Husband indicted for ‘agg assault;’ judge won’t issue protective order
By Gregg Wendorf
Advance News Journal
EDINBURG — After years presiding over a divorce case, in which a woman with Stage 4 breast cancer (the Respondent) is trying to get her husband (the Petitioner), a local dentist, to split community assets, per Texas Family Law, state District Court Judge Joe Ramirez (the 464th) suddenly recused himself from the case late last month. No reason given; no reason necessary, even though he’s spent more than 2.5 years presiding over this case.
Since this is a family law case, given the nature of the wife’s health concerns and the fact that four minor children are involved, there’s no real reason to identify her for this story. Also, no reason to identify her husband, who has a dental practice in Starr County and reportedly owns a restaurant in the Mid-Valley.
Serving as attorney for the Petitioner (the husband) is Katie Klein. Serving as attorneys for the Respondent (the wife) are Ricardo L. Salinas and Calixtro Villareal.
Criminal Charge
As is the case in almost any contentious divorce, there are going to be allegations coming from both directions, the husband and wife.
In this divorce case, however, which has a court docket that is spread across 17 pages, beginning with the original divorce petition filed by the husband July 1, 2021, and then meandering through the months up until the present, there is one fact not in dispute: The husband is facing a criminal indictment, two felony counts, handed down by a state grand jury May 16, 2023, which reads (in edited fashion for brevity): “(the husband), hereinafter styled Defendant, on or about the 10th day of June 2021… in Hidalgo County, Texas, did then and there intentionally or knowingly threaten (the wife) with imminent bodily injury and did then and there use or exhibit a deadly weapon, to-wit: a firearm, during the commission of said assault.”
This was allegedly inside the family home prior to the divorce petition.
The second felony count reads: “(the husband) on or about the 10th day of June 2021, in Hidalgo County, did then and there intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly cause bodily injury to (the wife), by striking (her) with his hand, and the (husband) did then and there use or exhibit a deadly weapon, to-wit: a firearm, during the commission of said assault.”
That indictment, signed by the grand jury foreperson, was filed with the Hidalgo County District Clerk May 16, 2023.
All told, the husband was charged with two felony counts: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
As with his divorce case, Attorney Katie Klein is listed as his lawyer in that case as well, albeit not in the lead-attorney slot. Looking at that criminal docket, which landed in state District Judge Bobby Flores’s court (the 139th), the last approximate eight months meander all over the place: pre-trial cancellations, arraignment hearings canceled, motion for discovery and disclosure of all evidence, defendant’s motion to allow additional motions and for a second pre-trial hearing.
As it currently states: the next pre-trial hearing is set for Feb. 26, 2024.
Back over in Judge Joe Ramirez’s court, because the husband (the petitioner seeking a divorce with Attorney Katie Klein by his side) allegedly brandished a firearm inside the family home, in front of the wife and kids, and was under indictment for two felony counts, the wife asked for a protective order from the court.
DENIED.
What’s interesting in this case, one among many, is that the husband filed for divorce on or about July 1, 2021, approximately three weeks after he allegedly hit his wife and pulled a gun inside the family home, with his children in attendance, and yet Judge Joe saw no reason to grant her a protective order.
On his divorce petition, the dentist (the Petitioner) claims that his wife should be restrained from approaching him in any threatening manner, withdrawing any money from their joint accounts, etc.
Judge Ramirez signed off on that order July 6, 2021. But by that time, the wife had already fled the family home, allegedly concerned for her safety and that of her four children, flying to California to stay with her parents. By then, her husband had allegedly cut her off from any and all community assets/property (financials).
In the following months, through the rest of 2021, 2022, and 2023, Judge Joe Ramirez would award the wife no spousal support despite the fact that her husband was allegedly flying to exotic locales like Dubai, the Grand Canyon, posting the look-at-me photos on social media.
Still, no money for the wife, even though, by law, what was in the bank was deemed community property, since as the wife would explain in court, it was she who had worked to put her husband through dental school.
In fact, by the time the divorce was filed by the husband, the two had been married since December 2003, approximately 18 years.
Note: So much more to this story. Look for the second part in the Jan. 17th issue of The Advance News Journal. The wife is suffering from Stage 4 breast cancer, one of the children is sick, but unless she flew two of the children to stay with the husband over Christmas, which she did, Judge Joe Ramirez would have held her in contempt of court.
Also, the court hearing for the protective order, petitioned for by the wife, which was denied, with her sitting on the witness stand well into the night, grilled under oath by Attorney Katie Klein, lasted close to the midnight hour.