On Monday, his testimony and tapes from wiretaps on his phone and on his body resulted in the conviction of his former "friend" and friendly lender Port Isabel Attorney Ray Marchan.
Waiting in the wings to take their turn on the federal scaffold is Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos, Austin attorney Marc Rosenthal, and a whole alphabet soup of local and outside lawyers who crossed him, or shall we say, crossed his path while doing business in local courts.
Already, his testimony is known to include several district judges who he said committed unspeakable "crooked" and unethical acts. Limas, in his attempt to save his skin, his wife's, and his son's freedom, has spilled his guts to the federal government.
Those judges – 138th District Judge Arturo C. Nelson, 444th District Judge David Sanchez, 357th District Judge Leonel Alejandro and 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez – can only guess what's contained in the folders waved by federal prosecutors before the jury that convicted Marchan, except that Limas claims the allegations contained therein are true.
Now, this is from a man who has admitted he lied to the government, to his "friends," to other judges, to other attorneys, and we're sure, to anyone who would believe him.
Andrew Hanen, the federal judge in the case, has pretty much shown that just about everything the prosecution asks will be given them, and even wants to sanction the statements of Marchan's attorney Noe Garza for even suggesting that the prosecution of Marchan (a hugely successful Mexican-American attorney) was selective prosecution by the feds when other actors – among them Charles Willette, Michael Young, both (dare we say it?) were white as was the lead prosecutor – were not.
Despite Judge Hanen's and prosecutor's Michael J. Wynne demand that Garza forfeit his attorney's fees or pay $50,000 "in order to send a message" to (other Mexicans?), the perception out in the community is that the federal judiciary and the prosecutors are playing on the same side.
"We have a crooked elected official (Limas) who is getting even with those that he has something against," said a local elected official. "The only reason they went after Marchan was because he chose to defend himself in court instead of lying down and playing along with the feds. Now Limas is turning on everyone he doesn't like."
That perception –justified or not – is one widely held in the Brownsville area. Getting Marchan, who has been immensely successful in maritime cases and against insurance companies even before the Limas fiasco, would send a message to other like him to learn their place and cooperate, the thinking goes.
The brown vs. white scenario has been one that local defense attorneys have pointed out when it was learned that Jodi Young, the federal prosecutor involved in convicting former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu, had worn a KKK hood and a Mexican peon sombrero in front of a large audience that included scores of active and retired federal employees with the Border Patrol, ICE and the federal court employees.
Affidavits submitted to the courts and the Department of Justice also charge that Young and other prosecutors reneged on a verbal plea agreement with the former sheriff that would have lessened his incarceration in return for his cooperation with their investigation.
"Now the government wants to sanction Garza for pointing out what seems obvious to a lot of people here," said a local court observer. "Isn't what Young did more egregious and points to a mindset on the part of federal prosecutors? Was Young sanctioned like they want to do with Garza? What's the difference between one and the other?"
26 comments:
Its the elephant in the room that they do not want to recognize. It is the truth. But as Mexicanos..whether educated or not... they want to continue to have us to the "yesum sir..we will do as you say" The racism has not changed ... its a alive ..just more sophisticated in the RGV. Now we call it "sanctions" for standing up for the Truth. Note: The Black community would have had his ass (Young) fired long time ago. The mentality that its ok... its only a Mexican/joke. Obama wants our vote but not defend us. I am sure a complaint was filed against this behavior but zero action. There is a "witchhunt" and yes it is a "white" mandate.
A number of years ago a young attorney with deep roots to this community graduated from law school and wanted to return to Brownsville to practice. He approached Federal Judge Filemon Vela for advice. Judge Vela suggested that he change his last name or use a Hispanic last name in order to be successful in Cameron County. That seems to indicate a prejudice (officially and unofficially) by Hispanics against Anglos. This community is about 95% Hispanic and Hispanics control the government and the Democratic ruling party. Yet, the Hispanics refuse to take action against corruption....its part of the culture. So, when there is evidence of corruption guys like you Juan bring up the race card; just like Al Sharpton and Rev. Jackson. As long as locals refuse to police the Democratic party and take action against corruption...somebody has to do it.
Using the race card was not only stupid, it was the desparate act of a mamon lawyer. There is no distinction between Brown and White here, both sides have their share of crooks and idiots. Garza is simply a racist with a guilty client, and bears no resemblance to lawyers who really fought for minority rights.
The only racist is Garza, for trivializing racism. Bola de mamones son ratas, and we do have them in our Mexican culture as well as in all others.
Corruption is corruption, white, hispanic, black, etc. We must as citizens look at the facts and determine whether the accused is guilty of the allegations brought forth by the federal government. The jury does not decide if this is a witchhunt and the white guys get off free. The jury looks at the evidence and determines if the accuser is guilty, regardless of color. It is apparent that the defense did not have any evidence to refute what the government had alleged and therefore used the race card. I can only assume that the jury was just, composed and impartial when the facts were submitted to them. I thank the jury for a job well done.
What was the ethnic profile of the grand jury? And the trial jury? I bet I know.
Mescalero
Interesting write up Montoya? Sounds like you agree with Noe Garza on that perception of the government picking and chosing? Bottom line, like one other blogger wrote. Corruption is corruption and a jury of MARCHAN'S peers found him guilty. Who cares the color of their skin? These are and were elected officials who ran for office to publicly serve. As anyone in public office knows that the purpose of being an elected official is for noteriety, resume, standing and making money. The only problem is that "making money" leads to greed. The problem is that the voter sometimes TOO ignorant to vote their common sense and go with their heart or family loyality. Thus, this is the result of that chose of vote? Elected officials being Indicted, convicted and sentence to prison. Let's just hope that this will teach those a lesson and prevent this from occuring again, at least in my lifetime?
