Posted on 12/21/2013 9:32:51 AM PST by La Lydia
LAREDO, Texas Out behind the nursing home where Josefina Alexander Gonzalez turned 99 Saturday, theres a dilapidated green ranch house, its porch cover still held up by rough-hewn tree trunks. To the southeast, you see a lot of tall brush and honey mesquite, a view that hasnt changed much since the 1940s, when her parents bought a 1,000-acre ranch any other direction, and youll see new construction on her property, as developers cash in on the last large tract of open space inside of Loop 20 in north Laredo, now worth as much as $150 million.
But if you wanted to ask her what she thought of all the changes, youd have to get past the guard in her room at Laredo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where she has been stashed by Carlos Zaffirini and his wife, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini. The Zaffirinis are battling Gonzalezs daughter and grandchildren for control of that fortune. They filed papers last month arguing that Rocio Gonzalez Guerra should forfeit her inheritance.
In two days of hearings last week, a Webb County District Court judge heard the first of dozens of motions that have piled up in three related lawsuits. This account is drawn from the records of those lawsuits .
Rocio Gonzalez Guerra and her two teenage children stand to inherit an intricate cluster of interlocking partnerships, estates and trusts established by Gonzalez and her late and childless sister, Delfina Alexander.
For all those complications, the outlines of the case are plain: Guerra and her children may be the heirs, but the businesses and their funds are controlled by the Zaffirinis and their associates.
Thats why the guard is outside Josefina Gonzalezs room so she cant be served papers in a lawsuit to appoint a guardian for her, a guardian who would wreck the Zaffirinis plans.
The Zaffirinis already have control over Delfina Alexanders estate and a trust she set up in her will, and they claim to have power of attorney over Josefina Gonzalez, although Gonzalezs bank wont let them touch her accounts, according to court records, as the papers were signed shortly before she was declared mentally incompetent.
Once she dies, theyll have unquestioned control over her estate, unless they fare poorly in court...
Bit of a confusing (to me) story but I believe the meat is that old classic of a gwad dam politician trying to screw somebody out of some money.
“for well over 150 years-we are mostly Hispanic, but so mixed with Native American, later European arrivals, Blacks from the South, etc that no label really fits-”
I’ve had the thought that with the continual inter-mingling of the white and Hispanic population here is Texas that in 50-75 years time you may not be able distinguish the two. I’ve met more than a few “Hispanic” people from south Texas who look rather European.
The Senators husband is a lawyer (who would have guessed) and supposedly has control over her. They should serve him and then fight it out in court.
Uncle Chip calls it right....."This is a lawyer's dream. They will deplete that estate in a carefully choreographed paper chase over a ten year period".
Tex-Mex is alive and well, and has taken over parts of northern Mexico.
The full article is really shocking and can’t believe was allowed to happen. Just jaw dropping.
Good question. There is a reason for that guard at the door.
If she appeared in court to explain it, then in so doing it might prove her competence.
The Senators husband is a lawyer (who would have guessed) and supposedly has control over her.
I would contest this on the basis of conflict of interest.
Yeh — there appear to be outright forgeries involved.
I’m still trying to figure out where the money in the Trust is coming from — undeveloped land that they are selling off or what???
New world Hispanics “look European” because that is where we came from-we are of Caucasian ancestry...
Hispanics like my ancestors came to the new world en masse as settlers in the 16-17th centuries from Spain and Portugal-they were/are Caucasian/white. Most of my ancestors were Basques from the Spanish Pyrenees-Caucasian/white. Some few were from the south of Spain, and likely had a touch of the Arab brush-Arabs are mostly Caucasian, too-just a different ethnic group of that race. There likely hasn’t been a pure race in the last 10,000 years of human history, and ethnic groups have been mixing even longer.
In the Philippines, Spaniards interbred with the Asians there-those people are of Hispanic and Asian ancestry-they are indeed racially mixed. In the Caribbean and parts of South/Central America, Spaniards interbred with Blacks-those people are of Black and Hispanic ancestry, and also racially mixed. Most Hispanics from the rest of the new world are NOT racially mixed-just ethnically mixed.
Basque ancestry like mine is common in S and W Texas-Basques were ranchers of goats and sheep in the old world, so they settled in areas where they could pursue that, adding horses and cattle to the mix. I have dark red hair and grey/green eyes-common in this family and among Basques in general.
Recent archaeological research shows that Native Americans are not of Asian ancestry as long believed-they have been a mix of the Asian and Caucasian races for well over 10,000 years in the New World, and probably before then-the evidence shows Solutreans likely came here from Europe over 20,000 years ago, and we already knew that Asians and Caucasians were interbreeding in areas where the two races overlapped in Eurasia for many thousands of years.
I read it that way, too-the lady probably is not incompetent-that is always the first thing a greedy grasping relative tries to use as an excuse to steal...
Like I said-hope the Zaffirinis et al get handed their ass in court...
In any case, the Zaffirinis dont oversee the family trust; theyre in charge of the real estate businesses that form the assets of the trusts.
Delfina and Josefina Alexanders old ranch is busy with new construction these days, even as Sen. Judith Zaffirini fights with the ranchs heir for control of the property.
The question isnt about breaking trusts its about funding them.
If the Zaffirnis dont transfer any cash from the businesses to the trusts, the trusts have no money to distribute to Rocio and her children.
It appears that the assets of the Trust, the 1000 acres of ranch, are not even in the Trust.
How can the Trust be worth anything then and how can that be legal???
This is Grand Theft -- Texas style.
I’ve no idea, except that it sounds like the waters have been so muddied over such a period of time by so many that no one knows what is up-and that is what the Zaffirinis and their clients are capitalizing on.
When an old family property, land grant, deed in trust or whatever isn’t kept up to date, lawyers like the Zaffirinis and their clients just keep pulling out whatever they can until some judge puts a stop to it-usually leaving very little for the winners, so they have to sue in turn, and usually never see half of what they are owed.
My family isn’t at all well off-we’re strictly working folks, and the ranches are just small working ones in the absolute middle of nowhere that support one uncle/aunt or cousin, spouse and kids each-there is no money, envy, or developer temptation involved, so I really can’t say I understand this wrangling that my “betters” engage in-I’m just happy my family does not...
The acreage isn’t worth much on its face-it is just dirt and mesquite brush to run livestock on-a living, to be sure, but not a big money venture. Unless a developer gets their claws into it-and that will ruin it forever for anything else-enough already with the “development” of land-it remains so.
My male relatives-especially my grandfather-had a thing they used to say when someone crooked got nailed-that there are just some people who need hanging/shooting-crude, but to the point...
It would be interesting to find out how much that 1000 acres was worth say 10 years ago versus what it is today -- $150,000 an acre.
Was it being developed at all before the Zefferinis got involved???
Was it worth anything significant until the Zefferinis got involved???
Who's buying all the plots??? friends with money to burn from south of the border???
$150,000 is a lot to pay for an acre of mesquite brush no matter where it's located.
bump!
There is a local radio station here that plays Mexican music but in between they are speaking English!! I kid you not.
Does that count as Tex-Mex?
You can stew anything...
oh you meant steal... heh
There are Cajun music stations that do that too.
darned autocorrect I need to shut that thing off but yeah steal though dims stewing things is probably true too
bump
That can’t be for real-there is good land suitable for livestock on the next road here for sale, with nice trees for less than 10K per acre-and that is actually high, given the rotten obamamarket-you can get 3 wooded acres for 25-26K right now. Someone is scamming bigtime on the Zaffirini deal...
$150K will buy a right nice little spread here, maybe even with river access...
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