CORPUS CHRISTI - District Attorney Carlos Valdez has filed a motion asking that Judge Manuel Banales be removed from the Mauricio Celis case.
Mauricio Celis was convicted in February 14 counts of falsely claiming to be a lawyer.
The judge in that case, Mark Luitjen, decided on a one-year jail sentence and a $1.35 million fine.
However, Judge Luitjen was removed from the case before the sentence became official. The judge was removed on a defense motion.
Judge Banales took over the case and sentenced Celis to 10 years probation with no jail time. Banales also assigned Judge Richard Terrell out of Alice to handle the cases still pending against Celis. Banales left himself as the judge of record in the first Celis case.
A total of five judges have now handled the Celis case.
The motion filed by the District Attorney raises concerns over what Valdez said are conflicts of interest between Celis and Judge Banales.
In a picture on from the Caller Times, standing side-by-side are Judge Banales, his wife Peggy, Tony Canales and his wife Yolanda at a reception.
Canales represented Celis in his first trial.
According to court documents filed by Carlos Valdez, Judge Banales has had long-standing financial and other relationships, not only with Celis' trial counsel, but also various lawyers and law firms whose conduct is directly at issue in the criminal cases.
According to court documents signed by Valdez, the attorneys and law firms would benefit if Judge Banales were to consider granting new trials in cases in which Celis has been convicted.
In May, Judge Banales granted a request from Celis to remove Judge Luitjen from his first trial, and bring himself to the trial.
According to court documents, Judge Banales stated, I will assign myself the case for "the purpose of the rendition of judgement." Whether I continue after that, "I will determine later on."
According to court documents, in 1993, Judge Banales unsuccessfully sought the appointment to a federal district judge position in Corpus Christi.
Recommendations for appointments are made through a judicial selection committee and Celis' Attorney Tony Canales has been appointed to the committee.
The documents state that a federal judge vacancy will occur in the Corpus Christi Division in the near future.
Judge Banales has two options: to recuse himself from participating in the disputed cases or to refer the District Attorney's complaint to the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court to make a decision.
Court staff said Judge Banales hasn't had a chance to read the motion to recuse himself from the Celis case.
You can read Carlos Valdez's motion to recuse Judge Banales here (Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, 7MB).
Online Reporter: Thomas Piland
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