IF NOT ROSENTHAL, IT WOULD'VE BEEN SOMEONE ELSE

By Juan Montoya
One by one they lined up to give Abel Limas his due.
If it wasn't one attorney it was another.
Limas would hand out ad litem appointments and everyone involved knew that there was a quid pro quo expected.  You want a favor? Grease Abel's palm and see the magic work. You get a few thousands, Abel wanted some back.
Whether it was Ray Marchan, Joe Valle, Eddie Trevino, Michael Young, Oscar de la Fuente, ad nauseum...
At the other side of the second floor of the Cameron County judicial wing, federal prosecutors said that former DA Armando Villalobos was also wheeling and dealing and trading favors for cash.
Whether it was a favor to his former partner Eddie Lucio that allegedly netted him and Limas thousands for letting a murderer walk, or for admitting defendants them to a first-offender program after they plunked down their $500, business was booming.
One DA investigator even settled for a bicycle from an escaped murder suspect in Matamprs to give him a status report on his case.
And even though former county-court-at-law judge Danny Robles said he retired to enter into private practice, the testimony in the trial of Austin attorney Marc Rosenthal indicates that he was partial to overruling outgoing judge Janet Leal so that causes of action could continue against a company being sued by the attorney.
And the saying that blood is thicker than mud takes on new meaning when we learn that Brownsville native Jesse Mata testified for the government that he got a piece of the pie when he agreed to provide false testimony in a lawsuit involving a railroad accident after his cousin Gilbert Benavides, who worked for Rosenthal, enticed him with a cool $10,000. All he had to do was soil his pants at the right place and at the right time.
The DA, judges, district court clerks and employees, DA office investigators, were all there with their hand out willing to take while the giving was good because everyone else was doing it. There were even judges playing one side against the other as when District Judge Migdalia Lopez asked Limas to arrange a meeting with Rosenthal at the old 77 Restaurant to see if she could play one side against the other and wring some campaign money from freewheeling Rosenthal. She had already gotten some from the opposing side in a lawsuit, coincidentally, those representing the railroad. The hat was being passed around indiscriminately and everybody was giving...and taking.
And when Elia Cornejo Lopez beat Limas, Leonel Alejandro was only too willing to have the big-money cases to his "friendly" court so the cash cow could continue to be milked. We're sure it was on the basis of his friendship with Abel, of course.
There are probably people in prison who don't deserve to be there, murderers loose who should be behind bars, and a disillusioned citizenry who was disabused of the notion that when you walked into the courtroom you were walking into a level playing field.
And judging by the people on the federal and defense witness list, there are many more people in the county who had a hand in the cookie jar, some of them groping for mere crumbs.
Solis, Limas, Robles,Young, Trevino, etc...
Today it was Rosenthal. Tomorrow, who will it be?