By Juan Montoya
The noose is tightening in the Abel Limas case as the federal government investigates the depth of corruption that established a veritable "pay to play" mentality in the supposedly neutral judicial system in Cameron County.
If the allegations in the slew of indictments issued by the local office of the U.S. Attorney's office is to be believed, the tentacles of the malady reached deep within the office of District Clerk Aurora de la Garza's office and may have involved some of her personnel (if not her as well) in taking money for placing cases in courts they though would be favorable to the people making the payments.
As we've said before, we learned that federal investigators had knocked on the door of Rosie Sotelo, the county employee in charge of assigning civil cases to the different courts. Investigators are saying that it was no coincidence that certain multi-million dollar settlements ended there, even though
the cases were supposed to be distributed to the courts at random.
Another employee at Aurora's domain was Eric Garza, in c
harge of randomly assigning criminal cases to the various courts as well.
If local counsel for indicted Austin lawyer Marc Rosenthal (Ernesto Gamez) is to be believed, the local racket was handled by convicted Harlingen attorney (and former state rep) Jim Solis, who he said ran amok like "a Rambo" unbeknownst to Rosenthal in Austin.
Then we learn that an "unindicted co-conspirator(1)," at the direction of Rosenthal, may have to pay witnesses or have witnesses paid in return for false testimony in potential and actual state and federal cases in Cameron County, surrounding counties and in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas."
The noose is tightening in the Abel Limas case as the federal government investigates the depth of corruption that established a veritable "pay to play" mentality in the supposedly neutral judicial system in Cameron County.
If the allegations in the slew of indictments issued by the local office of the U.S. Attorney's office is to be believed, the tentacles of the malady reached deep within the office of District Clerk Aurora de la Garza's office and may have involved some of her personnel (if not her as well) in taking money for placing cases in courts they though would be favorable to the people making the payments.
As we've said before, we learned that federal investigators had knocked on the door of Rosie Sotelo, the county employee in charge of assigning civil cases to the different courts. Investigators are saying that it was no coincidence that certain multi-million dollar settlements ended there, even though
the cases were supposed to be distributed to the courts at random.Another employee at Aurora's domain was Eric Garza, in c
harge of randomly assigning criminal cases to the various courts as well.If local counsel for indicted Austin lawyer Marc Rosenthal (Ernesto Gamez) is to be believed, the local racket was handled by convicted Harlingen attorney (and former state rep) Jim Solis, who he said ran amok like "a Rambo" unbeknownst to Rosenthal in Austin.
Then we learn that an "unindicted co-conspirator(1)," at the direction of Rosenthal, may have to pay witnesses or have witnesses paid in return for false testimony in potential and actual state and federal cases in Cameron County, surrounding counties and in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas."
We have searched high and low to try to determine who may fit that bill. Solis may have had the inside track at Aurora's office, but the other person (Person XX?) may have been a Brownsville resident and nephew of a late well-known county official who graduated from law school but never passed the bar examination and ended up working for Rosenthal and Solis.
All we could ascertain is that he did indeed work under Solis and worked one of the railroad cases where the firm ended up collecting millions for the plaintiffs and the company.
Could it be as Gamez may be barking up the right tree in saying that the local counsel was "working" these cases on their own and misrepresenting the facts to Rosenthal?
We already know that in this case (the Deyanira Gallegos Tapia vs. Union Pacific case) one of the attorneys (Ernest C. Garcia) with the Rosenthal firm (Rosenthal & Watson) is now an assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston. And as the case against Rosenthal progresses, might it be that some of the allegations may unravel before they reach their sordid end?
8 comments:
The voters and the citizens of Cameron County deserve to know the truth the real truth of what the hell is going on at the Courthouse ! !
If you have done nothing wrong County Judge, Commissioners, Judges then why the hell are you being so quiet instead of defending the justice system ! !
Your silence is so obvious that either you are afraid the attorneys or the District Attorney has your ass by the crack ! !
You think Mexico is corrupt, look who is now driving in the streets of Brownsville. Yea those dudes are the Zetas and El Cartel feeling comfortable and safe being with other thieves, liars, cheats along side you idiots ! !
If the Feds wont tell the truth about the rampant corruption at the Cameron County courthouse a civil lawsuit will so get ready Auroita and Limasss ! !
The truth will set the Cameron County justice system free ! !
Rosenthal was out of his league in Browntown.These local piranhas are street smart.They know how to weasel their way thru life.Limas,Solis ,Marchan ,Auora, Sotelo, Villalobos, could not hold office in another city outside the Valley.It wil be interesting to see who fries who.To be contiued....
Obvious it had to take someone from the district clerk's office to assign these cases to limas court. The answer is who did it. As we can remember and question how Auroras son Joey de la Garzas theft case from the Olmito hospice ended up being rushed tthru the judicial system without it being presented to a grand jury and made its way into limas court before his term was over. Then all this mess. For what Aurora? For a campaign contribution. All these attorney's that have been arrested are shown on your finance report as contributing thousanda of dollars to your campaign fund. I guess now you are going to make a fundraiser to raise money for your commissary account before your conviction. Shame on you Aurora. Resign and get out of this city and take Rosie Sotelo with you. You all are a bunch of crooks. RESIGN before its too late and you get indicted. What a dissappointment Aurora. GO and GET OUT OF TOWN or the voters will send you and your staff packing soon.
Aurora, I think everyone knows that Rosie Sotelo has something to do with with assigning cases to different courts, if she spilled the beans on someone else and the investigators gave her a break, that doesn't mean the tax payers will- fire her!
WOW!!! Everyone with any common sense knows that when you read the stories and Indictments that all those criminal and civil cases wound up in Limas' court??? A coincidence??? Don't think so??? Everyone knows that the cases can be manipulated via Aurora' office??? Is Rosie Sotelo and Eric Garza willing to take the heat for their boss??? Looking at 5-20 years in prison worth it to cover for Aurora??? They could not have done this on their own??? They had to have direction and commons sense tells me that Aurora directed all this??? The only problem is that Aurora is tooooooo fat and full of health problems that she might not see a jail cell??? Do the right thing Feds, keep it coming and put those "GREEDY" politicians and lawyers in jail!!! "Their coming for you Mando," saying like the scene from the cemetery in Night of the Living Dead!!!
RESIGN before its too late and you get indicted.
Her resigning does not mean she does not get indicted dumbass. If there is a crime they get indicted. Idiot.
It seems obvious now how the “big judgment” cases wound up in Limas’ court. For instance you can see how Marchan likely worked with Zayas, Martinez and Garcia to extort millions from the charity National Heritage Foundation. It will be interesting what comes out during the trials. A must see indeed!
Doesn't rosenthal and watson have another state legislator on their payroll? that doesn't look funny to anyone?
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