House Speaker Jenniffer González confirmed Wednesday that a federal grand jury asked her for documents related to the approval of legislation, but declined to say if it was related to an alleged probe of New Progressive Party Sen. Héctor Martínez for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for the passage of bills that benefited a private security company.

“They asked for information related to the transactions, session acts and discussions of legislation,” she said following a news conference to announce the allocation of $1 million to the Commerce and Export Company to grant business loans to women who are heads of households.

González said the grand jury requested the information months ago. She also said that as far as she knows there are no House representatives under investigation.

She said that Martínez was cleared in September 2007 of any wrongdoing because of his links to purported drug dealer José L. “Coquito” López Rosario, now deceased, who had accompanied the senator during official visits to several penitentiaries during the past term.

The grand jury investigation reportedly wants to determine whether Martínez profited financially from businessmen in exchange for his legislative duties as chairman of the Senate Public Safety and Judiciary Affairs Committee. News reports claim that Juan F. Bravo, the owner of armored truck and private security company Ranger American, and the author of  Gov. Fortuño’s crime strategy, is also the target of the grand jury investigation and the FBI for allegedly paying lawmakers to promote legislation to benefit his businesses.
Martínez said the federal government has not requested any documents from him.

The NPP lawmaker got into trouble a few years ago after he was linked to drug trafficker López Rosario, known as Coquito, whose nickname is a reference to the symbol of the NPP’s palm tree and its coconuts and was a big contributor to the political group in the Carolina Senate District, which Martínez represents.

Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz had said that in January the U.S. Attorney’s Office requested some Senate documents from the last term.

House Minority Leader Héctor Ferrer declined to comment on Martínez’s legal troubles, contending that he deserves the same deference that he gave to former Gov. Aníbal Acevedo Vilá and that Martínez should be presumed innocent.

No constitutional amendments

González, on the other hand, said that proposed amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Senate will be “studied” by the House, suggesting that they may not be approved in the current session.
González, in fact,  has submitted her own anti-crime amendment. The Senate has approved three proposed constitutional amendments to declare the right to health, reduce the number of lawmakers and to limit the right to bail for certain crimes.

She also said the House is working hard to approve, before the last day of the session, on Tuesday, the permits overhaul bill, which would consolidate the permitting process under one agency, the proposed temporary repeal to the Closing Law and the proposed Adoption Law.

She also chastised Rivera Schatz for making remarks comparing Popular Democratic Party Sen. Sila Mari González, who dated Martínez, to the Biblical figure of Mary Magdalene.

“Any kind of remark to this effect should be rejected,” she said.