Yesterday Ashlie Hardway was served at KVIA with a lawsuit for defamation. Theresa Caballero, by and through her attorney, Doris Sipes, is suing Ashlie Hardway, Brenda De Anda, KVIA et. al. for defamation.
According to the process server, Ashlie Hardway was very angry when she was served. Interesting that Hardway would be angry given that she ran a story accusing Theresa Caballero of breaking the law, a law she could not have broken, in the middle of Theresa Caballero's bid for District Attorney. And now Hardway's angry? Can Hardway's behavior be lower? Has Hardway no conscience, no class? But these are rhetorical questions. We already know the answers to them based on her past actions and conduct.
The almost 40,000 people who went and voted for Theresa Caballero hoping that she would win and clean up the filthy sewer that is the current District Attorney's office Jaime Esparza--they are the ones who are angry. The hundreds of people, who donated what spare cash they had to contribute to TC's campaign so that she would win, are angry. Those of us who worked hard so that TC could win and El Paso would have an honest prosecutor are angry. The people who spent years of their lives in jail/prison for crimes they did not commit and who helped with TC's campaign to get Esparza out of there, are angry. People who believe in the rule of law and understand how dangerous it is for our society to let it be destroyed by anyone, and in this case, Esparza, are angry that TC lost. The anger will live on for generations as more innocent people go to prison for crimes they did not commit or go to death row for crimes they did not commit and the real thieves and animals run loose because Esparza got another 4 year lease to rape and pillage. The anger will last for generations. Let's hope that this lawsuit will remind everyone that there was a chance to change and avoid more hurt and damage and destruction and Ashlie Hardway deliberately ran a defamatory slam piece against the one person on the planet who was willing to stand up for El Paso and do right by all of its citizens and the law. Let us spread the message far and wide that it was ASHLIE HARDWAY who stood in the way of good and change and progress and justice for this city. Ashlie Hardway....
And you have the nerve to be angry Ms. Hardway? You should be embarrassed and dare I say SORRY for what you have done.
Ashlie Hardway Served Yesterday with Lawsuit for Defamation
October 28, 2008, 1:51 pmJudge A. Barill Frantic to Seal Record of her Recusal Hearing, Judge R.Darr
October 21, 2008, 10:26 am
Two weeks ago, Stuart Leeds and I had a hearing in front of Judge Robin Darr of Midland. Judge Darr had ostensibly come down El Paso to consider whether or not Judge Barill should be recused from our cases in her court. The first thing Judge Darr did was release Judge Barill from having to testify. Barill not only did not come to her own recusal hearing, (we knew she would pull that so we had her subponaed. Cowards and bullies are easy to recognize after a while) Baarill did ask through her Court appointed attorney to be released from her subponae. That's right, she went to the council of judges and asked that she be provided with an attorney at taxpayer expense even though she is not indigent and owns very expensive properties in El Paso. -- Judge Darr did release Barill and then spent the next five hours siding with the District Attorney's office. One of Judge Darr's brilliant rulings was that we could not ask any questions about Ocegueda's expunction which was the very basis of our motion to recuse Barill. However, as the hearing dragged on, Judge Darr, being the legal scholar that she is, violated her own ruling on numerous occassions and by the end of the hearing she had Ocegueda's expunction file on the bench.
Judge Darr's own ruling left even herself befuddled.
We had Amy Lujan, the sister of alleged pedophile Alberto Ocegueda and over-paid, underworked personal secretary of Jaime Esparza, alleged pedophile Alberto Ocegeuda, District Attorney Jaime Eparza, Joe Spencer, attorney of Ocegueda and best friends of Esparza, Deanna Spencer, sister of Joe Spencer and top level employee of Esparza, District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez who was recently sentenced to 90 days in the can for contempt of court, Assist. County Attorney and Commissioner elect Annabelle Perez, etc. on the stand. The perjury that went on was astounding. Judge Darr was very confused and just could not grasp our points or notice the flood of lies coming from the stand and the mouths of our very finest. It was no surprise when Darr ruled against us. Her predetermined bias was evident from the beginning. She is no Judge Carl Pendergrass who is knowledgeable, scholarly, prepared, honest and in general, a class act. I told Judge Darr that by barring us from talking about the Ocegueda expunction. she was gutting our case and ignoring the pink elephant in the living room. Why would we be asking Barill to be recused if not for her rulings on the Ocegueda case? Duh...Darr just sat and looked even more confused. How convenient.
The good news is that it appears that Midland has the same caliber of judges that El Paso does. So we are not alone in our misery.
