NOW THEY TELL US: MARCHAN TRIAL COMES TOO LATE FOR VOTERS IN RECENT ELECTION: OLIVEIRA, NELSON IN FOR ANOTHER TERM

By Juan Montoya

Now, after we have all voted in the recent primaries, the facts are coming out about some of the people who were voted into office.

Had the people known the sordid acts that were perpetrated in the local courts – including the 404th under Abel Limas – we ould venture to say that some of them would not have been voted in.

Take Texas State Rep. Rene Oliveira, for example. There had been plenty of eyewitness accounts of Oliveira's bon vivant ways and his womanizing under the heavy influence of spirits. People had pictures of him in an inebriated state. A car under his name collided with another car on the frontage road and was charged with DUI and failure to maintain financial responsibility (no insurance).

Yet, all this was ignored by the local media and Rene was given a free pass. His hiring of former Brownsville Herald reporter/editor Melissa Zamora (now a city commissioner) doubtless helped the paper turn a blind eye to his escapades.

But now we learn during the trial of attorney Ray Marchan that Rene was also asking favors to cover up for his legal deficiencies. In one case covered in the trial by the local daily's Emma Perez-Treviño, we learn that attorney Randall Crane had him "by the balls" and begged Limas to "pretend" not to know when an underling would ask for a continuance in the case.

Crane was also asking Limas to sanction Marchan for not submitting his paperwork on time on a different case, as was Oliveira.

Limas, at the time, told Oliveira that he did not sanction attorneys.

So the question now becomes: If Limas in practice did not sanction attorneys, why is he providing the federal government with testimony alleging that Marchan paid him a $5,000 bribe not to sanction him?

Marchan, and just about every other attorney who practiced in his court, said he had loaned the money to Limas, who was in constant penury and asking for financial help. Most of the time, he would be in dire financial straits after a trip to Las Vegas with wife and son in tow.

Oliveira, for his part, knew Crane had him dead to rights in the case and said he had "to buy more time," or else the firm would lose the client.

Oliveira said Crane had "caught him with his pants down to his knees," said to be a common occurrence with him by those who know him. He would need, he told Limas, "a big, big favor."

Limas obliged and granted Oliveira the continuance, albeit, he never mentioned what the quid pro quo would be. Would it be Oliveira's political support or perhaps a favor along his troubled way?

How believable is Limas (and by extension, the federal government's case against others)?

Marchan's defense attorneys pointed out that during the first interviews he had with the federal government prosecutors, he had said the $5,000 Marchan gave him drawn up on a check from his personal account was a loan. But a few sessions later, he said that the government allowed him to hear some recorded conversations and realized he "was hung."

Now it appears that defense attorneys have also heard the tape recordings Limas had with numerous defendants and non-attorneys and are drawing a very different conclusion than did the government.

Too bad the voters didn't know this before May 29 when they voted Oliveira in for another two years to make it a 30-year career in the Texas Legislature. The same goes for Arturo Nelson, who in previous court sessions was heard on a tape recording saying he "understood" he should play dumb and issue a ruling favoring a friend of Limas who would appear in his court.

We'll have him around for another four years.

Thanks for nothing U.S. Government prosecutors.