Arrest warrant for Texas abortion suspects reveals much about investigation
Police and authorities spent a month staking out and interviewing abortion patients.
(A photo of the clinic operated by the suspects in a criminal investigation conducted by the Texas Attorney General’s office.)
After filing an open records request for charging documents, the Texas Attorney General’s office sent the arrest warrant for the three suspects charged with committing abortion and illegally practicing medicine.
It reveals a great deal about the investigation. Lieutenant Edward Wilkinson, a peace officer with the Medicaid Fraud Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s office, filed the complaint. On March 7, Justice of the Peace Charles Karisch asked Maria Margarita Rojas, 49, to post a $10,000 bond.
The practicing medicine charge is a third-degree felony. In the warrant, it contended that she formed a conspiracy with Rubildo Matos, 54, Jose Manuel Candan Ley and Sabiel Bosch Gongoro. They allegedly committed this crime without a license at Rojas’ clinic, Clinica Waller Latinoamericana, in Waller, Texas.
The Attorney General’s office had assigned Wilkinson and a team of investigators to investigate the clinic for fraud and abortion. In the complaint, it contended that two people had an abortion at three months and eight weeks, respectively.
On Jan. 31, 2025, Wilkinson conducted surveillance on Rojas’ clinic. He returned on Feb. 3 to continue observation. Wilkinson also translated Ley’s Facebook profile and discovered that he listed his employment history with Doctors without Borders. This nonprofit provides humanitarian care in war-torn countries devastated by endemic diseases.
Ley was paroled in 2022 after illegally entering the country in Yuma, Arizona, and received a green card in 2023, according to court documents.
On Feb. 6, Harris County Deputy Greg Lowry inspected the clinic. Most of the employees he spoke to had a limited understanding of English. He couldn’t find any employment records with the Texas Workforce Commission.
A woman later told a police sergeant that she had an abortion on Jan. 17. She said Rojas had performed the procedure. She then showed him the bank transaction made for it.
Investigators continued to observe the facility through early March.
On March 17, authorities charged Ley with allegedly performing an abortion, a second-degree felony, and then placed on a $500,000 bond. Rojas was additionally charged with performing an abortion and received the same bond for that charge.
I’ll have more to report as the government responds to my open records requests. I also intend to contact Rojas and Ley.