Now to make matters even worse, the District Attorney's office filed a motion to seal the record and transcript of the recusal hearing. This is unprecedented. A pillar of our democracy is open courts. Judge Barill, who couldn't make it to her own recusal hearing, will be the presiding judge to decide if the record of her recusal hearing should be sealed from public scrutiny. Nice! See how this works?
In fact, Judge Barill is utterly frantic to get this done. Here's what happened. The State filed its motion last Wendesday in the morning and Judge Barill's lap dog court coordinator Marissa Andrade literally called me and my office at least 10 times in less than two hours trying to set me for a hearing that MORNING, within two hours of the filing. I personally told her that I had other things calendered, that I had not even seen the motion and that two hours notice was not sufficient. That didn't stop her. She kept calling and harassing me all morning. She even sent out a radio messsage to all the courts looking for me. She then called at 11:00 a.m. to tell my office that everyone was in the courtroom and waiting for me. It was as though I had never told her I couldn't make it, that I had other obligations and that I demanded proper notice. I could never ask for a hearing within two hours of filing a motion. It is unheard of. What's the big rush Judge Barill? Have you heard of notice Judge Barill?
Tomorrow, our very own specimen of judicial brilliance, Judge Angie Barill, will be "deciding" on whether or not to make secret the record of her own recusal hearing. Now how do you think Judge Barill is going to rule? You get one guess. I have contacted the Diario to come as they have been following the story. Stinks doesn't it?
Judge Darr's own ruling left even herself befuddled.
We had Amy Lujan, the sister of alleged pedophile Alberto Ocegueda and over-paid, underworked personal secretary of Jaime Esparza, alleged pedophile Alberto Ocegeuda, District Attorney Jaime Eparza, Joe Spencer, attorney of Ocegueda and best friends of Esparza, Deanna Spencer, sister of Joe Spencer and top level employee of Esparza, District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez who was recently sentenced to 90 days in the can for contempt of court, Assist. County Attorney and Commissioner elect Annabelle Perez, etc. on the stand. The perjury that went on was astounding. Judge Darr was very confused and just could not grasp our points or notice the flood of lies coming from the stand and the mouths of our very finest. It was no surprise when Darr ruled against us. Her predetermined bias was evident from the beginning. She is no Judge Carl Pendergrass who is knowledgeable, scholarly, prepared, honest and in general, a class act. I told Judge Darr that by barring us from talking about the Ocegueda expunction. she was gutting our case and ignoring the pink elephant in the living room. Why would we be asking Barill to be recused if not for her rulings on the Ocegueda case? Duh...Darr just sat and looked even more confused. How convenient.
The good news is that it appears that Midland has the same caliber of judges that El Paso does. So we are not alone in our misery.
Now to make matters even worse, the District Attorney's office filed a motion to seal the record and transcript of the recusal hearing. This is unprecedented. A pillar of our democracy is open courts. Judge Barill, who couldn't make it to her own recusal hearing, will be the presiding judge to decide if the record of her recusal hearing should be sealed from public scrutiny. Nice! See how this works?
In fact, Judge Barill is utterly frantic to get this done. Here's what happened. The State filed its motion last Wendesday in the morning and Judge Barill's lap dog court coordinator Marissa Andrade literally called me and my office at least 10 times in less than two hours trying to set me for a hearing that MORNING, within two hours of the filing. I personally told her that I had other things calendered, that I had not even seen the motion and that two hours notice was not sufficient. That didn't stop her. She kept calling and harassing me all morning. She even sent out a radio messsage to all the courts looking for me. She then called at 11:00 a.m. to tell my office that everyone was in the courtroom and waiting for me. It was as though I had never told her I couldn't make it, that I had other obligations and that I demanded proper notice. I could never ask for a hearing within two hours of filing a motion. It is unheard of. What's the big rush Judge Barill? Have you heard of notice Judge Barill?
Tomorrow, our very own specimen of judicial brilliance, Judge Angie Barill, will be "deciding" on whether or not to make secret the record of her own recusal hearing. Now how do you think Judge Barill is going to rule? You get one guess. I have contacted the Diario to come as they have been following the story. Stinks doesn't it?
