Deadbeat Town On Trial

"The cases are real!
The people are real!
The rulings are final..."
- Judge Judy

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Special to The Paz Files

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - This is the town that undresses with ease. You can find dirt on just about everybody here, from the poorest of deadbeat bloggers, to the people in city government, to the elite who know they'd not be elite anywhere else. This is where writer Rudolf Von Bulow's people spend their days mining info on a local woman who has filed charges against him alleging wanton rape. As things are going so far, Von Bulow may not have enough suitcases for the mountains of info he'll gather on his accuser.

Already, and this is weeks, perhaps months, ahead of any legal proceeding in a court of law, Von Bulow's crack investigators say they have found the motherlode of horrible facts about 23-year-old Louise Herrera, the local college student behind the allegations. She says Von Bulow drew her into a long, long night of rough sex after a night of drinking in a variety of nightclubs on South Padre Island. Von Bulow says she came willingly, that the one-night stand the two had a few weeks ago was consensual.

Questions about Ms. Herrera's past have hung over this town like the hanging of letters from a mother seeking back child support payments. Everybody has seen one, some of the ever-pleading letters even addressed to them. Child support payments are rarely made in this vulgar bordertown of some 150,000 legal and illegal residents. Pick a name out of the telephone directory and you won't be far off. News of abuse was born here.

Some of Von Bulow's expensive gumshoes, say they have the goods on her, enough anyway to sway any self-respecting jury into rendering a quicksilver verdict of not-guilty. The Von Bulow camp is not releasing the greater, more-damning portion of the discovery, but some of those involved say Ms. Herrera's time on the witness stand will not be fun.

"She's made allegations about things she's done before, but never complained about," said one insider. "She cannot be serious."

Initial press reports had Von Bulow funneling large amounts of booze down Ms. Herrera's throat. This, say the police reports, was followed by Von Bulow's decision to carry an inebriated Ms. Herrera to his condo, where he allegedly had his way with her, engaging in deviant sex that Ms. Herrera may contend has ruined her for life. Details are always sketchy this early in a case, but one investigator, who asked that her name not be used, said Von Bulow enticed the young woman into accepting anal sex that last until dawn. Lawyers for Von Bulow have pored over medical records associated with her gluteal examination at an island clinic.

"They want to know if evidence is available of her engaging in anal sex prior to the night in question," the investigator threw out during a brief interview at The Vermillion, a popular restaurant/bar here. "She cannot allege damage to her physical being if she was already damaged. She'll be asked that very question in court."

Von Bulow, meanwhile, is on a leave-of-absence from The Paz Files.

"He'll be back when all of this is resolved," said a statement from the website. "Until then, we are holding his stories and declining any he may wish to submit."

A member of the Von Bulow family told story-hungry reporters here that Rudolf Von Bulow was in France, taking a Journalism refresher course at The Sorbonne, the most prestigious school in Paris.

"He's being kept in the loop about the investigation," the family member said, noting that the Herrera family has not replied on an offer of $1 million to drop all charges. "The Mom has said she is skeptical, because it is her opinion that no Brownsville bank has a million dollars in cash in its vault. Go figure. I believe we're bickering about the payoff now."

As for Louise Herrera, well, she has not been heard from since the night of the alleged rape. At the local junior college she attends, one of her classmates said this: "I kinda believe her. And then I kinda don't. It's confusing..."

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