WILL THE OTHER SHOE DROP ON MAGALLANES, OTHERS?

By Juan Montoya
Remenber the Abel Limas and Armando Villalobos trials?
Remember the roll call of shady lawyers who waltzed through the witness stand or came off the lips of Limas as he recounted those intimate friends of his who made him small loans or paid his way in return for ad litem appointments or favorable rulings on their behalf or of their friends? Or who gave him money so he coud run for the 404th Disstrict Curt in the first place?
Ditto for the testimony in the Villalobos trial.
The names read endlessly: Jim Solis, Charles Willette, Trey Martinez, his dad (Tony Martinez)  Ray Marchan, Oscar De la Fuente, Juan Magallanes, Gilberto Hinojosa, Daniel Robles, Marc Rosenthal, etc...
During the trials, federal judge Andrew Hanen ordered the U.S. Attonrey's Office to make a list of those attorneys involved and send them over to the Texas State Bar and the Texas Attorney General to see if they decided to carry out some sort of disciplinary actions against them.
Willette – seeing the writing on the wall, "retired."
Solis is serving his prison sentence as is Villalobos. So, by the way, is money-man Rosenthal. De la Fuente sang so he has gotten off so far. We still don't know if the State Bar will act on the judge's order. Robles tried to run again for a judgeship and was rejected by the voters. Limas is in a Florida federal prison. Hinojosa is now the chairman of the Texas Democracti Party.
And his buddy Magallaners is making a bid for the 357th District Court seat left vacant when Leoneol Alejandro also heard footsteps and resigned. Oscar X. Garcia was appointed to fill the vacancy by Gov. Rick Perry.
Since we still don't know what the outcome of the State Bar or TAGO review will be, we wonder whether candidate Magallanes will come under close scrutiny because of his intimate relationship with Limas. We have already published transcrips from the Marchan federal trial which describes the chummy nature of the Limas-Magallanes connection and the "unethical" (Limas' description, not ours) $30,000 loan Magallanes made the judge.

Others have said that a subsequent decision and order for damages and attorney's fees  by Limas in a case being heard by Limas where Magallanes was the lawyer for a party amounted to a quid pro quo by the judge toward Juanito.
Lawyer Baltazar Salazar alleged 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.
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, just after the case had closed.
That's just one instance of the nature of the Limas-Magallanes relationship.

In fact, Limas said that "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 judge of the 357th Judicial District; and former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa’s partners at the time, Juan Magallanes and Eddie Treviño, now former Brownsville mayor, with the then-law firm of Magallanes, Hinojosa and Treviño. The firm was under retainer with IBC.

Limas was criticized by a challenger who said that a group of powerful attorneys was out to get a court for Limas.

The Brownsville Herald's Emma Treviño reported during the trials that Magallanes, Hinojosa and others received the bulk of the ad litem appointments by Limas.

"During the campaign, Limas said there are not many attorneys who practice family law and that he would appoint the most qualified as ad-litem attorneys...

"Almost half of the $1.1 million that three district judges awarded in ad-litem fees from 1994 to 2000 went to four attorneys from a field of 56: Magallanes, Hinojosa, Gamez, and Limas."
Given all these links – and Hanen's sending of the court transcripts involving these attorneys – is there another shoe going to drop on Magallanes or any of the others?