ABEL LIMAS PUZZLE PIECES START TO FALL INTO PLACE

By Juan Montoya

The pieces of the puzzle are falling together.

On Friday, the U.S. government reported that it was holding without bond Jose Manuel "Meme" Longoria, 52, on a complaint that the FBI filed against him that charged him with aiding in a scheme and wire fraud in connection with an order by convicted former 404th District Court Judge Abel Limas to modify a probation for $1,800.

According to the federal information, Longoria had the money sent to Brownsville by the wife of a convicted robber from Arkansas to facilitate Limas's order to a Cameron County probation officer to allow Armando Pena to report to his probation officer by mail instead of in person.

Longoria was the "go-between and “Person B” of five unnamed persons in the indictment against Limas.

Limas pleaded guilty to racketeering on Thursday and will be sentenced July 5.

The indictment alleges that Limas — who served district judge from January 2001 through the end of 2008 — wrongfully received $257,300 from these people.

The coffee shop talk has been filled with speculation on who the other four persons who gave Limas the remaining $255,500 listed in the indictment apart from the $1,800 in the Peña probation matter.

Names that keep coming up include Eddie Lucio (an attorney from Austin), Mark Rosenthal from San Antonio, Oscar de la Fuente, and Jim Solis, the former state rep, among others. Regardless, the whole of Cameron County is waiting to see where gthe next shoe drops.

And many wags are disappointed that Limas would sell out for a piddly $1,500 to modify a probated sentence.

"At this moment, the others not announced yet are hanging in the wind," said a law enforcement officer. "I bet a lot of people are not sleeping very well these nights."

A courthouse insider said that Longoria, or "Meme," as he was known at the judicial building, was a longtime confidant of Limas, who defended him from a manslaughter DWI where a victim died in a car crash on Boca Chica near the Church's Restaurant a few years back.

After that case, when Longoria could not pay Limas's fees, he became the judge's "gopher" and they became fast friends.

Over time, Meme, even though he had that felony conviction, had the run of the 404th and would walk in without questions.

"He even sat in on some depositions in some cases Limas handled," said the insider. "After a time Meme's wife started working with Limas's wife at a child daycare center she runs in town."

Apparently, Meme also found a way to make his close relationship to Limas pay off for him. In the case involving the $1,800, the federal government alleges that it was originally be $1,500, but that Meme asked the woman's husband for an extra $300 for his troubles.

Adding to Longoria's woes is the fact that he is not a citizen and is a resident alien. The government could move to deport him after his trial.

"Those $300 are going to cost him quite a bit if it's true," said a coffee drinker at the courthouse.