DID LIMAS HOLD OUT ON THE FEDS ON SOME CASES?

By Juan Montoya
After reading the so-called "plea package memo" issued by the U.S. Attorney's office in Brownsville, some local court watchers are scratching their heads and wondering if former 404th State District Judge Abel Limas led federal agents down the primrose path by withholding evidence in some cases.
Specifically, they point to the most obvious cases such as the Amit Livingston case where Limas allowed a convicted murderer to walk free before he started serving a lengthy prison sentence.
On October 4, 2005 the body of 32-year-old Hermilia Hernandez was found in South Padre Island with a bullet through her head. Investigators found out that the 39-year-Livingston and Hernandez met each other through the internet around June 2005 and soon after started a relationship. They say that three months later, Hermilia tried to get out of it and that Livingston killed her.
Cops say on September 20, 2005 Livingston bought a gun and, 10 days later, he used it to kill Hermilia by shooting her in the back of the head.
He was arrested on October 18, 2005 at the Nueces County Sheriff's Office and then transferred to the Cameron County jail.
Then, on February 13, 2007, Livingston pleaded guilty to her murder and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Limas, however, granted a defense motion to give him 60 days to get his "affairs in order."
New reports at the time indicate that Limas first signed off on a plea agreement made with prosecutors, including District Attorney Armando Villalobos at Livingston’s sentencing. Limas granted defense attorney Greg Gladden’s request for the grace period before his client was to surrender and begin serving his sentence, without an objection on record from Villalobos or First Assistant District Attorney Chuck Mattingly.
Records shows that the attorneys and judge in this case were aware that the $500,000 bond, meant to ensure Livingston’s return to officials’ custody, would lapse under this agreement.
Shortly after the plea agreement was made in Livingston’s murder case, Limas divided the cash bond between Hernandez’s children and their lawyer, Eddie Lucio of Dallas.
Lucio, Villalobos’ former law partner, was dealt in because he filed a parallel civil wrongful death suit against Livingston, attaching the bond money as settlement for Hernandez’ death.
"I can't believe that the feds didn't look into this highly questionable arrangement," said a local attorney. "At the time, Peter Zavaletta was running against Villalobos and made it one of his main campaign issues."
Additionally, court watchers are saying that the feds could not have overlooked the other "unusual" case involving Joey De la Garza, the son of District Court Clerk Aurora De la Garza. The former director of Sunshine Haven was sentenced by Limas to five years deferred adjudication after he was found guilty of misusing more than $80,000 in funds belonging to the hospice.
Garza, 35, was found guilty of a charge of misapplication of fiduciary based on the evidence provided by the Cameron County District Attorney's office. According to the complaint, De la Garza diverted cash property of Sunshine Haven for personal use by "using Sunshine Haven, Inc. credit or debit cards and cashing Sunshine Haven Inc., checks and borrowing money of behalf of Sunshine Haven Inc., for his own use."
The incidents occurred from February 2007 to April 2008.
He was ordered by Limas to pay restitution $83,503.28 he misappropriated from Sunshine Haven, which records indicate he did, and given deferred adjudication, all on one Friday afternoon.
After that swift dispensation of justice Limas style, De la Garza was taken to the Cameron County Jail where he was booked, fingerprinted and later released that very same afternoon.
Many local observers say that the total amount was much higher than that and that no felony convictions are handled and resolved all in one afternoon. This case has also generated questions into whether De la Garza "steered" her son's case through Limas's court knowing that he would be pliant to the defense and because of her position in county government and local politics.
"If any case of using influence to decide the outcome of a criminal case stands out, this one is it," said a local attorney. "I'd love to have a judge treat someone I represent with such leniency. I'd become a rich man if I could deliver that to one of my criminal clients."
Likewise, many say that there is much more to the case involving Dr. Juan Mancillas an his wife Sylvia against the National Heritage Foundation (“NHF”).
They point out that the original attorney in the case, Rick Zayas, of Brownsville, referred the case to Albert Garcia and Adrian Martinez, of McAllen, and may have served as the go-between between Limas and the law firm.
In that case, a jury in Limas' court issued a $9 million jury verdict against the National Heritage Foundation when it found that the directors changed the split dollar life insurance policies from the donors' children to itself without the Mancillas' knowledge or approval.
Mancillas and his wife described a classic split-dollar setup.
They said in 1997 they agreed to pay $85,000 a year to NHF, to go toward buying $7 million in cash-value life insurance. They allege they were told they could deduct the entire payment as a charitable contribution, and that upon the death of the second spouse, $6 million of the $7 million would go into a trust to provide for their brain-damaged son, who is now an adult.
In 2006, the IRS closed the tax loophole and made the split-dollar schemes illegal.
Specifically, court watchers wonder whether a turnover ruling issued by Limas at the request of Garcia requiring NHF to cough up assets by Jan. 26. was on the up and up or another of Limas' "fixes."
The charity's bankruptcy filing, two days before that deadline, listed the Mancillas' judgment as NHF's largest unsecured debt.
"That ruling that netted the attorneys and the Mancillas millions would be one of the most obvious leads to any trained investigator," said the court watcher. "Forget the piddly $12,000 paid to (Ray) Marchan as ad litem fees and which netted Limas a $4,500 kickback. Did anybody cash in on the millions awarded in the case besides the plaintiffs?"