WILL SALAZAR LET DISBARRED LAWYER REPRESENT NEPHEW?

By Juan Montoya

The date has not even been set for the case filed by blogger Robert Wightman's nephew Emilio Montes against a driver he struck from behind on his motorcycle after he had been drinking, but already the disbarred lawyer says JP 2-1 Linda Salazar will let him represent him in court.

In his complaint, Montes (but everyone knows it was Wightman) is asking the court to give him approximately $3,000 in damages to his Harley Davidson, triple punitive damages, and court costs.

He is also asking the court to suspend her drives license as punishment for her "negligence."

That's lawyer talk, of course.

Montes claims that the woman made an illegal turn and ran into him near the intersection of U.S. 48 and E. Price Road in the driveway to the Jack in the Box Restaurant.

However, in her response, she states that it was Montes who ran into the rear-right back panel of her car as he drove north on 48 and was turning into the restaurant's driveway.

She also said that Montes told her not to call the police at least five times, including after her mother had arrived on the scene.

She also said that Motes admitted to her mother that he had been drinking.

Wightman's response to a post on this blog was basically a character assassination of the woman and a disparagement of her mother. He never addresses the fact that Montes had been drinking, that he struck the back of the woman's car, and that his "immediate" report to the police happened much later after he got the woman's telephone number and her insurance company.

Instead, Wightman blames the other driver for his nephew's misfortune.

That, we're sure, will be argued in the JP's court.

Now the question becomes: Will Salazar aid and abet this disbarred lawyer to practice law without a license and represent his nephew?

It is no secret that Wightman was the intellectual force (if it can be called that) of Montes' complaints against Asst. DA Gustavo Garza and court-appointed attorney Louis Sorola for their role in the prosecution of Hector Negrete. Negrete was charged with two counts of criminal mischief. He pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor complaint and spent 76 days in the county jail.

When the time came for the second felony charge, Garza dismissed the count.

This spoiled Montes' (and Wightman's) ruse to get their claim for about $3,000 in restitution from Negrete from the Texas Attorney General's Victims Assistance Program administered by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office.
The reason for the claim for restitution? Would you believe damages to his Harley? That bike is probably jinxed. Funny how the damages always happen when Montes has been quaffing the dregs, hey?

The decision to drop the charges against Negrete resulted in Montes' (yeah, right!) double-barrel complaint to the Texas State Bar Disciplinary Section seeking sanctions against both attorneys. That came to naught and after the Bar declined to issue sanctions, Montes (re Wightman) appealed. And there it now languishes.
That is the reason that Wightman counsel Montes to file his complaint against the woman in Salazar's court.
This is the way Wightman explain his nephew's (yeah, right!) decision to pursue his claim in Linda's court:

"I have documents which would have forced my nephew to file a motion to recuse (JP 2-2 Jonathan) Gracia.," he writes, explaining nothing and leaving it up to the imagination (and prejudices) of the reader..
"I guess (JP 2-3) Mary Ester (Garcia-Sorola)  missed that day in JP school when they were taught anyone can represent anyone in JP court. I will certainly be trying the case under state law. I tried a landlord tenant case under Benny Ochoa and won. The competent judges know the rule. Jonathan Gracia hates me with a passion. The only judge available without forcing a recusal was Judge Salazar."
What JP 2-3 Garcia has to do with any of this is never explained either. 
Is it a given that Salazar will allow Wightman to waltz into her court as would a conquering hero even after he has been disbarred and even put in jail for thumbing his nose at the law and continuing holding himself out to be a lawyer in Dallas?
The legal community in Dallas had enough of this boy's antics and sent him packing minus a license. 
What does he know about DA Luis V. Saenz that makes him so sure that his office will not scrutinize the court's actions if it allows him to represent a client before the bench? Pct. 1 JP  Benny Ochoa had no knowledge of Wightman's checkered past when he let him speak on behalf of a litigant in his court. It is highly doubtful that Benny would allow that to happen again.
The entire Cameron County defense bar will be looking closely at this. With Linda running for reelection, it is not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination.
Montes (or is it Wightman?) should get what they can from their little insurance scheme here and cut their losses. Their movements have caught the attention of a lot of people.