El Paso, Texas District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez filed an ethics complaint against El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar today, September 1, 2009. Ironically, the new Ethics Code that Commissioner Escobar has been pushing was passed just minutes ago. Clerk Sanchez' complaint is as follows:

EL PASO COUNTY BOARD OF ETHICS
COMPLAINT FORM

Complete the following form and return the original to: Lupe Martinez, El Paso County Board of Ethics
Address: El Paso County Human Resources Department, 800 E. Overland St., Room #223
El Paso, Texas 79901, (915) 546-2218, ext. 3203

PLEASE TYPE OR PRINT

NAME: Gilbert Sanchez, District Clerk_________________________________

ADDRESS: 500 E. San Antonio, Ste. 103 ___________________

PHONE NUMBER: 546-2030 ________________________________

DEPARTMENT: (County employees only) District Clerk Office______________

1. Person against whom complaint is filed: Commissioner Veronica Escobar _____
2. Please indicate the possible Code of Ethics rule violation by stating the relevant paragraphs in the code. (The code is available online at www.epcounty.com/ethics/code.htm or may be obtained from Human Resources at (915) 546-2218, ext. 3203.):

§IV(A)(1); §IV(A)(2); §IV(B)(a); §IV(B)(b); §IV(C); §VIII(A); §VIII(B); IX(A) and XII

3. What are the details of your Complaint? (Please be specific with respect to names, dates and locations. Attach any additional pages if necessary.)

In the order to defend herself Commissioner Veronica Escobar was required to hire/request the assistance of a local attorney by the name of John Wenke who is bar certified in employment law and has a history of litigating against the County of El Paso and the City of El Paso. Many of these representations have yielded Mr. Wenke great wealth in the numerous victories against insurance companies and governmental agencies. The issue in question with the representation of Commissioner Escobar are the issues that at no time were the cost of his representation to her nor how Mr. Wenke was going to be repaid for his representation of Commissioner Escobar who may or may not be a personal friend of the commissioner or of her husband an US Attorney, which raises a question of possible conflict because the work being provided was done for free or as a gift. This action would have required her to file an affidavit stating any possible conflicts either by her as a decision maker and a voting authority or to the fact that Mr. Wenke may now or within sometime in the near future have legal matters in front of the Commissioner which she will have to make a settlement decision. Thus, it was not reported as required which raises questions as to the possible tic for tat method of payment for his legal services to the Commissioner which may place her in a difficult situation when it comes to legal matters that Commissioner Escobar may have to vote on any possible settlement offers. Not to mention issues about gifts and/or contributions to her campaign, be it as a in-kind or direct financial contribution which was not reported per Texas law and or placed on Commissioners Court disclosing it’s acceptance.





4. Possible Witnesses to Violation: County of El Paso Ethics Commissioners, Comm. Dan Haggerty, County of El Paso via web-cast; County Commissioners of El Paso; Lee Shapleigh; ACA Holly Lytle; other members of the County Attorney’s Office, Theresa Caballero, Stuart Leeds and County Judge Anthony Cobos


(Incomplete complaint forms will not be accepted.)



SIGNATURE: ________________________ DATE: August 30, 2009

On August 13, 2009, the Texas Attorney General issued Opinion OR2009-11323. (See "Opinion" attached.) This "Opinion" responds to and is addressed to Robert D. Andron, General Counsel for the El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board (hereinafter referred to as the PSB) who asked for the AG Opinion. (See Andron letter asking for "Opinion" attached). The "Opinion" advises Mr. Andron that the records he is seeking to shield from public disclosure are public and must in fact be provided to the requestor. The requestor is Attorney Jim Martinez. Jim Martinez, as a member of the public, had sent an open records request to the PSB for copies of legal bills dated from October 1, 2006-June 3, 2009 (excluding invoices related to a pending federal case) that Attorney Alex Acosta had submitted for payment to the PSB. (See Martinez Open Records Request attached). The attachments are:
1)Jim Martinez' open records request to the PSB for legal bills
2)Robert Andron's reponse to Martinez saying he will be seeking an AG Opinion
3)Andron's letter to the AG seeking an Opinion to not have to release the records
4)Martinez' letter to the AG weighing in on Andron's request for an Opinion.
5)The AG Opinion saying the records must be released

What follows is a typical response to a citizen's request to Ed Archuleta/PSB for public records, in this case legal bills, paid for by the rate payers of El Paso. The attorney, Robert Andron, for the PSB sounds so reasonable. Keep in mind as you read, that Mr. Andron has no intention of following the law and providing the records on time and providing them without a fight.

Mr. Andron's letter to the Texas AG seeking an "Opinion" that would shield him from turning over the public records states that he believes that the PSB can "withhold the requested information from Plaintiff..." Mr. Andron outlines in his letter reasons why the PSB should not have to turn over invoices for legal bills that are paid by the public of El Paso.

Firstly, Mr. Andron states that the requested bills are part of an ongoing federal lawsuit and therefore fall under the lawsuit exception. Mr. Andron must believe that the attorneys in the Texas AG office are dumb, blind, illiterate or dishonest. Mr. Martinez' request specifically excludes records related to the federal lawsuit which he was an attorney on.

