MANDO'S BID FOR CAMERON COUNTY DON SNUFFED

By Juan Montoya
The immaculately coiffed Cameron County Attorney Armando Villalobos – caught in a life and death struggle in the John Allen Rubio capital murder retrial – took a blow from an appeals court in his bid to gain control of the county commissioners legal racket.
A court of appeals told Mando – whose fortunes have steadily fallen in recent times – that he had no business butting into the legal representation of the commissioners court without their request for his services.
The Texas 13th Court of Appeals said that unless the court asked for his services, he could not remove their legal representation or the attorneys they chose from his staff.
The decision was a blow to Mando's legal interpretation and a boost to County Judge Carlos Cascos who hailed the ruling as the final blow to the Don's illusions of grandeur. The judges ruled that the Don had shown no constitutional or statutory provision to support his case for exclusive control over the legal division.

Then, to add insult to injury, they found that his office "never had the exclusive right to represent Cameron County in civil matters in the first place."

When he filed the case against the commissioners, the Don said he believed some of the advice given the court was "ill-advised."
Putting on the best face to an embarrassing situation, Villalobos told the local daily that the decision "...seems to raise more questions than answers. I am confident this matter will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction for the betterment of the county."
In his suit, Villalobos sued civil attorneys Richard Burst, Bruce Hodge and Dylbia Jefferies, County Judge Carlos H. Cascos and Commissioners Sofia C. Benavides, John Wood, David Garza and Edna Tamayo.

Cascos, in a statement issued by his office said:

"I am relieved that the Court of Appeals made a decision on the merits of this dispute in line with Texas law and the Constitution of our great State. This decision lifts a cloud of uncertainty that has been hovering over the county’s business and legal affairs and our taxpayers since the filing of this lawsuit."
Other observers were not so charitable.
A supporter of Cascos' bid for a second term as county judge said that if Villalobos wanted to run the county, perhaps he should consider running for Cascos' position.

"Since when does the tail wag the dog?" he asked. "Here we have Mando trying to tell elected officials what to do. If he wanted to be the top administrator in the county, he should run against Cascos. Coming in the back door with flim-flam legal misinterpretations isn't going to cut it here or with the court of appeals for that matter."

This is not the first time that Madno has made an effort to place himself as a judge and arbiter of local politicians. Just recently he made a media splash when he released statement saying he was seeking the removal of Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada after he was charged with Driving While Intoxicated.

Previously, Mando's office had failed miserably in the intent to prosecute the mayor for the famous $26,000 vendor's check he deposited in his personal account.

Still smarting from that public humiliation over that one, the press release on removing Pat came immediately after he was charged with the DWI.

Mando's legal scholars over at 964 Harrison had to be schooled by a local reporter that under state law, a public official of a home rule city like Brownsville cannot be removed by fiat, but rather by following the appropriate procedure outlined in the state Constitution.

And speaking of life and death cases, Villalobos has taken a personal role in the retrial of John Allen Rubio in his capital murder case for killing his three children.

The case was reversed on appeal because – among other things – prosecutors erred in introducing evidence against the accused killer from his common-law- wife without giving the accused man a chance to cross-examine her.

Now, as the retrial costs climb to a $1 million in costs to be paid by the county, defense attorneys Ed Stapelton and Nat Lopez have filed numerous objections that will probably mire the county in legal costs for years, if not decades, to come.

Mando, however, has steadfastly declined to seek a life without parole sentence for Rubio and has sought the death penalty for the former special-education student who says he and his mate thought the children were possessed by witches when they killed their children.

"I can see why Mando wants the death penalty so badly in this case," said a local lawyer. "This is the high-profile case that could have launched his career. Now it's turning into a quagmire."

Previously, Mando has seen his bid to be appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District rejected, has been criticized for taking Dannenbaum Engineering for a $1 million for his office after the $21 million fiasco with the port's bridge to nowhere, and for the release of convicted murderer Amit Livingston that resulted in his former law partner keeping half of a $500,000 cash bond.

"Mando needs an unschedueld visit his high-tech spa to get an extra long full-body massage so he can relieve his stress," said a local courthouse observer. "The boy's been under a lot of stress lately. Now the court of appeals does this to him."