Agents raid Texas Democrat's offices (of influential Democratic donor to Hillary and other dems)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/4/08 | April Castro - ap

[SouthTexas]

There has a been a 'little' reported on this. Sort of flares up and then dies down again.

I've yet to see any of his qualifications published to practice law-anywhere.

[flattorney]

SouthTexas says: I really hope they roll with it, but somehow I tend to doubt anything will come out of this. It will just slowly fade away into nothing.

I would be interested in the factual position for your statement as it appears to me the legal progression against Mauricio Celis on a Local, State, and Federal level is progressing very well, despite some local judges interference that MauRICO has in his back pocket. Based on my understanding to-date:

1) Legal authorities have been successful on two occasions in blocking Celis from getting his passport back;
2) U.S. Customs and Border Protection have issued a special bulletin on Mauricio Celis (felony flight risk);
3) Late Friday morning, January 4, 2008, the Texas Attorney General’s (“TAG”) office (Greg Abbott – See bio below), providing assistance to the Nueces County (Corpus Christi) District Attorney’s (“NDA”) office (Carlos Valdez), conducted an extensive raid on Celis’ multiple businesses, confiscating substantial business records, computers, etc. The raid was due to Celis refusal to provide records that were subject of a subpoena, along with a tip that Celis and his staff were suddenly vacating their offices. The raid was based on sworn “probable cause” of felony criminal activity. The TAG is not going to raid someone’s business without hard evidence of probable cause. And, they are not going to raid someone’s business unless it is approved in advance by a Magistrate Judge, with said raid remaining under that approving Judge’s review. Further, Greg Abbott is no dummy. The guy is a highly respect heavyweight with substantial Texas and National connections. I’ll bet a month’s salary that additional criminal charges will be filed against MarRICO as a result of the TAG-NDA raid, and/or the following investigation.
4) The FBI is involved investigating about $15 million in Mauricio Celis et. al. business transactions that appears a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The RICO Act mandates significant Federal prison time if charges are brought and Celis is found guilty. Based on what I have read, it doesn’t look like the Feds will have any problem filing very serious criminal charges against Celis. It is also well understood, that criminal charges in Federal Court are needed against MarRICO so he cannot continue to use his local “pocket judges” to protect himself and undermine the TAG-NDA taskforce.
5) NDA Carlos Valdez will do everything within his legal and ethical powers to prosecute Celis. Like any other smaller city/County DA, I am sure Valdez would enjoy having his name back in the National spotlight again after the National exposure he received prosecuting the Selena Quintanilla-Perez murder.
6) In the short-term, there will be a higher level of Regional and National MSM coverage of this Celis-Hillary-Democrats Scandal. The latest events have already been covered by Fox New and CNN television.

Everything is going well for a major criminal scandal that only hit the non-Texas public radar six weeks ago. In short, this young criminal punk - that is trying to use the Hispanic race card and being a Democrat as the reason for all his legal problems - is going to prison when everything is said and done. Just like Norman Hsu that has already received a three year sentence, on one criminal case alone. So much for all the FReepers that posted nothing was going to legally happen to Hsu. - FlA

01.04.08 Mauricio Celis-CGT International Law Group et. al. Search Warrant (PDF - 13 pgs)

Bio: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

[tubebender]

The guy on the left looks a little like Bob Hope...

[SouthTexas]

Growing up in south Texas? LOL OK, I know that's not very factual and this case is changing daily, for the better I hope. Maybe the state and the feds can do something, or more to the point WILL do something with it.

Here's a link from Oct. 5th, 07 regarding a couple of the charges, original incident Sept. 17th.. Another attorney, Thomas J. Henry has had adds (partially noted in article) on TV about Celis' lack of credentials. I thought for a while it would help and it may have in publicizing it alone.

Here's one more to the point South Texas called a judicial hellhole for 6th straight year.

[SouthTexas]

Here's a whole page of links for you to local coverage.

[flattorney]

The guy on the left looks a little like Bob Hope...

That is Bob's illegitimate brother Mexicali Hope. Instead of having a golf club in his hand like Bob always did, Mexicali usually always has a pinata stick in his hand.

