VILLALOBOS CASE FALLOUT: NEW HOPE FOR JOE LOPEZ?

By Juan Montoya
One of the tantalizing bits of fallout from the trial and conviction of former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos has been new evidence that might be helpful to the efforts of Mazz singer Joe Lopez to appeal his sexual abuse conviction.
The Lopez family in Brownsville and Houston appeals attorney Timothy A. Hootman sued the Cameron County DA's office to turn over the DNA and other evidence and say that the revelations coming out at Villalobos' trial reinforce their belief that the former DA may have concealed evidence or manipulated it to acquire Lopez's October 2006 conviction for the sexual assault and molestation of a 13-year-old girl.
Now, they say, evidence acquired by the federal government has bolstered their beliefs that there was something illegal in the Villalobos prosecution of their relative.
"Someone very close to the Villalobos investigation called my brother Lorenzo and told him that he knew what had happened in Joe's case," said his brother Raul Lopez, a local bail bondsman. "We can't say yet what bit is, but this person has offered to help us free of charge when Joe makes his appeal on the conviction."
That the federal Villalobos investigation may have touched on irregularities in the Lopez prosecution and may throw light on the motives behind it is something the family would welcome, Raul Lopez said.
"We always suspected there was something else behind Villalobos taking such a personal interest in it," he said. "Now we may actually find out from the people who were involved in the federal investigation of Villalobos."
In the past, the Lopez family has questioned the introduction of DNA evidence they say is questionable in light of revelations made in testimony by some law enforcement officers, particularly those by a Texas Ranger assigned to a the case of Amit Livingston, the fugitive convicted murderer.  
Ranger Lt. Rolando Castañeda – under cross examination by U.S. prosecutors in the Armando Villalobos trial – was asked point blank why he questioned the DNA evidence submitted against Livingston, who absconded after he was given a 60-day grace period by convicted 404th District Judge Abel Limas prior to serving a 23-year prison sentence.
Castañeda, who played a key role in the Livingston investigation, said from the witness stand that Livingston's defense attorneys received a letter from Asst. DA Karina Bazarra informing them that their office failed to find any semen on the jeans of the victim.
However, during the Livingston trial, the DA's office submitted DNA evidence they say was found on the jeans of the murdered woman showing Livingston had been the culprit. How?
Under cross examination by Asst. U.S. Attorney Michael J. Wynne, Castañeda said the evidence was "made up."
In fact, the DNA evidence on the victim's pants was  never tested. Villalobos did not know if she was wearing the jeans the day of murder. The report indicated there was semen on the pants, but that there was no testing.And they were never turned over to the defense until one week before the trial. By that time, the  DNA could have degraded and, theoretically, if handed over to them in time, it could have provided the defense with exculpatory evidence if the DNA proved to be that of a third party.
To Lopez supporters, this amounts to prosecutorial misconduct they said may have occurred in the case of the singer.
They point out in their relative's defense that the shorts of the victim where the alleged DNA samples were collected were mixed in a trash bag of dirty laundry and that not one, but three samples of male DNA were found on them along with DNA evidence coming from the victim.
In fact, the sample that was attributed to Lopez was collected from the rear waistband of the garment.
"If the DA's office could use 'made up' DNA evidence in the Livingston case, what was to stop them from using it in other cases like Joe's?" they ask. "The fact that there were another two male samples apart from Joe's point to contamination in the trash bag. The samples were microscopic and could have been collected there by the simple contact of the dirty laundry of the rest of the family with the garment."
Will this new source of evidence uncovered by federal prosecutors in the course of the Villalobos investigations shed new light on the Lopez case and eventually result in his freedom?
"We're praying to God," Raul Lopez said.