Gilbert Sanchez found in Contempt of Court
October 14, 2008, 6:36 pm
Today Judge Pendergrass found El Paso County District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez in contempt of Court, ordered him to serve 90 days in jail and ordered that he be given a PR bond. Judge Pendergrass travelled back from Del Rio, TX to enforce his orders of August 2008 undoing the illegal expunction of Alberto Ocegueda'a arrest records for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
On August 13, 2008, Judge Pendergrass entered an order setting aside as void Judge Angie Barill's order granting Alberto Ocegeuda an expunction. Judge Barill signed that order even though Ocegueda was not entitled to even file for an expunction for 32 years. Judge Barill refused to correct her bad order when she was called out on the carpet for it. (Actually she was busted) Judge Pendergrass came from del Rio to do what Judge Barill refused to do and correctly ordered the expunction reversed. Judge Barill has consistently refused to follow well established law in this matter which has innured to the benefit of Mr. Ocegueda and Jaime Espoarza and in turn, has hurt this community. Remember, Alberto Ocegueda is the brother of Esparza's over-paid secretary, Amy Ocegueda Lujan, whom Esparza pays $84,000 of your tax dollars to for God knows what. She does not even have a college degree. She earns more than most attorneys in that office.
Judge Pendergrass ordered District Gilbert Sanchez to turn the files over to the attorneys of record, that would be Stuart and me. Despite the order, Sanchez refused to give us the files. His attorney, Annabell Perez, of the County Attorney's office, told him NOT to obey the judge's order and she even admitted so in court today. Judge Pendergrass had harsh words for Ms. Perez telling her that he could not understand her position. He could not understand why she had agreed to the expunction when it could not even have been filed for 32 years. He said he could not understand why Perez has refused to correct the record knowing the law. He said he could not understand why Perez did not file the appropriate motions and writs if she did not agree with his order undoing the expunction. Ms. Perez well knows that when you don't agree with a judge's orders, the remedy is to appeal or seek a protective order. You don't tell your client to disobey it!
Judge Pendergrass then turned to Gilbert Sanchez and told him that it was clear that he was in violation of the court's order. He said that he could not understand why he had to travel back to El Paso. He then ordered Gilbert Sanchez to serve 90 days in jail. The County Attorney's office filed a motion for PR bond which the judge granted as Gilbert Sanchez is an officer of the court and entitled to one. Judge Pendergrass then ordered that Sanchez could purge himself of the contempt if he complied with the Court's orders.
Guess what, I have copies of both files under my arms!
It is amazing how many people will fall on their swords to protect Jaime Esparza and his friends, i.e. Alberto Ocegueda. The list now includes, Gilbert Sanchez, Annabell Perez, Joe Spencer, Judge Angie Barill, her court coordinator Marissa Andrade, etc. There is so much happening. Stay tuned.
The documents are available by link below: the judgement of contempt holding Sanchez in contempt, his Motion for PR bond and the order granting PR bond. Martin will make these docs available by link here either tonight or tomorrow so you can see them for yourselves. It is not every day when a sitting district clerk gets sentenced to jail for contempt or when his attorney, an assistant county attorney and county commissioner elect, gets told what Annabell Perez was told today. Save these documents as they are historical. The only press present was Lorena Figueroa from El Diario. The rest of the press won't bother to tell you any of this, each for their own pitiful reasons.
On August 13, 2008, Judge Pendergrass entered an order setting aside as void Judge Angie Barill's order granting Alberto Ocegeuda an expunction. Judge Barill signed that order even though Ocegueda was not entitled to even file for an expunction for 32 years. Judge Barill refused to correct her bad order when she was called out on the carpet for it. (Actually she was busted) Judge Pendergrass came from del Rio to do what Judge Barill refused to do and correctly ordered the expunction reversed. Judge Barill has consistently refused to follow well established law in this matter which has innured to the benefit of Mr. Ocegueda and Jaime Espoarza and in turn, has hurt this community. Remember, Alberto Ocegueda is the brother of Esparza's over-paid secretary, Amy Ocegueda Lujan, whom Esparza pays $84,000 of your tax dollars to for God knows what. She does not even have a college degree. She earns more than most attorneys in that office.
Judge Pendergrass ordered District Gilbert Sanchez to turn the files over to the attorneys of record, that would be Stuart and me. Despite the order, Sanchez refused to give us the files. His attorney, Annabell Perez, of the County Attorney's office, told him NOT to obey the judge's order and she even admitted so in court today. Judge Pendergrass had harsh words for Ms. Perez telling her that he could not understand her position. He could not understand why she had agreed to the expunction when it could not even have been filed for 32 years. He said he could not understand why Perez has refused to correct the record knowing the law. He said he could not understand why Perez did not file the appropriate motions and writs if she did not agree with his order undoing the expunction. Ms. Perez well knows that when you don't agree with a judge's orders, the remedy is to appeal or seek a protective order. You don't tell your client to disobey it!
