SUPPORTERS: NEW INFO ON TREJO-VILLALOBOS DEALS GIVES TEJANO MAZZ FRONTSMAN LOPEZ'S CLAIMS CREDENCE

By Juan Montoya

As new revelations emerge from the U.S. Government's case against former Cameron District Attorney Armando Villalobos deal-cutting with local attorneys, notably Michael Trejo, supporters of imprisoned Mazz frontsman Joe Lopez are hoping it will buttress his appeal on his sexual assault conviction prosecuted by the indicted DA..
Villalobos,was named in a 12-count indictment charging him with one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the RICO Act, was also charged with seven counts of extortion and three counts of honest services fraud. Then  he was charged with failure to report. A new indictment issued January 7 accuses him of lying on his 2006 income tax return.

Federal prosecutors allege he failed to report more than $155,000 dollars of gross income from his wife.
Authorities allege that under-reporting the income cost the government more than $45,000 dollars in taxes.
What is important to the Lopez supporters is that they allege that , Villalobos had a contract dispute with Lopez dating back to his campaign in 2003 when he gave the singer a $2,000 advance on a $6,000 contract to perform at one of his campaign functions. The singer said he wasn't required to return the sum citing a clause in the contract of timely notice of cancellation. More than once, Villalobos asked for the money and then followed with a written demand. In an unusual move, Villalobos handled the case personally. He later made the conviction a part of his campaign literature in 2008.
Lopez had originally contracted with Robert (Bobby) Lerma and Bennie Ray, of Austin, when his music manager Eddie Peña convinced he was a client of Mike Trejo and Michael Young  and they assured that that, as buddies with Villalobos, they had the inside track with him and could almost guarantee him that they could get all the charges dropped against him.
 Lopez decided to put his trust on Trejo and Young because of their alleged closeness with DA Villalobos. The charged him a fee of $35,000.
Trejo, it was later learned, during the Abel Limas corruption and racketeering case,was one of a score of Cameron County attorneys who had "donated" large sums of money to Limas for unspecified reasons other than Abel was hurting for cash.

Now, in a supplement to the Villalobos indictment, "the government alleges that Villalobos referred a 2005 civil case involving his sister-in-law’s death to the law firm of Michael Cowen and  Conrad Bodden. The case was settled for a substantial amount in April 2006. According to prosecutors, Villalobos received a referral fee in two checks, one for $60,000 and the other for $96,000.
The $60,000 check was made payable to attorney Michael Trejo, who was not involved with the case, but funneled the money to Villalobos, the court record states."
“No comment,” Trejo said Monday.
These revelations in the reporting by Valley Morning Star reporter Emma Perez-Treviño, proves that Trejo and Villalobos might have been in collusion not just in the case of Villalobos' sister-in-law's death case, but also in others, including the conviction of Lopez.
To that end, they say they are working on an appeal to overturn the singer's sexual assault conviction. They say that neither Trejo nor Youg challenged the expert DNA testimony used by Villalobos with an expert of their own, even though an local investigator hired by the family says he has evidence the DNA samples used were flawed.
"The shorts they say they found Joe's DNA were mingled with the clothes of the rest of the family and kept in a plastic trash bag for more than three months," said a relative. "Now that we know that Trejo was in cahoots with Villalobos on the death case, it makes us even more determined to get the evidence we are hoping will exonerate Joe."