WESLACO — A one-time city commission candidate and well-known political activist here has been arrested on allegations that he swindled thousands of dollars from a local property owner.
Eduardo “Edward” Mejia, 35, was arrested by Weslaco police on Oct. 22 and charged with theft of more than $2,500, but less than $30,000, a state jail felony, after a Mercedes man sought out his help to straighten out deed paperwork for a recently purchased property.
Eulogio Villanueva reached out to Mejia in December 2017 for help finalizing the property deed paperwork for a piece of land located off of Farm-to-Market Road 1015 that he had purchased several years earlier, according to a probable cause affidavit for Mejia’s arrest.
Unbeknownst to Villanueva, however, there was a tax lien on the property — a holdover from the previous property owners, Juan and Maria Chavez, court records show.
A 2016 tax lawsuit filed against the previous property owners resulted in a judgment to sell the property in order to recover the delinquent taxes. As such, Villanueva was soon served with an eviction notice by a Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputy.
Villanueva’s son recommended Mejia as someone who could help clear up the matter through his connection with local attorneys and politicians. But rather than help, Mejia went on to make numerous false claims while coaxing more and more money from Villanueva over the course of several years, according to the probable cause affidavit.
It began in 2016, when Mejia and Villanueva met with the deputy who had served the eviction notice. The deputy informed the pair that the debt with delinquent tax collector, Ovation LLC, would have to be paid off before the deed could be transferred.
Mejia took Villanueva to an unnamed attorney’s office in McAllen, where he allegedly met with the lawyer behind closed doors, outside the presence of Villanueva. When Mejia reemerged, he assured the landowner that he had retained legal counsel.
“Upon concluding the meeting with said attorney Mr. Villanueva was informed by Mr. Mejia that he had retained an attorney to straighten out the legal matters with the property,” the probable cause affidavit reads.
Villanueva gave Mejia $5,000 to pay the attorney, and then another $2,000 when Mejia later told him the attorney had moved away, but that the case would be handled by the lawyer’s assistant.
Villanueva, who worked outside the Rio Grande Valley, continued to send Mejia money via money transfer services, such as Western Union or MoneyGram, the affidavit reads.
By 2019, Mejia claimed that the attorney had been unable to resolve the tax lien issues and said he could get another lawyer to take the case.
That lawyer turned out to be Ramon Garcia.
Mejia took Villanueva to Garcia’s Edinburg law office in May 2019, but Villanueva didn’t have the $5,000 on hand needed to retain the lawyer.
“Due to Mr. Villanueva working out of town, he designated Mr. Eduardo Mejia to deliver payments to Mr. Ramon Garcia,” the affidavit reads.
Again, Villanueva continued to send money transfers to Mejia, who continually assured the man that the tax lien was being taken care of by Garcia’s law firm.
But those payments never made it to the attorney, and Villanueva received a final eviction notice this June.
When investigators reached out to Garcia, he confirmed that his firm, via another attorney, Juan Carlos De Leon, had agreed to represent Villanueva upon receipt of a $5,000 retainer fee, as well as the documents surrounding the tax lien and eviction.
In September 2019, the law firm sent a certified letter withdrawing their representation because they had yet to receive the necessary documentation. Nor had they ever been paid.
The nonpayment was confirmed by the law firm’s bookkeeper, the affidavit reads.
Investigators later subpoenaed the financial records from the various money transfer services Villanueva had used to pay Mejia. They uncovered evidence that Villanueva had sent Mejia more than $10,500 between 2016 and 2021.
Villanueva also claims he paid Mejia further sums in cash, for a total of about $13,000, including the transfers.
Further, county records show the current property owner not to be Ovation LLC, but rather Toldos LLC.
A warrant was issued for Mejia’s arrest on Oct. 22. He was arrested that same day and has remained in the Hidalgo County jail pending the payment of a $20,000 cash or surety bond, jail records show.
