THE MAGALLANES DOSSIER: UP TO HIS NECK IN SQUALOR

By Juan Montoya
We are being taken to task for bringing up several issues dealing with Juan Magallanes' past cozy relationships with the usual suspects in the squalor associated with the judicial corruption in Cameron County.
Magallanes, as we all know, is the Democratic Party's nominee for the 357th District Court brace in the general election in November. As such, he is subject to scrutiny. After all, the last guy (Leonel Alejandro) who was there resigned and figured prominently in the cases in federal court as one intimately associated with disgraced (and convicted) 404th District Judge Abel Limas.
Limas is now doing federal time in a corrections facility in Pensacola, Fla.
It is Juan's association with Limas that has been brought out by Oscar X. Garcia, his opponent in the November general election. Whether you support Magallanes or Garcia for the 357th, these are some incontrovertible facts.
* If it hadn't been for Magallanes, Gilberto Hinojosa, Eddie Treviño, and even Ernesto Gamez, Limas would not have run for office.
In fact, Magallanes was one of four Brownsville attorneys who helped to secure a loan from IBC Bank  to allow Limas to finance his 2000 campaign.
In an article written by Emma Perez-Treviño written in 2011, she wrote 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."
Then, in 2005, after Limas had been in office for one four-year term and was embarking on a second one, the partners heard he was thinking of resigning his bench.
During the Ray Marchan trial, Limas told prosecutors that he had told them he wasn't going to resign and they talked him out of it.

LIMAS : "I was going to resign in 2005. I had a letter for Gov. Rick Perry in 2005.
ASST. U.S. Atty. "And they told you don't resign. Please don't resign."
LIMAS: "Yeah, they told me not to resign. They didn't tell me 'Don't resign. We'll do this for you.' No. They encouraged me not to resign. And I said 'I'm going to resign.'"

It was in 2005 that the Magallanes and Limas relationship grew closer, even to the point of impropriety because Limas accepted a $30,000 loan from Magallanes as collateral for a property in Ft. Bend while Magallanes had a case before the court.
Lawyer Baltazar Salazar stated that Limas had bent over backwards to make sure Magallanes received his due in the form of court-ordered payments even when a jury did not award him any damages or attorney's fees in that case.
Salazar alleged 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..."
The case (2004-10-5058) was styled Bob Torres Properties vs. Southern Stone Properties, according to Salazar, who commented on Magallanes; opponent Oscar X. Garcia's FB page that "this was not a loan. This was a payback for ignoring a jury's verdict."
In fact, during the Ray Marchan trial, Limas testified that Magallanes loaned him the money in 2005. Limas himself admitted that it was unethical fro him not to tell opposing counsel of the personal loan.

ASST. U.S. ATTY: ...And you were in a bind in 2005 and you accepted $30,00 0 from a lawyer, according to Magallanes, in 2005...
LIMAS: It was unethical.
ASST. U.S. ATTY: Ok. Well it's not unethical unless you're doing favors or they're bribing you.
LIMAS: No, sir.  
ASST. U.S. ATTY: So you're saying taking money is unethical period?
LIMAS: No, sir. You can get a loan form a lawyer as a judge. You can have a transaction as a judge. The only thing that makes it unethical is me, that I did not advise the opposing counsel that I was engaged in a form of transaction that benefited me, I never told that lawyer."

They say all fair's in love and war. That Garcia points out his opponent's close nexus with Limas and the local judiciary's corruption to us is a legitimate argument on behalf of his candidacy. This goes beyond party affiliation. This is not something made up by the opponent. The documentation is there for all to see.