Imagine that you are a child attending a school in San Benito named after someone like attorney Oscar de la Fuente.
As you ask about the name in the entrance to the school, you might stop and ask an a grownup what that person did to get the acknowledgement afforded him by the school district.
If you are an impertinent kid, you might ask what his namesake (Jr.) has done to honor the name.
Well, the former (and convicted) 404th District Judge Abel Limas said on the stand that the younger De la Fuente gave him a $4,000 kickback for an ad litem appointment for starters. And even though De La Fuente was not charged in connection with the case, that fact has never been denied.
It seems that De la Fuente and Limas had a close working relationship and Limas admitted that he owed him $3,000 from the sale of land they owned together. There were other, less innocent, instances where money changed hands between the two, Limas said on the stand. He said he "borrowed" $2,000-$5,000 after learning the De La Fuente family had a large windfall coming from the tragic aerial crash.According to Limas' plea packet memo, Limas wanted (and De la Fuente agreed?) a 10 percent cut of a $14 million dollars paid in the Valley AirCare crash case. That lawsuit was filed by family members of paramedics killed in a February 2008 chopper mishap in the Laguna Madre.
Less than one month before he left office, Limas had the case transferred to "his friend" Judge Leonel Alejandro in the 357th State District Court.
We haven't named any buildings after friendly Leonel yet, have we?
That was settled in his court for $14 million dollars in October 2009. According to the plea packet, Limas got another $85,000 dollars in December 2009, two months after the case was settled.Limas reiterated that his “compadre” De la Fuente also had bribed him on several occasions.
How about the former Brownsville Mayor Eddie Treviño? He not only gave Limas money $2,000 (unreported) for his campaign, but also is named in court documents as having given Limas a bribe.
Limas, on the stand, recaled how he stuck the $2,000 in a coat pocket. “My state of mind was I'm not going to report it. It was my decision. It was for the campaign, initially.”Limas also testified that Treviño had bribed him with $1,000 in return for an appointment as an ad-litem legal representative. Treviño was also not charged in the case.
His firm was recently named as the lead counsel for the Brownsville Public Utility Board by some of the very same board members that he appointed when he was mayor. I'll scratch your back, and you give me some scratch?
As has been pointed out by others, the same could be said about other people with roads, buildings and schools named fter them while they are still alive. The names of Sen Eddie Lucio Jr. comes to mind as does the name of former U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, UTB President Julie Garcia, etc.
By now that nosy San Benito (and Brownsville?) student gets the idea. The lesson of the story is, if you get caught bribing judges to pervert the truth and priofit nicely at the same time, you just might get a building named after you or get a cushy deal with the local municipality or utility.
22 comments:
Many readers surely agree with not naming schools after living people...and I applaud this article. We have too many schools named for people who may crash and burn professionally or legally. We have too many people of questionable character or who are in line to have questionable character before they pass. We have a lot of worthy people who do more for the community than some who have schools named after them, e.g. Solomon Ortiz, Eddie Lucio, Juliet Garcia...and likely others. These named people have looked out for themselves first and any good to the community has dribbled down or given at a price. BISD should not name schools after living individuals!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whoa, Judge Limas looks so slim in that pic. What's he been, working out?
Bennie.
Named after the father of De La Fuente
the problem is you are castigating the Father for the son.Whatever the atty son did or did not do, pls do not blame the Father. I would not want my parents to be held responsible for my actions/inactions. Thank you,.Judge De La Fuente, for your years of service.
I totally agree. What had Eddie Lucio Jr. done for the community and students of BISD to even bring his name up for consideration? What has he done since? Well, he's worked hard...
to enrich himself and those that line his pockets. It was a joke then and it is still a joke.
Here is the way it works here in Cameron County.....
Say I have a problem with my kid at school... and in order to arrange the
fix with the Board Member or Administrator my attorney informs me of who in that District or city can make things happen . . .
Every school district has the special person, every city has
the special person...
so the attorney arranges thru that
person's attorney for some special
help....
on and on....
after some years and years with no one ever raising questions . . that special person is the one to get things done... so says the
attorneys....
guess who controls the approvals of the naming of schools, buildings in Cameron County.....
the attorneys for the city, the attorneys for the school districts
the attorneys for the county.....
THE SOONER WE GET RID OF THE ATTORNEYS.... the sooner we will
clean up CAMERON COUNTY . . .
look at every city, every school district, the county....
I will start with asking every fuking attorney who sits on a Board, serves as a City father, or
has appointed himself king / herself queen .....
give Cameron County a break....
resign, quit, step - down so we
can get over this shit hole (corruption).
