Just as Cameron County sources confirmed that 357th District Judge Leonel Alejandro had submitted his resignation to the commissioners court last Friday, the rumor mill kicked into high gear today with stories that the now former judge had been seen in the company of federal agents who had picked him up at his home.
Even though all versions stopped short of actually saying that Alejandro had been arrested or had been listed on any kind of sealed indictment, a handful of sources close to the federal courthouse confirmed that he had indeed been talking to federal officials."He did resign. His office is totally empty," said a local attorney who had a case before him. "Everything is gone."
Speculation ran rampant for the reason that investigators might have wanted to talk with the former judge Some said it was over the fact he had been named in relation to a case involving the dealings between disgraced and convicted former 404th District Judge Abel Limas and convicted local attorney Ray Marchan.
Others said it was over the case involving his role as the owner of Port Fabricators, a firm that was implicated in hiring illegal workers on a contract that the U.S. Department of Defense had with AmFels to outfit platforms with defense missles.
A local attorney said that she had spoken with Alejandro as late as 6:13 p.m. and that he had spoken to them from his home.We should point out that the FBI and federal and Texas Attorney General investigators over the cases stemming from the Limas affair. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen instructed the U.S Attorney's office to turn over all the names of attorneys and local judges to state authorities and the Texas State Bar to allow them to determine if their actions merited further prosecution.
With rumors of at least three other sealed indictments of local jurists and lawyers in the air, we can expect more speculation to ripple through the already skittish legal community.
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