Scoop: Bobby Pulido headlined school benefit with registered sex offender

• Pulido has denied he had any knowledge of Caballero's status as a registered sex offender at the time of the 2018 school benefit, which occurred roughly a year after Caballero finished serving a four-year prison sentence for indecent sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl.
• A spokesperson for Pulido's campaign told the New York Post in April that Pulido was "never made aware" that Caballero was a registered sex offender. The Post first reported Pulido's association with Caballero.
• In response to Axios queries, a Pulido spokesperson described scrutiny of Pulido's association with Caballero as a politically motivated "nothing story."

But Pulido has talked openly about his decades-long close professional relationship with Caballero, with whom he resumed touring with just months after Caballero's release from prison in mid-2017.

• Just days before the May 2018 middle school benefit, Pulido bragged that he was the one who recruited Caballero to join his band in the first place.
• Both before and after the concert, Pulido publicly described a close professional relationship with Caballero dating back to the 1990s and credited Caballero with helping to launch his career.

• The two appeared together at concerts and on television through at least 2021. In October 2021, Caballero was incarcerated for "impeding" the breathing of his daughter.

What happened: On May 24, 2018, Pulido, Caballero and the rest of Pulido's band performed at an event to raise money for Harwell Middle School in Edinburg, Texas, according to promotional materials and a video reviewed by Axios.

• Children were welcome at the event, which was held at the Richard R Flores Stadium, several miles from the middle school grounds, according to the promotional materials.
• A video reviewed by Axios shows children were present in the audience.

At the time of the performance, Caballero had already completed the four-year prison sentence stemming from his 2014 conviction and was listed on Texas' sex offender registry.

• Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District, where Harwell Middle School is located, declined to comment.

Pulido said in a local television interview at the time that he agreed to participate in the benefit concert because of his personal commitment to education, adding that he had attended school in the Rio Grande Valley and understood the value of those sorts of fundraisers to public schools in the area.

• "Bobby Pulido is a public figure who has been an open book for over 30 years, and the only reason Republicans are digging up this nothing story is because Monica De La Cruz herself admitted he is surging in this race," a spokesperson for Pulido told Axios in a statement.
• Caballero did not respond to requests for comment.

Catch up quick: Caballero's criminal history dates back to at least 1992 and includes multiple sex crime charges.

• In 1994, he was arrested on a sexual assault charge that was later dismissed in 2000, according to an indictment reviewed by Axios.
• In 2021, Cabarello pleaded guilty to assaulting his daughter by "impeding [her] normal breathing," according to a grand jury indictment and a plea deal reviewed by Axios.

Zoom in: Photos and videos reviewed by Axios indicate that Caballero continued touring with Pulido well after he served time in prison from 2014-2017 — including after the new criminal charges were filed against him in 2021.

• Caballero appeared with Pulido in a Dec. 6, 2017, segment of Univision's "Primer Impacto," and in a January 2018 segment on Mexican television, according to videos reviewed by Axios.
• Photos and videos show Pulido performing with Cabarello as recently as June of 2021, while court documents indicate that the assault charges related to his daughter were pending.

• Bonding documents from January and February of 2021 listed Pulido as Caballero's employer, according to records reviewed by Axios.

Between the lines: Pulido has made multiple public comments over the years that are difficult to square with his campaign's assertion that he was unaware of Caballero's sex offender registration until he was made aware of it by the New York Post in April of this year.

• During a 2019 podcast interview first reported by the New York Post, Pulido said he had bailed Caballero out of jail earlier in his career. He did not specify when or elaborate on why Caballero was in jail.
• In a 2024 interview, while Caballero was again facing criminal charges, Pulido said Caballero "just can't stay out of trouble."

About six months after the middle school benefit, Pulido used Pennsylvania State University as the punchline of a joke about Caballero, saying onstage that the accordionist had "worked at Penn State."

• After noting that Caballero was born in South Bend, Indiana, Pulido told the audience at the November 2018 concert in Tucson, Arizona: "But he didn't go to Notre Dame. He worked at Penn State."
• "No, no, I'm just kidding, don't worry," Pulido quickly added as the two laughed and pointed at each other in response. (Caballero did not work for Penn State.) Fox News first reported the exchange.
• Right after the Penn State comment, Pulido continued, "Frankie, many, many, many years ago, played with Grupo Mazz. And when I was starting, I was like, 'That guy's a bad man.' And I brought him over."

Pulido's campaign didn't respond to multiple requests for clarification as to what Pulido was referencing when he joked that Caballero had "worked at Penn State" and was a "bad man."

A musician who has worked with Pulido said Caballero's criminal history is a "well-known fact," and that he doesn't believe that Pulido was unaware of it.

• "The Tejano community is a very small, tight-knit community," the musician said. "Bobby knows exactly who we got."
• The musician described Pulido and Caballero as close friends, adding that Cabarello "is a great accordion player ... but they're just buddies, you know, they're just friends."