MAGALLANES' LIMAS NEXU$$$ COMES BACK TO HAUNT HIM

By Juan Montoya

When Juan Magallanes barely beat attorney Gloria M. Rincones with 122 votes for the Democratic Party primary of 16,228 votes cast in the county, observers were amazed at the closeness of the election.

In fact, Magallanes seemed to have everything to carry off a landslide victory. He had been the Cameron County Democratic chair, had been a law partner with current Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa, and had connections with most of the heavyweight contributors to political campaigns.

In fact, Rincones stayed away from pointing out the obvious close relationships between Magallanes, Limas and Hinojosa and still came perilously close to winning.

Nothing, it seemed, could knock Magallanes off his high horse.

The first shot across the Magallanes bow was the Oscar Garcia ad you see on the right margin of this page. The ad reminds readers that Magallanes loaned Limas $30,000 while he was a sitting judge. The ad continues and states that "Magallanes is not part of the solution, Magallanes is part of the problem." (Click on link on ad to see for yourself.)
Well, we couldn't remember when Limas made that statement so we looked it up and found out that it was, indeed, true.
A Brownsville Herald report by Emma Perez-Treviño lists Magallanes as one of the attorneys who did personal business on the side with the convicted judge while he was sitting on the bench.
In her report on June 7, 2012, with Limas on the stand in his racketeering case, he admitted that Magallanes, among others, had given him loans. In that case, Limas testified that he gave Magallanes 1.3 acres of land in Fort Bend to pay off a loan of $30,000.
In fact, the Limas-Magallanes relationship goes back much further. In an April 3, 2011 article, Emma wrote that Magallanes was one of four Brownsville attorneys who helped to secure a loan to allow Limas to finance his 2000 campaign.
In her article, Emma said that, aside from contributions, "A good portion came from a $25,000 loan that Limas secured from the International Bank of Commerce. Four Brownsville attorneys and a relative put their names on the line for Limas, each guaranteeing $5,000 of the loan. These were not reported as campaign contributions, and individually they exceeded state limits on contributions to judicial candidates.
The attorneys were Ernesto Gamez Jr., who was Limas’ campaign spokesman; Leonel Alejandro, now (then) judge of the 357th Judicial District; and former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa’s partners at the time, Juan Magallanes and Eddie Treviño, now (then) former Brownsville mayor, with the then-law firm of Magallanes, Hinojosa and Treviño."
As if that wasn't enough, Garcia's link to his ad have attracted comments from others. One, in particular, has piqued people's curiosity. It is from, interestingly, none other than current Brownsville Independent School District board counsel Baltazar Salazar who alleges that Limas issued orders that went against a jury decision that put $100,000s of dollars into Magallanes' pockets.
"This (the Magallanes $30,000 loan) came a few months after a Cameron County jury awarded Magallanes nothing, zero. Limas then on his own awarded Magallanes $195,000 in damages and $50,000 in attorney's fees..."
Those who have read this blog know we're not Salazar's greatest fans, and in fact, have called for his termination from BISD. But this allegation – if supported by the record – would be enough to raise serious questions about this apparent quid-pro-quo in this case between Limas and Magallanes.
We're in the process of looking up the case in question and will follow up on the accusations on future posts.