The article reporting on campaign funding originally scheduled for today has been delayed until tomorrow to bring you this special report.
Earlier today, Max Grossman published several documents suggesting that District 5 candidate Ivan Niño was accused of a misdemeanor for Deceptive Business Practices while he worked for a private titling company providing vehicle titling services on behalf of the County of El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector.
Included among the 29 pages published by Grossman is a 22-page document titled “Texas Assessor Collector Enforcement Division” investigative report against Niño. The report includes an El Paso County Tax Office Enforcement Division Presentation Supplement accusing Niño of a “Class ‘A’ Misdemeanor” for deceptive trade practices. According to the documentation, a warrant was issued on March 16, 2020. Along with the supplemental page, the investigative report includes two witness statements, a photo-line up and registration documentation in addition to user account information for a computer system used to provide registration services.
The included Incident / Investigation Report dated March 8, 2019, alleges that Niño “intentionally and knowingly committed two counts of Deceptive Business Practice” while he worked for a county contractor. The included investigator summaries detail the case of two people complaining they were improperly charged for vehicle registration services.
Also included in the document packet is a Complaint Affidavit outlining the accusation against Niño.
We contacted Ivan Niño earlier today asking him for comment about the allegations made in the documents.
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Ivan Niño Responds To The Allegations
In an email, Ivan Niño told us that after running for the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector seat in 2020, “false allegations were filed by the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collectors Office enforcement division.”
According to the El Paso County Elections Department records, Niño ran for the County Tax Assessor-Collector seat in the Democratic Primary on March 3, 2020. In the two-candidate race, Niño was defeated by Ruben P. Gonzalez 72.39% to 27.61%. Gonzalez is the current Tax Assessor Collector.
Because it is a weekend, we were unable to contact Gonzalez for his comments and because the election in which Niño is contending for the city council District 5 seat is on Tuesday, we felt it is important to bring you this story with the information we have available to us at this time. We plan a follow up once we can secure Gonzalez’ comments.
We asked Ivan Niño four questions about the allegations.
We asked him to “explain the outcome of the criminal investigation into you to the voters.”
Niño responded that “in 2020, I ran for the office of El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector. Shortly after the election—about 13 days later, on March 16th (as stated on affidavit)—these false allegations were filed by the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector enforcement division.” He added that “however, I was never served, charged, or arrested, and these allegations were ultimately dismissed.”
Niño adds that he “was a victim of retaliation from the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office,” concluding that “a district court also granted me the right to have these unfounded claims expunged.”
He went on to explain that “recently, I understand that some of the initial documents were released by the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office, but they don’t present the full story and lack a Judicial Judge’s signature.” Niño added that “I recognize that this may raise questions among the public, so I want to be clear: I was working for a subcontractor as a deputy who conducted business on behalf of the Tax Assessor-Collector’s office.” He continued, “these subcontracted offices, which are private, charge separate processing fees for all transactions,” adding that “members of the public always have had the option to use a publicly-owned office to conduct the same transactions at no additional cost.”
He went on to state that “after these false allegations were presented, these unfounded claims were dismissed.”
Ivan Niño added that “for the record – I have never been terminated from any of my previous jobs or positions,” adding that since 2019, “I have and still are on the Title & Registration Advisory Committee for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.”
One of the documents included in the document cache is an email from Ruben Gonzalez, the County Tax Assessor-Collector, to the Committee complaining that he had not been contacted by them when Niño was selected for the Committee. Gonzalez wrote in his email that his office was investigating Niño for “suspicious activity” but that because of lack of cooperation no one had been arrested.
According to Niño’s statement to us he remains on the Committee today.
We also asked if an arrest warrant was served on him, or if he had been arrested. Niño responded that, “no[,] I was never served, charged, nor arrested.” We also asked if he was criminally charged. He responded that “no, I was never charged,” adding that “the allegations were false and dismissed.”
Finally, we asked why he has made statements that he had never been charged with a crime, as the affidavit suggests. Niño responded that “the affidavit that is being shared isn’t signed by a Judge – it’s [an] initial internal documentation that was drafted by the El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collectors’ Enforcement Division.” He concluded that “I have never been charged with a crime, nor have I ever been arrested.”
The original documents can be accessed on El Paso Taxpayer Revolt.
This is a developing story. We will follow up when more information becomes available.