San Benito Secrecy
After months of law breaking, we’ve decided we have to sue the City of San Benito to get the records they’re illegally hiding.
For Immediate Release
March 10, 2025
SAN BENITO’S SECRECY PROMPTS NEW LAWSUIT
Dolcefino Media has filed a lawsuit in Cameron County, accusing the City of San Benito and the San Benito Economic Development Corporation of illegally withholding public records.
“Enough is enough,” said Dolcefino Media President Wayne Dolcefino. “We are asking the court to finally force this rogue government to release public records, requested as part of an ongoing corruption investigation in the Rio Grande Valley city.”
San Benito City Manager Fred Sandoval is one of the public officials targeted in the lawsuit. The city manager has refused to provide text messages. A Dolcefino Media investigation has uncovered evidence that Sandoval was in significant financial trouble when hired by the City.
Since then, Sandoval has pushed contracts with longtime friends, including early contracts for a planned multi-million-dollar concert venue at the city fairgrounds.
“When Sandoval’s history is juxtaposed with the hiding of records… the secrecy and lack of transparency becomes even more concerning,” the lawsuit reads.
Dolcefino Media has exposed nepotism, the attempted hijacking of a multi-million-dollar shopping center at taxpayers’ expense, a child molester on the EDC Board, violations of state transparency laws and questionable contracts during an investigation that began last spring. The mayor’s brother was cited for assault on Wayne Dolcefino during one of our visits.
One of the defendants in the lawsuit is Jose Morales, a former member of the EDC Board. The Texas Attorney General ordered Morales to release phone records to Dolcefino investigators, but he resigned and refused to release the documents.
The lawsuit was filed by Kelsey Galbraith and Jeff Diamant of Jeff Diamant PC, a Houston law firm.
The City of San Benito has a new law firm handling public information requests, O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo. The city replaced another law firm handling public records requests after they released emails Sandoval had refused to provide. Those records helped expose the relationships between Sandoval and city contractors.
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