Valley Morning Star, Taped October 8, 2011 conversation reported February 18, 2013
By Juan Montoya
We have been taken to task (as it were) by a legal eagle with clipped wings that there was no evidence that former County Court-at-Law Dan Robles was in cahoots with convicted former Texas State Rep. Jim Solis in the manipulation of the local judiciary to benefit cases handled through Marc Rosenthal.
Aside from the fact that Robles resigned from his position as judge and then joined Solis and Rosenthal in his private practice in March 2009, he had already been actively engaged with Solis in aiding him and (also the convicted) Austin attorney by getting involved in a wrongful death case which allowed the partners to continue litigation that eventually ended in a money settlement.
Robles is currently a candidate for the County Court-at-Law #1 currently held by Judge Arturo McDonald. In fact, the manipulation of the lawsuit Diana Alcala et al vs. Cardinal Health, Inc. et al occurred on the #1 docket after former County Court-in-Law Judge Janet Leal left office to take over a district court in January 2007.
E-mails acquired by government prosecutors and testimony from witnesses during the during the Rosenthal trial indicate that even after Leal had issued a summary judgement binding the law firm to a $1.5 million settlement for the death of child who was given the wrong medicine, his firm had wanted to continue litigation against Cardinal Health-related entities and entered a motion in the court to for a new trial that was denied by the Leal before she left office in December 2006.
Undeterred, and against convention, Robles, who was the presiding judge of the courts, transferred the case to his own court and signed a docket entry to that effect. The case should have fallen to McDonald. However, Robles then vacated Leal's order without explanation.
When the defense attorneys learned of the maneuver, they filed a motion to recuse Robles from the case and Judge Manuel Bañales granted the motion. The order Robles had issued for a new trial, however, still remained in effect and the case went as far as the Texas Supreme Court and was settled before the court reached a decision.
Just 14 days after Robles signed the docket sheet transferring the case to his court, he had McDonald make another entry indicating that the case had been transferred at his request. McDonald denies this and says that as a new judge, he through the entry was pro forma. Besides, he though that since Robles was a presiding judge of the courts, he could do it without question. The first time Robles made the docket entry was the first day that McDonald was on the job after his election. A load of green wood, indeed!
This is where the ties that bind between Solis and Robles become plainly evident.
During the course of their investigations, the FBI talked with McDonald about the docket entry and then were surprised to learn from Robles' secretary that Solis had used a word processor in Robles' office on January 2007 to type up an affidavit purportedly explaining the events in the case and authorizing the transfer from McDonald to Robles.
In the course of the investigation, the secretary produced a copy of the affidavit – unsigned – that Solis had typed.
The investigation also yielded E-mails between Solis, Robles and Rosenthal that indicated that the three were working in unison to keep the case alive.
Yet, Robles still insisted that McDonald had asked him to transfer the case to his court in the privacy of the court's chambers. He told the Valley Morning Star's Emma Perez-Treviño that he had transferred the case because he felt it was "in the best interests of justice."
Now, when he's on the hustings, it is interesting to note that Robles makes much of his climb from the fields as a migrant worker and of his Horatio Alger past. It's funny that he doesn't mention that both his former law partners are serving prison sentences for bribery and racketeering.
And tellingly, if you scrutinize his campaign report for the last reporting period, there is a dearth of contributions from the legal community while McDonald's report is replete with the biggest law firms in the county running for some 70 pages.
Hopefully, the voters in the County Court-at-Law #1 race won't have such a short and selective memory as Robles and others seem to have.
By Juan Montoya
We have been taken to task (as it were) by a legal eagle with clipped wings that there was no evidence that former County Court-at-Law Dan Robles was in cahoots with convicted former Texas State Rep. Jim Solis in the manipulation of the local judiciary to benefit cases handled through Marc Rosenthal.
Aside from the fact that Robles resigned from his position as judge and then joined Solis and Rosenthal in his private practice in March 2009, he had already been actively engaged with Solis in aiding him and (also the convicted) Austin attorney by getting involved in a wrongful death case which allowed the partners to continue litigation that eventually ended in a money settlement.