[flattorney]

TX-22 Candidate Pete Olson (R) Has Some Advice For Nick Lampson (D)
Nov. 30, 2007
- - Donate that "dirty" money to charity or stay dirtied by it

Editor Note: Pete's running for Congress in Tom DeLay's old district, TX-22,.. you remember that one dontcha? Yeah-the one where Lampson rode into town on a white horse (backed by significant Soros Shadow Party money – FlA) to rid everyone of the alleged and since-proven non-existent corruption?

Earlier this month, Mauricio Celis, of Corpus Christi, TX, was sued by the Texas Attorney General for illegally operating a law firm as a non-lawyer. On September 27, 2007, Lampson received two contributions, totaling $4,600, from Celis. As of today, three Democrat State Representatives from Texas: Abel Herrero, Solomon Ortiz Jr. and Juan Garcia have all donated Celis’ tainted money to local charities. “Questionable money from questionable sources, I urge Mr. Lampson to follow the lead of his fellow democrats by donating this money to a charity who can better use these funds,” commented Pete Olson. “I expect Nick Lampson will practice the ethics that he preaches by immediately distancing himself from Mauricio Celis and giving this money to a worthy cause.”

According to news reports, Mauricio Celis was ranked as the 51st most prolific Texas Democrat donor in 2004, having donated more than $160,000 to candidates and political action committees (PACs) designed to support Democrats. Celis has also donated tens of thousands of dollars to PACs set up by former Democrat Senate candidate Mikal Watts with the purpose of fighting medical malpractice reforms here in Texas.
----------------
FlAttorney says: Democrat Nick Lampson won Tom DeLay's TX-22 House of Representatives seat when DeLay abruptly retired from public office. A key Lampson campaign pledge was that he would never be part of the Washington DC Culture of Corruption. Yet this liar and fraud received $4,600 from Mauricio Celis, AND received $4,300 from Paw Family members who are key players in the major Norman Hsu-Hillary Clinton-Democrats Scandal. In the Hsu Scandal, Hillary’s campaign refused to dislodge any Hsu et. al. donations, until the FBI and the Justice Department began an investigation. Hillary then immediately coughed up $850,000 Hsu scandal tainted money. To-date, Lampson has never returned his Hsu-Paw Family scandal donations.

[flattorney]

Thanks, added to my FR “Straight Talk” page Celis section with credit. - FlA

[flattorney]

This needs a full post so it can be FR linked on my FlAttorney's FR "Straight Talk" page. For some reason the FR keyword function does not work when I tried to add “Celis” to all related threads. Had this problem before on new FR keywords. Must be a software DB glitch. Accordingly, a Celis links and comments section was added to my Straight Talk page - in the Hillary Rotten Clinton section - to track the public news on POS MarRICO. HERE is the direct link to the section. Please let me know if we missed any relevant FR posted threads. Also, please ping me with any new Celis relevant threads so they can be added to the section. Thanks!

As to the American Tort Reform Association’s 2007 Judicial Hellhole report - - After last Friday’s, Jan, 4, 2008, major raid on CGT and Celis’ related businesses by the Texas Attorney General’s office, I would say that ATRA made an arse of themselves in this report regarding their anti-Thomas J. Henry comments. I concur 100% with Mr. Henry’s press statement, "I would say they humiliated themselves with the lack of professionalism."

As to Connie Scott’s comments at the end of the news article - - I say, anyone that still believes our U.S. civil judicial system is based on the applied principle of “equity of law”, also still believes in the tooth fairy. It has become a corrupt quagmire throughout major parts of the Country. While greatly needed, major tort reform in my lifetime will never happen… forget about it. FYI, as stated on my FR “Straight Talk” page, I practice domestic and international corporate and real estate transactional law. There isn’t enough money in China to pay me to practice litigation in Miami-Dade. The Houston-Harris courts have become just as bad. However, there are many damn good and honest litigators in this business that are equally frustrated by the serious problems in our civil and criminal courts. My grandfather, who was a criminal attorney - as both my father and my older brother - gave me some very good advise when I was young. He said never let a doctor or a lawyer get their hooks into you, because either one can destroy your life and your net worth. – FlA

“I don't sleep with whores and I don't wake up with whores. That's how I live with myself”

[flattorney]

American Tort Reform Association
Annual Report - Judicial Hellholes 2007
Executive Summary | Full Report (PDF–60 pgs)

South Texas Called a Judicial Hellhole for 6th Straight Year
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
By Mary Ann Cavazos
December 19, 2007
<> Original article link posted by FR SouthTexas

South Texas is a "Judicial Hellhole" -- at least according to a Washington, D.C.-- based organization that ranked the region second among the nation's most unfair civil court jurisdictions. It is the sixth straight year the American Tort Reform Association listed the Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast in its annual report, released Tuesday. The nonprofit corporation also named five other places including South Florida, which took the top spot; Cook County, Ill.; Clark County, Nev.; Atlantic County, N.J.; and the entire state of West Virginia as judicial hellholes.

