39 of 43 DOCUMENTS

The Houston Chronicle

October 24, 2007 Wednesday  
3 STAR EDITION

Watts, Celis and the nude fleeing lady

BYLINE: RICK CASEY, Staff

SECTION: B; Pg. 1 Metfront

LENGTH: 770 words

I often tell my lawyer friends I know they'll never lie to me.
They'll always tell me half the truth.
It's a lawyer's job to present the half that benefits his or her client. Or his or her own self.
It's somebody else's job to tell the other half. 
So I believe Mikal Watts when he tells us he quit his quest to replace U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, after sinking millions of his own money into the campaign, because he wants to spend more time with his family.
But I also wonder if it has anything to do with Mauricio Celis, a guy who six weeks ago, wearing only a bathrobe, chased a naked woman into a Corpus Christi convenience store at 4 a.m.
Celis also flashed (get your mind out of the gutter) a badge, telling officers on the scene he was taking the woman into custody.
A hot tub refugee
The woman, who had been part of a group partying in Celis' hot tub and said Celis had become a bit too forward, ran off in a T-shirt given to her by a store clerk. After placing a call to the chief of police, Celis was let go.
But Celis wasn't, as the badge indicated, a deputy sheriff from nearby Duval County. He had been a Duval reserve deputy, but lost his commission in 2003 for not keeping up with required training.
Then again, Celis isn't an attorney either - and that's where Mikal Watts comes in.
Reporter John MacCormack of the San Antonio Express-News broke the story Oct. 6 with an arresting lead:
Ferraris and Bentleys
"For years, Mauricio Celis has enjoyed all the trappings of a successful South Texas lawyer, from a private jet and exotic cars like Ferraris and Bentleys, to a spacious downtown office with a sweeping view of the marina."
MacCormack described Celis as the owner - he admitted to being the "general manager and chief administrator" - of a firm called the CTG Law Group.
"My office co-litigates cases with other firms," Celis said, but refused to elaborate.
It appears Celis made the big bucks by recruiting clients and delivering them to other attorneys who would actually litigate the cases. It is not uncommon, and it is perfectly legal, for the firm that prosecuted the cases to pay hefty referral fees to the person who brought the case.
As long as that person is a lawyer.
In Texas, lawyers may not pay referral fees to non-lawyers. Lawmakers figure we have enough lawsuits without allowing lawyers to hire everyone from insurance adjusters and traffic cops to bail bondsmen and emergency room attendants to bring them more business.
Celis insists he never held himself out as a lawyer, which would be a felony. But until recently, his firm's Web site and stationery described him as a lawyer.
He has not corrected newspapers from the Corpus Christi Times to the Chicago Tribune that have identified him as a lawyer.
Records of his hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Democratic candidates and organizations ($64,500 to gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell last year and the federal maximum of $4,600 to Mikal Watts this year) identify him as a lawyer.
KIII-TV in Corpus Christi also reported that Celis identified himself as a lawyer and peace officer - and a Desert Storm veteran for good measure - to a policeman during a speeding stop. He was given a ticket anyway.
So Celis is now under investigation for impersonating a peace officer, impersonating a lawyer and stealing funds from a client, according to Nueces County Sheriff Jim Kaelin.
Watts admitted to MacCormack that he has taken "one or two cases in the past few years" from Celis.
I called the State Bar on Tuesday to see if a lawyer is supposed to check to see whether a person who gets a referral fee is a licensed attorney. A spokesman said they would get me the information today.
According to MacCormack, there has been suspicion about Celis for some time. One Corpus Christi lawyer last month told a judge in a fee dispute case that Celis' firm is "a sham law firm operating illegally, and is nothing more than a runner ambulance-chasing referral organization ... "
Watts' problem is this: Just being a rich plaintiffs' lawyer in Texas is a huge political liability.
He has already been stung by a story by my colleague R.G. Ratcliffe about a letter Watts sent to an opposing lawyer in a $60 million personal injury lawsuit settlement claiming his firm had contributed heavily to the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals, "all of whom are good Democrats." That's great material for TV attack ads by his opponents.
Now investigations into Celis' operations promise to keep the sleazy side of South Texas lawyering in the news.
Even if he doesn't become a direct part of the story, Watts will be hurt by it.
And if he is part of the story?

LOAD-DATE: October 24, 2007

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

NOTES: You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

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