Judge Pendergrass then turned to Gilbert Sanchez and told him that it was clear that he was in violation of the court's order. He said that he could not understand why he had to travel back to El Paso. He then ordered Gilbert Sanchez to serve 90 days in jail. The County Attorney's office filed a motion for PR bond which the judge granted as Gilbert Sanchez is an officer of the court and entitled to one. Judge Pendergrass then ordered that Sanchez could purge himself of the contempt if he complied with the Court's orders.
Guess what, I have copies of both files under my arms!
It is amazing how many people will fall on their swords to protect Jaime Esparza and his friends, i.e. Alberto Ocegueda. The list now includes, Gilbert Sanchez, Annabell Perez, Joe Spencer, Judge Angie Barill, her court coordinator Marissa Andrade, etc. There is so much happening. Stay tuned.
The documents are available by link below: the judgement of contempt holding Sanchez in contempt, his Motion for PR bond and the order granting PR bond. Martin will make these docs available by link here either tonight or tomorrow so you can see them for yourselves. It is not every day when a sitting district clerk gets sentenced to jail for contempt or when his attorney, an assistant county attorney and county commissioner elect, gets told what Annabell Perez was told today. Save these documents as they are historical. The only press present was Lorena Figueroa from El Diario. The rest of the press won't bother to tell you any of this, each for their own pitiful reasons.
Ashlie Hardway and KVIA sued for Defamation
October 10, 2008, 10:05 am
This morning my lawyer, Doris Sipes, filed a defamation lawsuit against Channel 7, KVIA TV reporter Ashlie Hardway and her station. I will make the lawsuit available by link here by Monday. Stay tuned.
An Update on Judge Angie Barill and her Illegal Order Expunging an Arrest
October 7, 2008, 5:43 am
Yesterday, Stuart Leeds and I had an all day hearing in front of Judge Darr from Midland, Texas. Stuart Leeds and I had filed motions to recuse Judge Angie Barill of the 346th District Court due to her biased conduct. She had ordered the expungement of Alberto Ocegueda's records even though they could not be expunged for 32 years from the date of his arrest in November 2006. After DA Jaime Esparza had accused me of violating the expungement statute by violating Ocegueda's illegal expungement order, Staurt Leeds and I filed the unprecedented action of undoing Ocegueda's expungement. Judge Barill, when confronted with her original illegal order of expungement refused to correct her mistake when shown that the records aggravated sexual assault of a child could not have been expunged for 32 years. Judge Pendergrass who ultimately came in to hear the matter, disagreed with Barill and undid her original order and set the record straight.
What follows is the opening statement of Stuart Leeds in yesterday's hearing. I want to share his words with you.
Judge Darr:
Welcome to the Bizarro world of El Paso County where you have just stepped through the looking glass.
To a world where two defense attorneys have to expose government corruption and the whole weight of the government opposes them and objects to it.
To a world where two defense attorneys have to fight to preserve and protect the public record from unlawful destruction.
To a world where the County Attorney's Office agrees to the illegal expunction of the records of an accused Aggravated Sexual Assaulter of a six year old girl and Judge Barill signs the order and grants the unlawful expunction.
And all this to help the District Attorney's secretary's brother get his records wrongfully expunged.
Make no mistake. This is all about the tail-end of the cover up of an Alleged Sexual Assault of a six year old case.
Then Judge Barill refused to correct her error and the record when it was brought to her attention; she refused to do the right thing as the case law and Judicial Canons dictate her to do and even improperly refused to hear the case and improperly referred it, without stating why she was recusing herself or disqualifying herself to Judge Ables and, in so doing, tried to improperly influence him, the successor judge, and prejudice our case in his court.
And then a third judge, Judge Carl Pendergrass of Del, Rio has to travel to El Paso just like you did to hear the case and he does without wasting any time and immediately vacates Judge Barill's order of expunction as void and calls it a legal malady and orders the recods that had been wrongfully expunged back into the record!
Now all of the witnesses to this who have been supoenaed to testify to Judge Barill's conduct have filed motions to quash so they don't have to answer for their conduct or what they have witnessed. But you won't be the first out of town judge to be thwarted by them. Judge Pendergrass is having to come BACK to El Paso next week, on 10-14 to enforce his original order vacating the expunction in a contempt hearing as District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez and Assistant County Attorney Annabell Perez, two of the very witnesses seeking to have their subpoenas quashed here today, because remarkably, the County Attorney's Office told the District Clerk not to file Judge Pendergrass' order vacating the void expunction, not to send it out to all law enforcement agencies, not to give us a copy of the order we, as the prevailing party drafted, and not to even let us see the file anymore and he followed their instructions!