According to the association's Web site, the report highlights areas of the country where judges apply the law in "an inequitable manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits." Most references to civil cases in the report involving losses for corporate defendants are broad and don't include specific details. The report's footnotes cite newspaper articles, editorials, other media reports and case filings as some of its sources.

South Texas is a place where many personal injury attorneys forum shop, which refers to when lawyers try to land their cases in the courts of judges more likely to rule in their favor, the report said. Corpus Christi Bar Association President Rebecca Kieschnick was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment. In previous years, local bar officials have said the report should be viewed more as the group's opinion than as an independent report.

One section of the report chastised Corpus Christi attorney Thomas J. Henry, who in September launched a series of TV spots that claim Mauricio Celis is not licensed to practice law and invited his former clients to seek refunds for attorney fees. While the report mostly provided an unflattering description of personal injury attorneys in general, of Henry it asked, "What do you call someone who chases the ambulance chaser?" Henry said the report, which has sarcastic overtones, should not be taken seriously. "I would say they humiliated themselves with the lack of professionalism," Henry said, adding he thought it also was poorly researched. Henry sued Celis and his Corpus Christi-based firm CGT Law Group International on behalf of one of the firm's former clients.

Celis, who has several pending lawsuits against him in Texas, faces four felony charges in Nueces County including falsely holding oneself out as an attorney, theft, perjury and impersonating a peace officer. "All they're doing is taking a potshot at a real lawyer when what they should be doing is focusing on the root of the problem," Henry said.

Connie Scott, executive director of Bay Area Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, said the report sheds light on frivolous lawsuits and can be an aid to help reform the civil court system. "Any reference to Texas in this report is a reminder to all of us that we still have some work to do," Scott said. "I think it's a continual process. We all want a fair system.”

The 2007 Judicial Hellholes
1. South Florida
2. Rio Grande Valley and Texas Gulf Coast
3. Cook County, Ill.
4. West Virginia
5. Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas)
6. Atlantic County, N.J. (Atlantic City)

Article Source: American Tort Reform Association
http://www.caller.com/news/2007/dec/19/south-texas-called-a-judicial-hellhole-for-6th/

[SouthTexas]

FR keyword function does not work when I tried to add “Celis”

Certain profanity is not allowed on conservative websites. ;)

[SouthTexas]

While I do not have much respect for personal injury lawyers, I do give Thomas J Henry credit for going after Celis. In my opinion, his actions may have been instrumental in taking this guy down.

I also see some of the problems in this area changing for the better. I just hope it's not wishful thinking. We've got another one going up the road a bit with an employee, ex sheriff, of the DA's office charged with multiple crimes involving an under aged prisoner. This one still remains to shake out.

[flattorney]

D.A. Carlos Valdez Says Celis is a Flight Risk
- - Celis shows two different birthplaces on government forms
Jan. 8, 2008

There are new developments tonight in the case of indicted local businessman, Mauricio Celis. District Attorney, Carlos Valdez, is asking a judge to deny Celis' request to have his passport returned. The D.A. says Celis is a flight risk and may never return for trial. D.A. Carlos Valdez points out to the judge that a confidential letter sent by Celis' attorney to the judge was a violation of ethical rules.

Valdez also includes two government forms in his filing. Those are where Maurecio Celis claims a different birthplace on each. On his military enrollment form he says he was born in Tampico Mexico. On a State Alcohol application form he states that his birthplace is Monclova, Mexico.

Celis responded to the charges by telling 3 News that he was born in Monclova and his mother registered his birth in Tampico.

http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/13544722.html

Posted for FlAttorney by TAB

[Paleo Conservative]

Thanks for the info.

[SouthTexas]

I do like Carlos Valdez. While he can’t help but get caught up in politics every so often, most of the time he stays above the fray.

[SouthTexas]

Celis Update