Police say Edinburg woman lied about being attorney, tried to charge county for representing self in court
An investigator with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office arrested an Edinburg woman last week who allegedly broke the law in an attempt to get the county to pay her with indigent defense monies for representing herself in court last year — even though she’s not an attorney and was represented by individuals appointed by the court who are.
Cristina Reyna
Deputies arrested Cristina Reyna, 41, on June 6 and charged her with tampering with a government record, a Class A misdemeanor, and with falsely holding oneself out as a lawyer, a third degree felony.
Reyna remained in the Hidalgo County Jail Thursday morning with bonds totalling $30,000.
According to documents related to the arrest, Reyna submitted an attorney fees expense claim to the county in March of last year.
Reyna wanted to be paid for legal work on her own case: she’d been charged with criminal mischief in early 2023 after allegedly forcing open a door at an apartment complex and breaking it.
The first of several alleged problems with Reyna submitting that claim is that two court-appointed attorneys represented her in 2023, Jaime Aleman and Laura Barbosa.
Reyna did, despite having court-appointed representation, represent herself as a pro se litigant on at least two occasions in 2023 — about when Aleman took over for Barbosa and again after that point.
The sheriff’s office got a call about Reyna in March and in April an investigator spoke with a representative from the county’s indigent defense program, learning that Reyna doesn’t work as a court-appointed attorney and isn’t even a lawyer.
On June 6, the investigator spoke with Reyna, who allegedly claimed to be a lawyer.
“Ms. Reyna stated that she was practicing law and that she did not need to hold a bar license to practice law in the State of Texas,” a criminal complaint says. “Ms. Reyna stated that she wanted to ask Judge Jaime Palacios to pay her for representing herself in her case.”
Reyna admitted to filling out the expense claim form, the complaint says.
“Ms. Reyna continued to state that she is an attorney,” it says.
Reyna has been representing herself as a pro se litigant and occasionally describing herself as an attorney for at least a decade.
She’s self-represented herself in both civil and criminal cases, in federal and state court.
On her LinkedIn page Reyna describes herself as an educator, attorney and engineer. In 2014 she sued the city of Mission and Hidalgo County, describing herself as a lawyer.
At other times she’s tacitly acknowledged that she’s not a lawyer, like in 2020 when she represented herself in a lawsuit against IDEA Public Schools. The court urged her to find representation from a bonafide attorney.
“You’re — because you’re not a trained lawyer, your pleadings are — even though I let you amend your pleadings, they’re still sort of all over the board, they’re not real concise,” Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane told her at a hearing according to a transcript. “They make claims for things that there are no claims for, that there are no — you claim a cause of action, but it doesn’t really exist. I’ll just give you I mean a myriad of examples of where you’ve said those things in your pleadings, and so it’s hard for us to sort of get a grip on actual causes of action that exist that you can claim.”
Rather than law, Reyna’s main occupation in recent years appears to have been as an educator. She’s worked for IDEA, Hidalgo ISD and Sharyland ISD in different capacities according to court filings, and her LinkedIn lists the Region One Education Service Center, Alice ISD and Capable Kids as former employers.
Based on court records and video presentations about Reyna’s feud with IDEA posted on her YouTube page (which are set to music, including Eminem and Tejano tunes), it doesn’t appear that Reyna’s represented anyone in court other than herself or attempted to attract clients.
Reyna’s litigation appears to have seldom if ever led to success in court. She generally can’t pay court costs.
Calls to the most recent office number listed for Reyna in court filings went unanswered last week.
I wish to remain anonymous. Has anyone thought about how mental illness could affect a person. The way they think act and believe that they are right even if they are not. Cristina in my opinion needs help. Psychological help and medication. Anyone that really knows her can tell you that there is something that isn’t right. Did Judge request
a mental evaluation. In this day and age. I am surprised that there are people out there that don’t understand what mental illness is. I am not saying that these charges are not correct. I am saying that the root of the problem is not being addressed.
I wish to remain anonymous. Has anyone thought about how mental illness could affect a person. The way they think act and believe that they are right even if they are not. Cristina in my opinion needs help. Psychological help and medication. Anyone that really knows her can tell you that there is something that isn’t right. Did Judge request
a mental evaluation. In this day and age. I am surprised that there are people out there that don’t understand what mental illness is. I am not saying that these charges are not correct. I am saying that the root of the problem is not being addressed.