TIJUANA.- On June 17, Jill Tahmooressi revealed that she has now hired big-time Tijuana attorney, Fernando Benitez de Castillo, to represent her son Andrew Tahmooressi, who has been incarcerated in federal prison on multiple weapons charges since driving into Mexico on March 31 of this year with a stash of loaded guns and ammo in his truck.

The original evidentiary hearing for her son's case should have been heard on May 28th but was postponed when the Tahmooressi's fired their original attorney on the courthouse steps. Then a second attorney was fired after less than two weeks on the job. And now a third is hired. No date has yet been set for the evidentiary hearing.

But this represents a change in direction for Jill Tahmooressi – her son's proxy legal strategist – who up until now has aggressively tried her son's case in the "court of public opinion" by launching an international assault on Mexico and its justice system through strident appeals to politicians, the media, the State Department and through a petition to President Obama that has garnered more than 125,000 signatures – "demanding" her son's release.

During this time she has repeatedly claimed on national television, and then repeated worldwide, that her son has been "almost executed" by prison guards and by drug cartels, threatened with rape and extortion, has been brutalized and chained naked to a mattress, his jaw has been "almost" broken – none of which has ever been corroborated – and is belied by his healthy appearance throughout.

In an interview with Newsmax.com, Jill states, "we had all hoped that there would be some rallying and some discussion and some mutual review of Andrew's innocence from the beginning…that didn't happen. So now he is languishing in his second prison in Mexico and our only hope apparently is through the judicial system in Mexico as if he is a criminal, but all he is guilty of doing is making a wrong turn."

Translation: We had hoped that ruthless criticism and bullying of Mexico, Mexico's Jails, Mexican Law, and Mexican Authorities would force Mexico to bypass the judicial system and cough Andrew up. But the Tahmooressi strategy has failed. It has succeeded in one area only.

It has ignited a flame of anti-Mexican hysteria and pushback but it has definitely not succeeded in any other respect and has instead provoked ignorant, burdensome and inappropriate responses by national media – pumping-up and distorting a local border incident into an unseemly incitement for border blockades, swat teams, and prisoner exchanges.

In spite of the delays caused by these tactics and ugly chatter that it has created, it appears that Jill is now resigned to the fact that her son Andrew is not above the law after all and will have to appear before his evidentiary hearing where he will have the opportunity to hear the evidence against him, question witnesses, and present his own witnesses and evidence in mitigation. He will also, of course, have benefit of counsel, and this is where Fernando Benitez de Castillo enters stage - front and center.

In June 2011, about 100 Mexican soldiers raided former Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon's Tijuana residence and reportedly seized 88 firearms, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Despite the fact that the weapons were for the most part not legally owned, and at least two were reportedly linked to homicides by ballistic evidence, a Federal Judge ruled that the raid was performed without a warrant and, therefore, all evidence was inadmissible and she threw out Hank Rhon's case.

In the spirit of the World Cup, this is the legal equivalent of having a goal disallowed because one of the players is off-side. Was it a goal? Yes and no. In Mexico, just as in the U.S., when it comes to due process, fruit from a poisonous tree is deemed forbidden, as is any evidence also found as a further result. Undoubtedly, law enforcement must be deterred from violating the rights of its citizens, even if it means well. So, while many decried the fact that Hank Rhon won on a technicality, the real lesson to be learned was that law enforcement above all must follow the rules and respect citizens' rights.

Fast forward to the present: More than two months after his arrest at the border with three guns and more than 400 rounds of ammunition, the same attorney that was able to break the former Mayor of Tijuana out of jail and get the charges dropped against him has now been brought on board to handle former-marine Andrew Tahmooressi's case.

He has emerged from the limbo of non-representation caused by Jill Tahmooressi's firing of attorney's number one and number two: Alejandro Osuna and Lamberto Esquer Dabdoub, respectively.

In an interview with Seminario Zeta, the new attorney indicated that procedural anomalies would have to have been appealed within three days of his arrest, but does not strike out the possibility that this may be included as part of his defense. He will also be highlighting the alleged lack of dolo or premeditation, which will likely center on signage concerns and may include further discussion of Andrew's PTSD.

According to Tahmooressi's new attorney, no evidence in the Tahmooressi case has yet to be officially presented -- either for or against the ex-marine. But, in spite of his previous denials, evidence exists that shows that Mr. Tahmooressi was intentionally in Mexico the same day as his arrest.

It appears as though, as he did in the Hank Rhon case, the new attorney may advance a similar strategy of not focusing on the when, why, or how the ex-marine entered Mexico with illegal weapons, but rather on civil and procedural concerns upon his arrival and arrest. In contrast to before, in recent posts the Tahmooressi team has requested that supporters be respectful toward Mexico and not threaten border blockades or invasions of the country.

It is already evident that the trial-by-media strategy has diminished, although not yet stopped. In addition to hiring their new attorney, the Tahmooressi's have been rallying for social media supporters to bombard current Secretary of State John Kerry, Baja Governor Kiko Vega, and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and VP Joe Biden with demands for the ex-marine's release.

They may have gotten a bite on that bait, as Hillary Clinton in an interview with Fox News says she thinks that "the Obama administration may need to 'raise the decibels a little bit more'" and indicated that she would have been dealing with this situation differently than the President. However, in this same interview she indicated that Tahmooressi "is serving our country" and seemed to be under the impression that he is an active marine, which is not true and makes a big difference. The Fox interviewer accused Mexico of not fast-tracking the judicial process, which is also inaccurate. Tahmooressi alone thus far has caused the only delays, and Mexico has reportedly put this case on a fast-track.

Regarding Andrew's marine status: he was honorably discharged in November of 2012. He is no longer an active marine. This is further evidenced by the fact that the U.S. State Department is currently rendering support and "wellbeing needs" via consular visits to Tahmooressi, and not the Marine Corps. Also, his medical needs are under the Veterans Administration.

However, it is convenient for the media and his mother to continue to call him a marine and conflate his detention with reports that Armed Mexican Troops and Mexican Law Enforcement officers have crossed the U.S. border hundreds of times. Andrew is a civilian now.

None of these tactics has reached the top. The White House Petition that reached its required 100,000 signature mark on May 30th has failed to elicit a response from President Obama. Likewise, a reported recent telephone conversation held between Presidents Obama and Peña Nieto did not include mention of the former marine -- and mainly centered around the massive influx of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America to the US, via the porous border separating the U.S. and Mexico.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Jill Tahmooressi on CNN, the interviewer continued to assert that Andrew Tahmooressi is a marine being unlawfully held by Mexican officials.

This is of course not true. His own attorney has indicated that he believes Tahmoooressi's story but that he also believes the process has taken place in a respectful and correct manner, and that everything being said is speculation. The new attorney has also indicated that the U.S. executive branch cannot suggest how Mexico should go about this judicial process any more than if the shoe were on the other foot – rendering the unanswered White House Petition essentially useless.

Just as in Jorge Hank Rhon's case, the fate of Tahmooressi is in the hands of a federal judge and through evidence that has yet to be presented. Apparently, this is becoming evident to Tahmooressi's defense team. Tahmooressi's ultimate fate will be battled out in a Tijuana courtroom, and his former marine status will probably be as irrelevant to the federal judge as was Jorge Hank Rhon's former civil service as mayor of Tijuana.

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