Woman admits part in Limas' bribery scheme

Karina Peña, a suspect in the racketeering case against former 404th state District Judge Abel C. Limas, pleaded guilty in federal court on a charge of aiding in Limas’ bribery scheme.

Peña, 29, admitted her part in the scheme during a re-arraignment Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen. Peña, of Corpus Christi, initially pleaded not guilty to the charge on June 27.

She will be sentenced Oct. 24. The maximum prison term is up to 20 years, up to a $250,000 fine and supervised release up to five years. Peña entered a cold plea, meaning that she and the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not agree on a sentence and it is left up to the judge.

Last week’s scheduling of her re-arraignment signaled that her plea would change to guilty.

Peña remains free on a $25,000 unsecured bond. A condition of her release is that she is not to speak to her co-defendant, according to the court record.

Her co-defendant is her husband Armando Peña, 30, who also is charged with aiding and abetting wire fraud. He is being held without bond.

They are accused of sending $1,800 to Limas’ alleged middleman Jose Manuel “Meme” Longoria, 52, of San Benito to partially bribe Limas with $1,500 of that sum.

Limas, in turn, modified conditions in Armando Peña’s probation, allowing him to report to the probation office by telephone instead of in person.

Armando Peña’s re-arraignment is scheduled for Thursday morning. He also pleaded not guilty in June. He is being held without bond.

During the FBI investigation, a series of telephone calls was intercepted, according to federal court records.

On April 22, 2008, Karina Peña asked Longoria over the phone to help her husband, Armando Peña, obtain court authorization to report by mail to his state probation officer.

Armando Peña had been convicted of aggravated robbery in 2006 and was on supervised probation. Karina Peña stated that her husband traveled to Arkansas without authorization.

Court records reflect that in another telephone conversation, Longoria explained that he spoke to the judge, who was later identified as Limas who asked for money. She suggested that the money could be wired from Arkansas through Western Union.

On April 24, 2008, during another conversation with Karina Peña, Longoria paused to call Genevieve Limas, the Limas’ wife, to tell her to have the judge call him because Longoria had some “calabazas” — a code word for money — for him.

The court record reflects that shortly after, Longoria again called Karina Peña to say Limas was charging him $1,500 and (that) Longoria wanted something for himself.

In a separate call to Armando Peña, Longoria told him to wire the money via Western Union in the name of his relative, court records show.

The FBI obtained Western Union records showing that $1,800 was sent on April 24, 2008, from Armando Peña in Hot Springs, Ark., to Longoria’s relative in Harlingen.

The complaint states that investigation further showed that on April 23, Limas had contacted Armando Peña’s probation officer and ordered that the defendant be allowed to report by mail.

District Court records show that on May 13, 2008, Limas signed an order modifying the probation judgment.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the charge against Karina Peña is the result of an “ongoing investigation” being conducted by the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Brownsville Police Department.