Posted on 12/08/2007 10:11:53 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
Although Corpus Christi businessman Mauricio Celis and his lawyers repeatedly have claimed he is a lawyer in Mexico — including in sworn testimony by Celis — his law school transcript from Mexico says otherwise.
Records for the Universidad Regiomontana in Monterrey, obtained through the Mexican Secretariat of Education, show that while Celis got high grades in law school last year, he hasn't finish his studies.
The transcript, stamped "incomplete," indicates Celis began his legal studies in January 2006 but remained several semesters away from completing the course work.
According to a Mexican law instructor at St. Mary's University in San Antonio who reviewed the records Friday, Celis was several critical steps shy of becoming a licensed Mexican lawyer.
"He got excellent grades, assuming this is all authentic, but he didn't finish his studies in law school, he didn't get a degree, and he didn't get a cedula (professional license)," said Roberto Rosas, a Mexican native who graduated from law school at the University of Guadalajara.
"So he cannot call himself a lawyer. It seems very clear to me," he added.
Rosas said that about two months ago, he was hired by a Corpus Christi lawyer to be an expert witness on the Celis matter and prepared a written report for the attorney but did not testify.
At that time, Rosas said, he had not seen Celis' transcripts.
Celis, 36, who owns the CGT Law Group International law firm in Corpus Christi, is charged with seven felony counts of impersonating a lawyer in the United States, and other offenses, including perjury.
He has donated heavily to Democratic causes, was active in local politics and regularly has been described as a lawyer on his company's Web site and stationery, and in media reports. He once was listed on a national lawyer directory.
He now claims this all was a misunderstanding, that he never represented himself as an American lawyer, but has held that he's a lawyer in the land of his birth.
"I am a lawyer in Mexico," he testified in May in a court hearing in Zapata County, saying he graduated from law school at the Universidad Regiomontana in 1999.
"And what is the degree you claim you received?" asked the lawyer questioning him.
"Bachelor of judicial science," he said.
According to his perjury indictment, Celis lied about graduating from law school.
The state of Nuevo León, where Celis attended school, specifically requires both a diploma and a license of its lawyers and, as in the United States, it's a criminal offense for someone in Mexico to impersonate a lawyer, Rosas said.
Celis did not return a call seeking comment. Steve McConnico, a lawyer defending him in various civil suits, said, "Mauricio Celis has not dropped out of law school. Mr. Celis has been and is now authorized to practice law in Mexico."
Weeks ago, Celis' lawyers presented an affidavit from Bruno Refugio Carrillo Medina, a law professor at the Regiomontana law school, asserted that because of his extensive life experience in legal matters, "Citizen Mauricio Celis Rodriguez has been and is now currently authorized to practice law in Mexico in the area aforementioned in this present writing."
Not so, said Rosas.
"It's my interpretation that this fellow was a law student who interrupted his studies," Rosas said. "And he doesn't have the title of lawyer from the university."
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jmaccormack@express-news.net
Con artist Celis probably bribed the Mexican professors!
Over the years he has claimed to be a lawyer licensed in Mexico, Texas, California, or Washington D.C. and lately impersonated a deputy sheriff!
If he is a democrat, all he has to do is keep the bribe money in his freezer and have sex with a teenage campaign worker and he'll win by a landslide.
ping
The only connection I noted was this: "He has donated heavily to Democratic causes, was active in local politics...
Is he running for something?
No, it appears he is running from something. (Like the law.)
Celis ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Texas US Senate Candidate Watts, Celis and the nude fleeing lady
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1915984/posts
Pass the wine and turn up the jets. : )
LOL. Celis is a real piece of work. Is he a citizen of Mexico?
Born in Mexico and grew up in South Texas.
Maybe a “dual” citizen?
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