THE OTHER SHOE DROPS, AND MORE TO COME AURORA?

By Juan Montoya

Now that Austin lawyer (Person A) Marc Rosenthal has been indicted on racketeering charges, there are some very nervous people on the third floor of the judiciary wing at the Cameron County courthouse.

Someone was commenting that the indictment cast a very wide net and that former state rep. Jim Solis and Brownsville attorney Ray Marchan would not be the only fish caught in the trap.

"They're going to run out of letters in the alphabet," one quipped.

The indictment indicates that "at Rosenthal's direction, Solis and others paid certain persons, including funeral directors and public employees to refer personal injury cases to Rosenthal&Watson."

It also alleges that unindicted co-conspirators at Rosenthal's direction, located and paid witnesses ...for false testimony and statements in potential lawsuit.

Further, it alleges that "Rosenthal, aided by others known and unknown to the grand jury, corruptly persuaded a witness...to provide perjured testimony in the personal injury lawsuit.

But the kicker as far as the personnel at Aurora de la Garza's office is the allegation by the government that Solis and others "at Rosenthal's direction, arranged to manipulate the random case assignment system at the Cameron County District Clerk's office so that cases were filed in courts they preferred and that witnesses were paid to provide false testimony and statements."

Now, as we understand, civil filings are handled in Aurora's office by Rosie Sotelo, and the criminal case assignment are handled by Eric Garza. Close friends of Ms. Sotelo indicate that she has been visited at least twice by FBI investigators. Whether she could provide any insight into the assignment of cases to the different courts (especially of the 404th District Court held by the former Abel Limas, since convicted of racketeering), is anybody's guess.

As far as Garza is concerned, few people in the courthouse doubt that, if squeezed hard enough, he might just be able to offer insights into the case assignments.

"The Nuremberg defense that they were just following orders won't work here. It didn't work in Nuremberg and it won't work here either. For example, who assigned the case of Joey de la Garza to Limas' court when justice for stealing more than $80,000 from the dying was dispensed in less than an hour and Joey didn't spend one day in jail as a result?

It should be interesting to see how that case got assigned to that particular court with such expediency.

There are still others, including "a former bailiff and DA office employee" who has not yet been indicted as well. We searched out files and archives and the only name we could come up is related to both Aurora de la Garza and Linda Salazar. Will he be next in line the the federal courthouse on Harrison?

As the indictments and pleas come forth, we can say this with some certainty: For more than five years (or more) the judiciary system at the Cameron Courthouse was fixed. People turned a blind eye to the rampant corruption, and as the revelations continue, we now know that a lot of palms were greased to make millions for some lawyers and hangers on. Those deluded souls that thought they were getting a fair shake in certain courts and in the assignment of cases are finding out that the game was rigged and the cards were stacked against them by greedy lawyers, judges and an unknown number of public employees.

Rosenthal will probably spend millions in his own defense. Already, the feds want some $5.9 million that they said were the result of his alleged racketeering activity. He is free on a $100,000 unsecured bond.

How will the smaller fry fare?