OH DANNY ROBLES, YOU SURE TALK PRETTY, MIGHTY PRETTY

"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it."
Attributed to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Nazi Minister of Propaganda

By Juan Montoya
If you look at the ad that former County Court-at-Law Dan Robles ran in today's newspaper, you will see a photo of a smiling, cherub-faced nattily-dressed man touting his "experience, integrity and impartiality."
True, he didn't mention God, the flag, Motherhood, or apple pie.
He should have.
These last few days Robles has been pulling out all the stops telling people about his humble beginnings, about his "underdog" status versus Arturo McDonald for the County Court-at-Law #1 position both are seeking, and how he is putting all his trust in God up above to slay his detractors.
Always on the lookout for the celestial lightning bolt, we nonetheless feel we must call him on some of these claims.
First, experience.
Yes, he had 10 years experience as the Cameron County Court-at-Law #3 judge before he quit and left for greener pastures saying the job just didn't pay enough to feed his family and to put his kids through school.
The taxpayers were left holding the bag and the county commissioners had to scurry to find someone else to replace him before the month (March 2009) was over or they would be forced to pay his salary regardless of whether he was on the bench or not.
Second, impartiality.
Someone should ask the defense attorneys for the Diana Alcala et al vs. Cardinal Health, Inc. et al filed in Janet Leal's County Court-at-Law #1 in 2006 what that claim is all about.
 Leal had issued a summary judgment binding the Marc Rosenthal law firm to a $1.5 million settlement for the death of child who was given the wrong medicine even though the Austin attorney had wanted to continue litigation against Cardinal Health-related entities and had entered a motion in the court to for a new trial that was denied by Leal before she took over as a district judge in January 2007.
E-mails acquired by government prosecutors and testimony from witnesses during the during the Rosenthal racketeering trial indicate that even after Leal had issued a summary judgment, 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.
Kaching!!!
Two years later, Robles quit his public office and joined Rosenthal and Jim Solis as partner "of counsel" in a law firm.
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. When the FBI came knocking, McDonald denied this and told them that as a new judge, he thought the entry was pro forma. Besides, he figuered that since Robles was a presiding judge of the courts, he could do it without question.
This is where the ties that bind between Solis, Robles and Rosenthal become plainly evident. In fact, when he was judge of #3, Robles appointed Solis to 173 ad litem cases, an unheard of amount for any attorney from just one court.
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 written by McDonald explaining the events in the case and authorizing the transfer from McDonald's court to Robles'.
In the course of the investigation, the secretary produced a copy of the affidavit – unsigned – that Solis had typed.
Third, integrity.
On second thought, let's just forget about that one.