Carmen María Montiel - Stolen Identity

“No,” he said. “But I told him that you do not do what he did. Getting his wife in trouble. You don’t call the police on your wife. I can see the picture.”

I do not know if he meant it or it was a way to make me believe he was on my side. The day came and went. At around 6 p.m. or later, the mediator came with a settlement proposal. Of course, when we were all tired!

I could not believe what I was reading! At what point had Alejandro decided I was an idiot, dumb and stupid? I was the one who ran all of our business in the office and for us personally, and suddenly he thought I was going to fall for a trick.

The mediator presented me with an offer in which Alejandro was to keep 100% of his medical practice and our commercial building, which was way over 50% of our estate. From the rest, I was to get 60%, about 20% of our estate in reality for me.

“I know my math,” I said. “Why am I going to get 20% when the law gives me 50%?”

However, I wanted to end it and asked the mediator if I could make changes to it. As I started to work on my changes, the mediator came back and said Alejandro had left!

Alejandro always cheated people out of money. Why was I expecting any difference? He cheated a woman that invested in Sleep Labs out of over $200,000 when they got together to do sleep studies in Dallas. She did not have the license. Alejandro flew there every Thursday and read the studies, and our office did the billing. When she wanted to end the deal, he never paid her what he owed her.

The same thing happened when we took back the billing from a vendor to which we owed money. Alejandro never paid it. It always amazed me how none of them ever sued him—maybe because it was going to be dirty for both. Alejandro walked away with a lot of money that belonged to other people. His excuse: I am tired of people taking advantage of me!

So, we went to court on March 28, 2014, for the final trial for divorce. We walked into the courtroom and the associate judge was there, the same one that allowed my children to keep having visitation with Alejandro after all the testimony and the one accused of campaign fraud. I knew Alejandro had something to do with this since she was always going in his favor.

After my lawyers showed proof of why we needed more time, the associate judge ruled we were to be divorced that day. Alejandro high fived his lawyers. I had no idea what they were planning, but it must have been something where I was ending up very badly. Alejandro wanted me to be broken and penniless in jail or prison if possible.

We were supposed to be back in court at 1:30 p.m. I cried! What was going to happen to me? I went to the cathedral and prayed at lunchtime.

When we got back, the sitting judge was there, not the associate judge. She reviewed the evidence, including inventories where Alejandro had changed the numbers in the millions of dollars and bank accounts not put in any discovery.

“Millions are added and subtracted. What is this?” the judge said.

The judge ruled to delay the trial and Alejandro stormed out the courtroom, insulting my lawyer, his lawyer and me. He also accused me of opening his bank accounts. Like I am some kind of idiot opening bank accounts to hide money and hiring an investigator to find them, then turning them over to the court.

That victory gave my lawyers an opportunity to file a motion for a change of temporary orders to increase my support. Twice we went to court and expended two full days in cross-examination, but the judge did not rule. She was retiring and it looked as if she did not want to mess with it, or she was bought out? By whom?

Two years later, Alejandro said his friend, the car salesman nobody liked, introduced him to a judge that helped him. Was that for the hearing about the drugs or the spousal support? Was that real or did he just not want to say he paid for it? Four years later, in an interview, he said he had dinner with a judge and that same judge connected him with my family lawyer.

After two hearings about the change of spousal support that ended with no decision, his lawyer fired Alejandro. Like me, he was looking for a lawyer at the last minute and got a man with no scruples in the summer of 2014.

With the new lawyer, Alejandro did not show up in court ever, and it was impossible to enforce anything on him. He should have been thrown in jail many times. But what happened with the system? Well… the law only applies to poor men. Rich people, doctors, lawyers, CEOs, etc., have a different set of rules that no one knows. They are the breadwinners of the family and are treated differently by the court even if it means leaving their families starving.

By summer 2014 I had a third lawyer. The situation with Alejandro and his new attorney got worse. He was not paying anything. My credit was ruined and I had no money. It was so bad that my lawyers decided to request a receiver, which was granted. But the judge changed our choice from an unknown receiver to one that worked at the same building where Alejandro’s lawyer had an office.

The idea was to freeze Alejandro’s business account and make sure the children and I got paid.

Along with this battle, I was scheduled to go to trial in federal court every three months. And every three months, the trial was rescheduled. I did not meet with my criminal lawyers more often than every three months when the trial was close and we had to go to court. There was always an excuse from the prosecutor or my lawyer to move the trial.

Every three months I asked about the flight log, flight attendant manual and everything else. The answer was always the same: It is coming.

Time passed and the case was not getting dropped. I learned that Alejandro’s female criminal attorney was at the Federal Building often, making sure this case did not go away.

In January 2014, I had my first court appearance with the new prosecutor. Of course, he requested to move the trial again. I appeared in court with my lawyer and the new prosecutor did not show up. Another prosecutor took his place while the first one was in another trial. This prosecutor was inclined to drop the case, but he did not prosecute it at the end. One more of those last-minute things that makes you wonder.

After the hearing, the three of us—the prosecutor, my lawyer and I—waited for the elevator when the prosecutor asked my attorney: “So, has this been the H. prosecutor’s case all along?”

“No,” he replied. “It was the D. prosecutor’s case.”

His face showed disapproval and he added: “So, D. did this? Unbelievable!”

I could feel this seemed to be the sentiment in that Federal Building. My attorney said the new prosecutor was not interested in this silly case either; after all, he was dealing with bank robbers. That was his specialty.

By October 2014, over a year after the indictment, I was not feeling confident about my case. And my daughter’s words kept ringing in my mind: “Be careful, Mommy. He is a close friend with Dad’s lawyers.”

It felt as if my lawyer had lost interest in the case. At first, he was all pumped up and ready to go with ideas of what to do, how to do my defense, who should be interviewed, and what needed to be requested. But now he looked as if he was not interested. He had no more ideas, and I felt he was just going with the flow. And all documents requested never arrived at his office. That was the most uncomfortable point for me. It felt as if he was ready to let me go, as if I was being presented as a sacrificial prey.

Around that time, I met this incredibly beautiful young Houston native. She is someone who knows everybody in town. We were talking about mishaps in life. Suddenly I felt comfortable enough to tell her what was happening to me.

After I finished my story, she acted very normal (to my surprise) and asked who my lawyer was. When I told her, she said: “Oh, no, no, no. You need to change your lawyer. After his daughter died, he is just not interested.”