Booze

Dillon Collier, Investigative Reporter

Joshua Saunders, Photojournalist

Daniela Ibarra, Producer/Content Creator

SAN ANTONIO – For one week this month, anyone walking through the basement between the Paul Elizondo Tower and the Bexar County Justice Center passed by large gift baskets on display as part of a silent auction.

The baskets were made up of items donated by employees from the various departments within the Bexar County District Clerk’s Office, staff told KSAT.

Some of the baskets, which included the names “Liquor Basket” and “Lotto Basket,” contained bottles of hard alcohol, beer, wine, premade mixed cocktails and lottery scratch-off tickets.

Some items had bids over $200, according to sign-up sheets placed in front of the baskets.

The auction’s proceeds would have gone toward an off-site “Christmas Party” for the office run by first-year District Clerk Gloria Martinez, a banner advertising the event shows.

The week-long auction, which had been scheduled to run between August 8-15, was abruptly canceled after KSAT Investigates began asking questions about it.

District clerk employees confirmed to KSAT that they were tasked with monitoring the auction while on the clock. Others told KSAT they were uncomfortable hosting an auction with these sorts of items.

The baskets were in a public thoroughfare that leads to a courthouse that hears thousands of gambling and alcohol-related criminal cases each year.

And while a county spokeswoman confirmed the district clerk’s office got permission to use the space following a request to the county’s facilities department, the event did not go to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office for an ethical and legal review.

Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales declined to tell KSAT whether he was on board with the auction, since he is the attorney for the county’s elected officials and did not want to say “anything that might compromise that relationship.”

“Nobody contacted us about that,” said Gonzales, who confirmed his office would have offered an ethical and legal opinion on the event had his office been asked.

A district clerk employee who identified herself as the head of the fundraising committee defended the auctioning of alcohol, telling KSAT the items were closed and not being consumed on county property.

Bexar County’s policy on gambling, betting and lotteries prohibits selling or purchasing a numbers slip or ticket while on county-owned or leased property.

Martinez, who took office on Jan. 1, did not respond to a phone call or emails seeking comment for this story.

Three district clerk employees who told KSAT they were monitoring the event, confirmed being on the clock while doing so.

A staff member identified as Martinez’s chief deputy told KSAT this month employees were supposed to be watching over the event only while on their breaks.

Both times KSAT recorded footage of the event multiple district clerk employees asked what we were doing and if we wanted to bid on the items.

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