Robles is currently a candidate for the County Court-at-Law #1 currently held by Judge Arturo McDonald. In fact, the manipulation of the lawsuit Diana Alcala et al vs. Cardinal Health, Inc. et al occurred on the #1 docket after former County Court-in-Law Judge Janet Leal left office to take over a district court in January 2007.E-mails acquired by government prosecutors and testimony from witnesses during the during the Rosenthal trial indicate that even after Leal had issued a summary judgement binding the law firm to a $1.5 million settlement for the death of child who was given the wrong medicine, his firm had wanted to continue litigation against Cardinal Health-related entities and entered a motion in the court to for a new trial that was denied by the Leal before she left office in December 2006.
Undeterred, and against convention, Robles, who was the presiding judge of the courts, transferred the case to his own court and signed a docket entry to that effect. The case should have fallen to McDonald. However, Robles then vacated Leal's order without explanation.
When the defense attorneys learned of the maneuver, they filed a motion to recuse Robles from the case and Judge Manuel Bañales granted the motion. The order Robles had issued for a new trial, however, still remained in effect and the case went as far as the Texas Supreme Court and was settled before the court reached a decision.
Just 14 days after Robles signed the docket sheet transferring the case to his court, he had McDonald make another entry indicating that the case had been transferred at his request. McDonald denies this and says that as a new judge, he through the entry was pro forma. Besides, he though that since Robles was a presiding judge of the courts, he could do it without question. The first time Robles made the docket entry was the first day that McDonald was on the job after his election. A load of green wood, indeed!
This is where the ties that bind between Solis and Robles become plainly evident.
During the course of their investigations, the FBI talked with McDonald about the docket entry and then were surprised to learn from Robles' secretary that Solis had used a word processor in Robles' office on January 2007 to type up an affidavit purportedly explaining the events in the case and authorizing the transfer from McDonald to Robles.
In the course of the investigation, the secretary produced a copy of the affidavit – unsigned – that Solis had typed.
The investigation also yielded E-mails between Solis, Robles and Rosenthal that indicated that the three were working in unison to keep the case alive.
Yet, Robles still insisted that McDonald had asked him to transfer the case to his court in the privacy of the court's chambers. He told the Valley Morning Star's Emma Perez-Treviño that he had transferred the case because he felt it was "in the best interests of justice."
Now, when he's on the hustings, it is interesting to note that Robles makes much of his climb from the fields as a migrant worker and of his Horatio Alger past. It's funny that he doesn't mention that both his former law partners are serving prison sentences for bribery and racketeering.
And tellingly, if you scrutinize his campaign report for the last reporting period, there is a dearth of contributions from the legal community while McDonald's report is replete with the biggest law firms in the county running for some 70 pages.
Hopefully, the voters in the County Court-at-Law #1 race won't have such a short and selective memory as Robles and others seem to have.
2 comments:
Montoya, if you want to believe that Daniel "short man syndrome" Robles had no hand or much less possible intent on gaining from these lawsuits? You have another thing coming? Robles may have never gained because the "shit hit the fan" on the investigation of Limas and everything started to come out. Robles wasn't able to make money or did he? Robles resigned and started working with Solis with connections to Rosenthal? Whose not to say that Robles made money and Solis and Rosenthal decided to keep their mouths shut since Robles took amounts in cash leaving no trail??? Robles obviously took it upon himself to get this case to his court and when the shit hit the fan tried to push it off on McDonald. Now, the "itty-bitty Mexican" wants everyone to think that he is a good guy and that McDonald is the bad guy! Daniel Robles is a two-face like his buddy, Oscar De La Fuente!
Another former county employee told me that Dan Robles, as a judge, was a complete dumbass and should not have been on the bench before. Now it seems that he is too dumb to even make money on his own and obviously seeks to get back on the public tit. Robles, Limas, Solis, Rosenthal, Villalobos and all dumbasses and all are Democrats....We have folks writing editorials about how bad the Republicans in DC are....while ignoring how corrupt the Democrats are here. Remember that "Tip" O'Neil, former Speaker of the House, said "All politics is local".....so what does out local corruption tell us about Party Leadership???
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