Each and every one of you attorneys
no matter if you have been named in the Federal probes are looked at and considered crooks . . .
have you no shame......
what do you tell your kids you did today.... well honey I only cheated on 3 cases today.... maybe try harder tomorrow....
Buildings should be named after people that had some sort of service to community, country and / or humanity.
People with their names on buildings done so for merely doing their jobs that they are being well paid for, is stupid and just goes to show you the level of compadrismo there is here in South Texas!
Definitely no people still living should be even nominated.
If any of those people that had the county building named after themselves go to jail soon, I wonder if they will rename the building? Doubt it.
Juan get your facts correct Dude. It is Oscar De La Fuente, Jr. (former office mate of Jim Solis) who is the deep throat for the Limas scandal not his father, Oscar De La Fuente, the former school board member (whose picture you wrongfully posted) and whose memory you have now slandered. Who is checking your sources? And another thing justice of the peace are not judges. They are merely justice of the peace (JP if you want an acronym). They have no legal training and usually incompetent and dangerous (especially la pendeja Linda Salazar).
I AGGREE WITH YOU 100% BLOGGER 5:11PM. WE HAVE FORGOTTEN SOME OF THOSE IMPORTANT PEOPLE WHO HAVE 'PASSED' THAT HAVE DONE MORE FOR THESE COMMUNITIES THAN THOSE WHO ARE LIVING....LETS HONOR THOSE WHO PASSED....AND NOT WHO ARE LIVING. LET THE LIVING WORK THEIR ENTIRE LIFE AT PUBLIC SERVICE... AND THEN RETIRE HONORABLY BUT DEDICATING THEIR PUBLIC SERVICE FOR THE PEOPLE....IN BETTERING THEIR LIFES/OUR LIFES....THEN ON PASSING I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH NAMING AN BUILDING IN THEIR HONOR.
I LIKE TO HAVE MY NAME ON SOMETHING TOOOOOOO......
11:56 PM post,yes JP's are are incompetent and dangerous, so is old man dela Fuente, also a crook.
Like father like son!
Anon 7:59 AM: How about staring with putting your name on your comment.
I have to agree and what about that middle school out there on FM 802?
BITCH! CHOKE ON YOUR FOOD!
Juan I remeber a principal at victoria heights elementary where i went to and he never for some reason got a school named after him, he name was George Saenz. he worked and retired from BISD but i have yet to see a school named after that man, and he has more honor than soem of these cool cats that have schools named fr them ahat are still living as mentioned in this article and blog
juan all these freddy the freelaoders like julita, rene, lucios, cardenas limas, aurora del la cac, joe (el al bundy) rivera rivera should not have anythign or any building street etc named after them ,son un bolla de cabaritos no mas,. period
ANON: 1:31PM HOW ABOUT PUTTING YOU NAME ON YOUR BLOGGER ENTRY....
Does this mean us taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill to change the name n take off Aurora de la Garzas name and picture off the San Benito office when the indictment againt her is unsealed for assigning certain cases to limas court? Well at least the picture can be returned to Dr Robles or Sanchez ( not really clear who ended up paying for it) so they can hang it in their livingroom. Does this mean now that we know that Commissioner Pete Benavides and step-son Jesse Mata recieved bribe money from Rosenthal, that the park that was named after Benavides by commissioners court be stripped of his name like it should? These people deservenot to have buildings named after them. Thats why Pete n Aurora are and were so fat of all the bribes and freebees thay got and have gotten while as Auroras campaign slogan says "To serve the people." Yea right. It should be "To serve for self benefit." You both disgust me n should be put in jail. Well pete. U cant be put in jail but maybe Sofia should forefit the money. N gets their names off any county buildings.
profit profit profit from my late husband pete, gotta luv it, right sofie?
Softie is a stupid greedy bitch who does whatever John wood, Gilberto hinojosa and ernesto tell her to do. She into dumb to think for herself.
el ex mayor Trevino otro fufis, should be charged, tried and thrown in jail for giving out bribes to Limas in this Limasgate scandal, striped of his license, and clothes and go live with bubba in jail.
reply...CHIEF COOL AID trevino hizo muchas chingaderas cuando fue alcalde,deberian meterlo al bote junto con cabler, gonzalez y todos los corruptos de la cuidad. tienes toda la razon ahora con el caso de limas, pero tambien debe ser investigado por lo que se robo de la cuidad.
eddie trevino es otro RATA GRANDE de Cameron County, y Brownsville, vamos al bote brother, bubba is waiting for you fufis. as mr 12.11 pm replied what the hell did you steal from the city of brownsville too, raton? don you rememebr?
Que bien chingas tu con bubba, se ve que lo conoces muy bien y te traumo, ya que no te lo sacas de la boca...jajaja
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