In what has to be the most "egregious" self serving decision issued by a local jurist, State District Judge Migdalia Lopez ruled in favor of defense attorneys and for the Union Pacific Railroad and train engineer Ernesto Ortegon dismissing a lawsuit filed by Austin attorney Marc G. Rosenthal who had accused her in court documents with soliciting a campaign donation.
The so-called “death penalty sanction” means that the lawsuit will be dismissed unless judges rule differently on Rosenthal's appeal. Lopez issued the ruling and won't become final until the amount of attorneys fees against Rosenthal has been decided.
The case concerning Lopez case revolves around the civil lawsuit Rosenthal filed in 2009 on behalf of Viviana Sosa and others. Lopez was the sitting judge on the case and Rosenthal charges that he can produce witnesses who will corroborate that the judge asked him for a $2,500 campaign contribution on Feb. 16, 2010, while sitting on the case. He told the court Feb. 21 that she made him feel that he would not be treated fairly in her court if he did not give her the money. On Feb. 22 she refused to step aside, and his motion was referred to Senior Appellate Judge Linda Yañez.
The case concerning Lopez revolves around the civil lawsuit Rosenthal filed in 2009 on behalf of Viviana Sosa and others. Lopez was the sitting judge on the case and Rosenthal charged that he could produce witnesses who will corroborate that the judge asked him for a $2,500 campaign contribution on Feb. 16, 2010, while sitting on the case.
He told the court Feb. 21 that she made him feel that he would not be treated fairly in her court if he did not give her the money. On Feb. 22 she refused to step aside and his motion was referred to Senior Appellate Judge Linda Yañez, who refused to remove Lopez..
According to Rosenthal, Lopez told him with disgraced District Judge Abel Limas present at the same table that she had received a $1,000 contribution from Mitchell Chaney, of Colvin, Chaney, Saenz & Rodriguez LLP., the firm defending the railroad and the train engineer.
She is also said to have told him that she might find a home at the firm in her future endeavors.
If you'll recall, the firm of Colvin, Chaney, Saenz and Rodriguez, LLP, represents Union Pacific, and attorney Mitchell C. Chaney represents Ortegon.
“Those are not her findings,” Rosenthal told the Brownsville Herald of the July 20 order. “The defense attorneys drafted the order for her. She signed what her buddies put in front of her without comparing the evidence.”
A July 20 order that Lopez signed containing her finding of “extremely egregious violations” by Rosenthal and his “multiple and repeated abuses of the judicial process” regarding the wrongful death civil lawsuit he filed on behalf of Viviana Sosa and others in Willacy County. Rosenthal said Tuesday her order confirmed his earlier prediction that she would harm the case.
But Lopez not only singled out Rosenthal, but also found that the plaintiffs must be deemed as principals to have ratified his conduct. The Austin lawyer responded that Lopez is acting illegally in dismissing the lawsuit because his clients had no part in the alleged misconduct.
Despite Yanez's refusal to remove Lopez from the case given her close relationship with the defense firm, her "death penalty sanction" smells of self-dealing given the evidence presented to the court that Lopez solicited a campaign contribution from both firms in the case. That alone would make her participation in the lawsuit suspect. How can one expect impartial and neutral treatment form a jurist that has openly waged a bidding war between both sides in a case before her court?
The guilt or innocence of Rosenthal in the federal racketeering charges has yet to be decided by a federal jury. To favor one party and side with her potential future employers and seeking to impose sanctions not only against the lawyers, but the plaintiffs as well smells to high heaven of vindictiveness on the part to this judge.
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