"Using the race card was not only stupid, it was the desparate act of a mamon lawyer. There is no distinction between Brown and White here, both sides have their share of crooks and idiots. Garza is simply a racist with a guilty client, and bears no resemblance to lawyers who really fought for minority rights"
No truer words were ever written!
As a young lawyer in the 60's I was in the front lines of the struggle for equal rights in this country. To pass the cheap and unethical defense tactic of Garza off as some sort of civil rights stance is the heights of either ignorance of foolishness.
Isn't Marc Rosenthal white? Wasn't he indicted? Isn't he the next one to face trial? For Garza to now apologize and make it sound like he didn't mean it doesn't make sense. He was laying the foundation for this defense throughout the trial.
Heyyy this looks like all the pictures they use to publish of Patt Ahumada and ALL HIS DOGS toguether listening only to him and his speeches. jajajaja old memories
armando villalobos turn in all your connections to the matamoros cartel living and operating in cameron county. you protect them and guide them through legal matters. there will be good surprises that will be revealed during your trial. the picture was awesome!! jajajajaja
Your depictions is worth a thousand words.
In today's market place, it's not about the racial card, but more so about the under current of the control factor.
Turn in all your connections to the Matamoros Cartel living and operating in cameron county? jajaja the matamoros Cartel already knows it!!!! how much worse can it get for anyone with all this finger pointing all because of money hungry? Some people are really dumb...the operators of the Cartel are every where, informants of the Cartel are every where, snitches of the Cartel are every where, my question is??? does the government have enough money to support all this people they are throwing in jail? Cuz all this is about NOT SHARING MONEY... Its a real shame to see many good people in this situation. I believe theres no surprises in this cases, we all already knew it was comming, but now many AGENTS want to be HEROS OF THE US. JAJAJAJA
ALL OF THIS CORRUPTION WAS GOING ON WITHOUT INNOCENT ARMANDO VILLALOBOS KNOWLEDGE????????????
Judge is nuts. Just ask those who went to school with him. He just NUTS!
Ademas la corrupcion ya existia desde antes que el Sr Villalobos NACIERA, que el Sr. haiga tenido k trabajar con gente loca y tranza no significa k el era igual o tal vez si, lo que pasa es que ahorita muchos andan como perros atras de los buenos puestos, del dinero k paga el gobierno x informacion y ser los HEROES DE BROWNSVILLE, jajaja bola de gente ignorante, no pueden ver a una persona subir por que luego luego la quieren tumbar, como si muchos de ustedes no hacen sus transas por debajo del agua con sus amigos y familiares, jaja y lo peor del caso es que todo esto arruina a mucha gente y ponen en duda los puestos y palabras gubernamentales y la confianza en la ley y la Justicia de esta Ciudad. Lo que deben de hacer las disque autoridades es hacer una limpia en esta ciudad de gente k vende la droga y pastillas y meterlos al bote y no dejarlos salir hasta como en 10 anos!!! Tanto mendigo drogo poquitero k venden droga y siguen caminando por las calles como si nada, la ley anda tan enfocada en jueces y abogados K SE OLVIDAN DE LOS K TRAFICAN LA DROGA!!
You forgot to put a picture of Abel Gomez.
juan - i do not understand how 'dedo' was put on any of these people the feds prosecute with some type evidence. surveillance, wiretaps, paper trails...it speaks for itself.
as I said before, snitches of all authorities everywhere!!!
get over it dude, and dont be calling Juan, cuz from what you are saying about dedos, we know how the water runs and how dedos work, and usually dedos will always give in before we even point the finger to them lol, now my question is ARE U THE DEDO? LOL please answer quietly, but we always know who is who baby
Once you have been caught, and you HAVE TO answer with the truth to the government in not "dedo" even less when they have ALL the evidence against the rest. Everybody puts Limas as the bad guy.... But that is not possible. We can not close our eyes and say " Limas is angry and taking everyone down" pffff it would be nice to have that power, and then those who talk bad about him would think twice for fear of being named. But On the contrary, there is a lot of people that want to keep the focus on him, so that they don't be discovered. They are hiding behind him. He has shown to take this with full responsibility while others deny and blame him for their faults. And all those "innocent" people will have their chance to prove it, so why worry? They are lawyers and judges, do they know how it works, it is all fairness, isn't it?
And again, how can one person be guilty of corruption ALONE? If one is guilty of receiving the other one is guilty of giving and ALSO recieving, even more than the one corrupted. So this is not "dedo" people say Limas is corrupted, yet later people also say he is lying about those who participated?
Then he is not guilty either, since all the others mentioned are angels, and all the evidence must have been fabricated just because he does not like someone. "Hmmm, there is some people I don't like, let me plea guilty even though I am innocent, but l just want to take them down for fun" oh yeah that makes sense.
jajajaja hay si, (juan), mira como tiemblo, mira como tiemblo, juan y muchos me hacen a mi los mandados pendejos!!!
Sr. HAIGA tenido k trabajar con gente loca y tranza no significa k el era igual o tal vez si, lo que pasa es que ahorita muchos andan como perros atras de los buenos puestos, del dinero k paga el gobierno x informacion y ser los HEROES DE BROWNSVILLE, jajaja bola de gente ignorante,
Haiga del verbo haigar! Apuntelo gente ignorante!
When in Rome or Court "F" that is,.... if you want your client to have a chance. Justice went to the high bidder and Limas was the Judge and the auctioneer.
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