DONNA, Texas — The felon attorney for a Texas border school district will end up costing taxpayers even more money since, as a convicted criminal, he is not able to defend the district in federal court. The district will have to hire outside help.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Donna School Board President Alberto Sandoval fired the previous school attorney and hired Robert J. Salinas at three times the cost of the previous attorney making him one of the highest paid school attorneys in the state.
Salinas pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges in 1994 and after serving his sentence he asked to have his Texas bar license reinstated. What Salinas has not been able to do is get readmitted into federal court thus he is not able to defend the school district in a recent federal lawsuit. Breitbart Texas confirmed with the U.S. Southern District Of Texas that Salinas is not allowed to practice in their courts.
The issue came to light soon after the school board was sued in federal court earlier this week by an attorney representing an underage student who claims to have had a sexual relationship with Donna teacher Guillermo Arriaga. The attorney claims in the lawsuit that the district was negligent in the case. Arriaga has since been criminally charged in state court on the charge of improper relation between educator and student.
Since Salinas is not able to defend the school district in federal court, the school district will have to hire an outside lawyer to fight the case. Salinas is currently working for the district on a retainer of $300,000 to simply attend school board meetings and charges the district $250 an hour for any additional work. The contract also gives him the option to hire out additional attorneys at the expense of the district.
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