Former Hidalgo County District Clerk Returns to Face Charges After Thirteen Years as a Fugitive

A man who has not set foot in Hidalgo County voluntarily in thirteen years is finally coming back, and not by choice. Omar Guerrero, 49, was arrested in Mexico on Tuesday and is now in U.S. custody, according to a news release from the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. District Attorney Toribio "Terry" Palacios said Wednesday that Guerrero will be back in the county within two days, the result of a joint effort between the DA's office, the sheriff's office, the U.S. Marshals, and Mexican federal agencies.

Guerrero held the elected office of District Clerk before his career, and his reputation, started unraveling in 2006. He lost his seat that March, when Laura Hinojosa defeated him in the Democratic primary by more than fifty points, and she has held the office ever since. That same year, Guerrero was charged with sexual assault and fled to Reynosa rather than face the case. Mexican authorities eventually placed him in custody and returned him to Hidalgo County, where he stood trial in 2007 and was found not guilty.

He stayed out of major headlines for a few years, aside from a 2010 arrest for sending threatening text messages to a woman. The case that actually defines his fugitive status began on April 26, 2013, when sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a child disclosing what the release calls "an outcry of sexual assault." According to that release, the victim said she left her workplace with a man she later identified as Guerrero, who took her to a residence in the 6300 block of Western Road in rural Mission, where the assault occurred. Investigators reviewed physical evidence and corroborating witness statements and determined there was sufficient probable cause to support the allegation.

At the time of his eventual arrest in 2013, Guerrero was also wanted on charges unrelated to the assault case: tampering with identification numbers, tied to a rifle with an altered serial number, and felony cocaine possession. He was booked into the county jail on May 3, 2013, with bond set at more than $1 million, which four bond companies posted on his behalf. By May 8, he had vanished.

What followed was less a manhunt than a long-running billing dispute. The bond companies that vouched for Guerrero spent years fighting forfeiture in civil court rather than racing to find him. One of them, Arnaldo Corpus, paid the county $50,000 in 2018 after a jury found him liable for his share. The legal system recovered its money in installments while the man at the center of the case lived, by all appearances, undisturbed.

The Sheriff's Office release does not say where in Mexico Guerrero was located or under what circumstances the arrest occurred, only that the effort involved Mexican federal agencies and the U.S. Marshals.

"Sooner or later, the law will catch up to you and you will face the music," Palacios said on Wednesday. "Guerrero still hasn't faced the music yet. He will have his day in court."

Guerrero has already had one day in court, in 2007, and walked out acquitted. Whatever happens with the 2013 case, his record now includes one allegation a jury rejected and one a grand jury never got the chance to hear, separated by six years and one continent's worth of distance. Guerrero faces the original 2013 charges now, along with whatever legal exposure thirteen years of flight adds.

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