s. Jovita’s, you may recall, is the South Austin restaurant alleged to be at the center of a heroin distribution ring, and Pardo is one of the key figures in the indictment.

There’s some stuff in the article I was previously unaware of. Specifically:

• Pardo’s political activism, not just for Democratic candidates, but specifically for Hispanic Democrats. (The Glen Maxey story, in particular, is interesting.)
• Pardo was convicted of murder. Twice. The first murder was in 1971: he was sentenced to 12 years, and paroled in 1975 “after serving about four years” according to the Statesman. The second time was in 1983: he was sentenced to eight years, but paroled after four. He was also convicted of illegally possessing a firearm in 1978, and was released from prison on that charge in 1981. So he got almost as much time on the gun charge as he did on each of the two murders.
• “….some who knew Pardo best said he appeared to have overcome his criminal past to become a community leader, a successful businessman and a strong patriarch to his large family.”
• “Though the indictment accuses Pardo and the others of dealing heroin since May 2011, an FBI agent testified during a co-defendant’s detention hearing that he believes Pardo has been dealing the drug for more than 25 years — a period that predates Jovita’s.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 8th, 2012 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Clippings, Food, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.