FROM ALEJANDRO: A SELF-SERVING GOODBYE WITH NO QUESTIONS ASKED OR ALLOWED

By Juan Montoya
Sunday's self-serving paid goodbye ad by former 357th District Judge Leonel Alejandro on his leaving the bench two years before his term expires in 2014 might seem like a retiring thing for a judge to do.
But the fact that the Brownsville Herald dis not probe into the real reasons has left many people wondering what is going on behind Alejandro's decision to make his graceful exit.
The rumor mill kicked into high gear with stories that the now former judge had been seen in the company of federal agents who had picked him up at his home between last week and the Sunday the ad appeared.
Even though all versions stopped short of actually saying that Alejandro had been arrested or had been listed on any kind of sealed indictment, a handful of sources close to the federal courthouse confirmed that he had indeed been talking to federal officials.
Speculation ran rampant for the reason that investigators might have wanted to talk with the former judge Some said it was over the fact he had been named in relation to a case involving the dealings between disgraced and convicted former 404th District Judge Abel Limas and convicted local attorney Ray Marchan.
Others said it was over the case involving his role as the owner of Port Fabricators, a firm that was implicated in hiring illegal workers on a contract that the U.S. Department of Defense had with AmFels to outfit platforms with defense missiles.
We should point out that the FBI and federal and Texas Attorney General investigators have been handed over evidence implicating jurists and judges stemming from the Limas affair. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen instructed the U.S Attorney's office to turn over all the names of attorneys and local judges to state authorities and the Texas State Bar to allow them to determine if their actions merited further prosecution.
With rumors of at least three other sealed indictments of local jurists and lawyers in the air, we can expect more speculation to ripple through the already skittish legal community.
Alejandro's term expires in 2014. He was re-elected after running unopposed in 2010.
Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, as a Republican close to Gov. Rick Perry is sure to have a say-so in the appointment he makes to the Cameron County court after Alejandro steps down.
If the rumors proves correct, many feel that Alejandro's resignation might well be linked to the testimony that resulted from the trial of Limas, who has pleaded guilty to racketeering and was one of the witnesses in the federal trial of attorney Marchan.
Marchan, a successful trial attorney originally from Port Isabel, was found guilty on seven counts of racketeering, aiding extortion, and mail fraud. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen later threw out one of the charges and sentenced him last week to 42 months in the federal penitentiary.
During the trial, Marchan’s defense attorney Noe Domingo Garza Jr. prodded Limas to name other state district judges in Cameron County who may have engaged in unethical conduct or other wrongdoing.
Limas named Alejandro, 138th District Judge Arturo Nelson, 444th District Judge David Sanchez, and 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez.
Limas offered to provide Garza with details, but Garza didn’t ask for more information.
Evidence in that case included a recorded conversation where Limas told Marchan he had asked Alejandro and 107th state District Judge Benjamin Euresti Jr. to grant ad litem attorney to Marchan and to Doug Pettit, then an assistant district attorney of Cameron County.
Alejandro was never been charged in the case. He was president of CPEP Inc. and LAMC Inc., the companies behind a firm called Port Fabricators that provided workers to Keppel AmFELS.He was also AmFELS company's attorney before becoming a judge in January 2003. The two companies and employees Rolando Villanueva, and Ernesto Casas were charged with providing undocumented workers with fraudulent documents to AmFELS for its shipyard and oil rig-building business from 1999 to 2006.
Both pleaded guilty to hiring 1,041 labor lease workers to fulfill AmFELS’ contract. Of these, 624 had provided invalid proof of eligibility for employment.
The case touched on national security issues bcause between January 2002 and September, the Defense Department awarded AmFELS a $73 million contract to modify an oil-drilling platform used in missile defense. It was also during that span that AmFELS paid Port Fabricators $30 million to fulfill a labor lease contract.
Now with Alejandro singing his swan song, many aren't really quite ready to swallow the story that he is ready to serve as a visiting judge at the behest of Judge Rolando Olvera. As surprised as we have been at the revelations involving other of his brethren in the local judiciary, we're somewhat jaundiced in our view by this point at Alejandro's seemingly honorable departures.