IS ALEJANDRO CALLING IT QUITS MIDWAY THRUGH HIS TERM?

By Juan Montoya
Suddenly, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos is a very popular man with members of the local bar association.
Word has reached us that 357th District Court Judge Leonel Alejandro might opt to skip out on the remaining two years left in his term to pursue other interests.
 His current term expires in 2014. He was re-elected after running unopposed in 2010.
Cascos, as a Republican close to Republican Gov. Rick Perry is sure to have a say-so in the appointment he makes to the Cameron County court after Alejandro steps down.
If the rumors proves correct, many feel that Alejandro's resignation might well be linked to the testimony that resulted from the trial of former 404th state District Judge Abel C. Limas, who has pleaded guilty to racketeering and was one of the witnesses in the federal trial of attorney Ray R. Marchan.
Marchan, a successful trial attorney originally from Port Isabel, was found guilty on seven counts of racketeering, aiding extortion, and mail fraud. Federal Judge Andrew Hanen later threw out one of the charges and sentenced him last week to 42 months in the federal penitentiary.
During the trial, Marchan’s defense attorney Noe Domingo Garza Jr. prodded Limas to name other state district judges in Cameron County who may have engaged in unethical conduct or other wrongdoing.
Limas named Alejandro, 138th District Judge Arturo Nelson, 444th District Judge David Sanchez, and 404th District Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez.
Limas offered to provide Garza with details, but Garza didn’t ask for more information.
Evidence in that case included a recorded conversation where Limas told Marchan he had asked Alejandro and 107th state District Judge Benjamin Euresti Jr. to grant ad litem attorney to Marchan and to Doug Pettit, then an assistant district attorney of Cameron County.
The Brownsville Herald reported that after Marchan’s trial, presiding Judge Hanen ordered the U.S. Attorney’s Office to cooperate with investigations by the Southern District of Texas and State Bar of Texas into the unethical conduct of the defendant or any other individuals associated with the case.
Alejandro was also linked in 2007 to two corporations charged in an alleged plot to supply undocumented workers to a South Texas oil rig builder.
Alejandro was never been charged in the case. He was president of CPEP Inc. and LAMC Inc., the companies behind a firm called Port Fabricators that provided workers to Keppel AmFELS.He was also AmFELS company's attorney before becoming a judge in January 2003. The two companies and employees Rolando Villanueva, and Ernesto Casas were charged with providing undocumented workers with fraudulent documents to AmFELS for its shipyard and oil rig-building business from 1999 to 2006.
Both pleaded guilty to hiring 1,041 labor lease workers to fulfill AmFELS’ contract. Of these, 624 had provided invalid proof of eligibility for employment.
The case touched on national security issues bcause between January 2002 and September, the Defense Department awarded AmFELS a $73 million contract to modify an oil-drilling platform used in missile defense. It was also during that span that AmFELS paid Port Fabricators $30 million to fulfill a labor lease contract.
With Alejandro's possible departure, local attorneys are lining up to see who curries the most favor with theCascos to finish out his term. Cascos never knew he had so many friends.