County Still Holds Mejor Que Nada Parking Lot Deed as Collateral for Ray Zapata's Bail Bonding Ops

A month has elapsed since the local Bail Bond Board decided the fate of a San Angelo parking lot, refusing to relinquish control of the paved parcel next to Mejor Que Nada because owner Ray Zapata had previously pledged it as collateral for his bail bonding company.

Sending a representative of the company in his place, Zapata attempted to have the lot released from the county last month, but his employee had shown up to the May meeting without an itemized list of collateral proposed to take its place. The deal would have left at $575,640 hole in Zapata’s bonding account with the county, a risk the board was not willing to take.

In its place, Zapata’s employee Dee Ann Sheen had asked to have other items accepted as collateral, but failed to show up with any documentation on what those items were. Zapata’s efforts failed on both counts.

This month, both the release of the parking lot and the acceptance of additional collateral were on the board’s agenda again, however despite a promise to turn over the information required on the day following the last meeting, the board still hadn’t received a list of the new properties until the day before this month’s meeting, or six days past the actual deadline.

Coming in last minute on June 16, Assistant County Attorney Ginger Treadwell hadn’t had time to review the documentation prior to the meeting, but the board gracefully elected to review the items and granted acceptance pending further documentation.

Pictures, deeds of trust, homestead exemptions and insurance must all be submitted on the properties before they are accepted as collateral, which local bail bondsman Louis Perez estimated in the meeting could take anywhere from a few weeks to six months. Meanwhile, the county will retain their hold on the deed.

Once all of the documentation has been submitted, the board will release the parking lot back to Zapata, who is alleged to have an interested buyer, likely the party that purchased the venue a couple of months prior.

According to Zapata’s employee, the buyer intends to turn the building into an office space.