So of course, they don't want to testify! Even the judge who refuses to recuse herself does not want to testify at her own recusal hearing, which I have never heard of.
So do not quash. But if quashed, we desire to make a bill with the same witnesses for appellate purposes.
Of course they do not want to testify with an FBI Public Corruption investigation currently going on at this courthouse with allegations of forum fixing which this case contains evidence of and many of these witnesses played their part in so it's all relevant as are the relationships between and among them which goes to why they did what they did.
These arguments put forth today are arguments and objections more properly made at the hearing and are not reasons to quash subpoenas; subpoenas we had to pay hundreds of dollars out of our own pockets to get served by a private process server because the District Clerk would not prepare and issue the subpoenas for the Sheriff to serve. This is what we are up against!
So deny their motions to quash and allow us to proceed and hear their testimony. This very show of force today illustrates the reasons why it is necessary to call these witnesses and recuse Judge Barill. For when a courtroom turns into a circus something is very wrong and a hearing needs to be held to get to the bottom of it.
Interestingly and in closing: A letter to the editor in today's paper quotes Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Nazi proaganda minister as follows:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequence of the lie.
It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its power to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by its extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Thank you.
What follows is the opening statement of Stuart Leeds in yesterday's hearing. I want to share his words with you.
Judge Darr:
Welcome to the Bizarro world of El Paso County where you have just stepped through the looking glass.
To a world where two defense attorneys have to expose government corruption and the whole weight of the government opposes them and objects to it.
To a world where two defense attorneys have to fight to preserve and protect the public record from unlawful destruction.
To a world where the County Attorney's Office agrees to the illegal expunction of the records of an accused Aggravated Sexual Assaulter of a six year old girl and Judge Barill signs the order and grants the unlawful expunction.
And all this to help the District Attorney's secretary's brother get his records wrongfully expunged.
Make no mistake. This is all about the tail-end of the cover up of an Alleged Sexual Assault of a six year old case.
Then Judge Barill refused to correct her error and the record when it was brought to her attention; she refused to do the right thing as the case law and Judicial Canons dictate her to do and even improperly refused to hear the case and improperly referred it, without stating why she was recusing herself or disqualifying herself to Judge Ables and, in so doing, tried to improperly influence him, the successor judge, and prejudice our case in his court.
And then a third judge, Judge Carl Pendergrass of Del, Rio has to travel to El Paso just like you did to hear the case and he does without wasting any time and immediately vacates Judge Barill's order of expunction as void and calls it a legal malady and orders the recods that had been wrongfully expunged back into the record!
Now all of the witnesses to this who have been supoenaed to testify to Judge Barill's conduct have filed motions to quash so they don't have to answer for their conduct or what they have witnessed. But you won't be the first out of town judge to be thwarted by them. Judge Pendergrass is having to come BACK to El Paso next week, on 10-14 to enforce his original order vacating the expunction in a contempt hearing as District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez and Assistant County Attorney Annabell Perez, two of the very witnesses seeking to have their subpoenas quashed here today, because remarkably, the County Attorney's Office told the District Clerk not to file Judge Pendergrass' order vacating the void expunction, not to send it out to all law enforcement agencies, not to give us a copy of the order we, as the prevailing party drafted, and not to even let us see the file anymore and he followed their instructions!
So of course, they don't want to testify! Even the judge who refuses to recuse herself does not want to testify at her own recusal hearing, which I have never heard of.
So do not quash. But if quashed, we desire to make a bill with the same witnesses for appellate purposes.
Of course they do not want to testify with an FBI Public Corruption investigation currently going on at this courthouse with allegations of forum fixing which this case contains evidence of and many of these witnesses played their part in so it's all relevant as are the relationships between and among them which goes to why they did what they did.
These arguments put forth today are arguments and objections more properly made at the hearing and are not reasons to quash subpoenas; subpoenas we had to pay hundreds of dollars out of our own pockets to get served by a private process server because the District Clerk would not prepare and issue the subpoenas for the Sheriff to serve. This is what we are up against!
So deny their motions to quash and allow us to proceed and hear their testimony. This very show of force today illustrates the reasons why it is necessary to call these witnesses and recuse Judge Barill. For when a courtroom turns into a circus something is very wrong and a hearing needs to be held to get to the bottom of it.
Interestingly and in closing: A letter to the editor in today's paper quotes Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Nazi proaganda minister as follows:
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic, and/or military consequence of the lie.
It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its power to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by its extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Thank you.