THE SPIN CITY: A DISTRICT ATTORNEY AND A RACKETEERING DEFENDANT

By Juan Montoya

Serendipity is a wonderful thing.
For students of the lexicon, this nifty little word means "The faculty or phenomenon of making fortunate accidental discoveries."
The word popped in my mind while I contemplated the statements issued by the firm of Austin attorney Marc Rosenthal after he was accused of racketeering and corruption in the case stemming from the conviction of disgraced former 404th District Court Judge Abel Limas and his admissions in a plea bargain packet that Rosenthal had been behind the bribes he took to render rulings on his behalf in multimillion settlement cases.
Dovetailed along with the Rosenthal case were the charges against a former District Attorney's Office investigator Jaime Munivez, who is linked to Limas because he conspired along with another Limas associate to distribute five kilos of cocaine while he was working in the office of DA Armando Villalobos.

Rosenthal's firm, Rosenthal & Watson, issued a grandiose statement insisting that their partner's heart, if not his wallet, was really in the right place.

"Rosenthal & Watson stands fully behind Marc Rosenthal and his innocence of these charges. We are proud of his work with the firm and he’s helped hundreds of people get justice in our courts by following the rules for his entire career," the statement read.

Then, unable to simply ignore the fact that Limas himself in his pleas with federal prosecutors had accused Rosenthal (Person A) of payoffs for favorable rulings that earned the Austin firm millions in fees, they felt they must do urgent damage control and continued:

"The admissions of wrongdoing from the judge and others are disheartening. But we were not aware of their improper activities. We expect to see Marc vindicated.
"It is business as usual at Rosenthal & Watson and we have no plans to do anything but fully and zealously represent our clients, both our existing clients and the new ones who’ve hired us in the last few months. Marc and the rest of the lawyers and staff at Rosenthal & Watson will continue to do all we can, full-time and with full force to represent those injured and seeking justice. As in the past, Lynn Watson will continue to handle the bulk of the firm administrative duties."
This in a case where 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.
And, at the heart of the corruption of the judicial system of justice in Cameron County, it alleges that former state representative Jim 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."

As far as the former DA's Office investigator, Jaime Munivez, he is charged with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilos of cocaine, a count of conspiracy to extort, and two counts of aiding and abetting extortion.
He and Lima "gopher" Meme Longoria are accused of obtaining at least $100 in exchange for Munivez’s efforts to locate a missing truck in the Houston area that contained drug trafficking proceeds and with obtaining personal property in exchange for providing information to one Pepe Villarreal regarding Villarreal’s pending charges for murder.

His former boss, issued a non mea culpa statement eerily similar to the one issued by Rosenthal's partners.

Villalobos said that, “We are shocked and saddened by the allegations against Jaime. While he worked here, he displayed a good work ethic and seemed very respectful of his peers in law enforcement. We have reviewed his work product and his passwords for our computer systems, and find no breach in security that would cause us concern at this point in time.

But Mando wants to know where the bodies are buried in his domain. He casts the bait hoping the feds will bite and tell him where his office might be vulnerable.

“We would expect the federal government to inform us if there are any cases that they are aware of, that have been compromised by Jaime’s previous employment with our office. Nothing in Jaime’s past gave us concern for the possibility of these types of allegations.”

Hmmmm!

I am now in the middle of reading a book called "Tangled Web," by Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart. He wrote "Den of Thieves," about the Wall Street brokers who gutted several major investment houses and duped a gullible public with their financial sleight-of-hand.

"Tangled Web" deals with several high-profile cases involving lying by successful, highly-educated defendants like Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby, up to Bernie Madoff. As they defended themselves from federal prosecutors, many of the public statements they made to the media protesting their innocence seem strikingly similar to the ones appearing in the local press related to the Limas cases.

Serendipity, as we said at the start of this post, is a wonderful thing.

Read more >> Options >>