Secondly, Mr. Andron argues that the request is too burdensome to comply with and will use up too many pieces of paper. He actually wrote as a reason why the PSB should not have to produce the bills, the following line, "The materials sought will be approximately two reams of paper with a great deal of redaction based on the narrative billing method of the attorneys..." So if it were one "ream" or half a "ream" that would be ok? Considering that the rate payers of El Paso pay Mr. Andron's boss, El Paso Water Utility Manager Ed Archuleta, over $500,000 a year, why is he quibbling about a few pieces of paper, (which Mr. Martinez offered to pay for)? Keep in mind that Ed Archuleta, who is a city department head, makes more than any other public water utility manager in the entire United States of America. While Mr. Archuleta and perhaps his legal team are gorging themselves at the buffet at our expense, they have the audacity to refuse to even throw us a few crumbs from the table. It will be too costly they say.

Perhaps Mr. Archuleta and Mr. Andron do not want the public of El Paso to find out how many hundreds of thousands of public dollars they are shoveling over to the law firm in question. Methinks that these invoices will unmask naked greed.

I called Attorney Robert Andron today to ask him some questions. I wanted to find out why he thought he could refuse to turn over public records to a member of the public. Here is a paraphrase of the interview.

TC. Mr. Andron, why did you feel you did not have to turn over public records, not the subject of a lawsuit, to Mr. Martinez?
RA. We felt that Mr. Martinez was asking for records that are a part of ongoing litigation and under the exception to the Act we did not feel we had to turn them over.
TC. The records requested specifically asked for legal bills, NOT part of the lawsuit. As a public entity, why did you not turn them over?
RA. Because of the federal lawsuit and statements made by the litigants saying that they were going to ask for copies of legal bills, we felt we did not have to turn the records over.
TC. The request specifically excluded the bills part of the federal lawsuit. Again, why did you not turn over these public records?
RA. We have a difference of opinion as to how the law reads. But the AG has said we must turn them over so we will.
TC. Well, according to my calculations, those records should have been turned over today, latest tomorrow. Why have you not turned the records over to Mr. Martinez then?
RA. Our secretary is working on it. We plan to have them [the records] go out on Monday.
TC. Since they [the records] are now late, have you asked for an extension in time to prepare the documents?
RA. Jim Martinez is easy to work with. I'll give him a call.
TC. Jim Martinez is easy to work with. But you all aren’t. That is the problem. There are time deadlines prescribed by the Open Records Act law, Mr. Andron. Have you asked for a formal extension according to the law?
RA. No. I'll call Jim.
TC. Have you even told Jim that you are preparing the documents for him? I saw Jim in the elevator this morning and he said that he had received and heard nothing from you.
RA. Didn't Jim get the AG letter? If not I'll send him a copy.
TC. What AG letter?
RA. The Opinion.
TC. Of course he did. Have YOU sent him a letter communicating to him that the records are on the way?
RA. No. I'll call Jim.

Editor's note: Oh Mr. citizen, who is paying for the legal bill, you want copies of those bills do you? What bills? Oh, those bills? Oh, we're late? Oh, they're coming. Oh, it is too hard. Oh, Jim is a nice guy. We'll get them to him when we feel like it. (Which is never). Oh, the bills are so expansive it will take reams of paper. That is the scary part. The bill is "reams " of paper. How much have we paid Mr. Acosta? And around and around we go.

Today, at 2:26 p.m., Stuart Leeds and I filed a formal ethics complaint against Commissioner Veronica Escobar. El Pasoans should no longer tolerate its politicians abusing their power and wrongfully using their public offices to threaten and bully those whom they perceive to be a threat to their power and future political ambitions. El Pasoans should never tolerate an offical blocking their access to their own courts. What follows is the text of the complaint.

June 10, 2009

El Paso County Board of Ethics
Kristine Moore, Chair

Re: Ethics Complaint against El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar

Hand-delivered to Human Resources, 800 E. Overland Avenue, El Paso, Texas 79901 and a file-stamped copy obtained back by the writers of this letter

Dear Ms. Moore and Board members:

We, the undersigned, Stuart L. Leeds and Theresa Caballero, file this Ethics complaint against El Paso County Commissioner Veronica Escobar, as follows, to-wit:

Commissioner Escobar has violated the following provisions of the El Paso County Ethics Code and as such we would ask that you sanction her accordingly:

Section X: Political Activity

A. and B.

“No county official or employee shall utilize county equipment or supplies of any kind for political purposes.”

“No County official shall directly or indirectly use or threaten to use any official authority or any influence in any manner whatsoever which tends (2) to discourage, restrain, deter, prevent, interfere with or discriminate against any person who chooses to participate in political activities, an election campaign or fundraising effort.”

Commissioner Escobar violated the code on or about Wednesday, June 3, 2009 through June 9, 2009 in El Paso County, Texas, as follows, to-wit:

Commissioner Escobar has used her official authority and influence to discourage, restrain, deter, prevent and interfere with County Judge Anthony Cobos’ political activities. Commissioner Escobar wants to be El Paso County Judge and take over that position from Judge Cobos. She has used her authority and influence to interfere with his re-election campaign by making public comments on his request to have El Paso County pay his attorney fees in defending himself against the Ethics complaint Emma Acosta filed against him. To paraphrase the El Paso Times today: “that complaint boils down to this: “...and all that’s really there is a question:

Did Cobos rightfully or wrongfully release a copy of Acosta’s job application to her opponent in the recent election?”

This question was fully answered in Court, with Commissioner Escobar being present, on June 8, 2009, when El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez stated that Cobos released the copy of Acosta’s job application pursuant to a Texas Open Records Act request; that he did so in his official capacity as County Judge and custodian of the records and that he did so upon the expert legal advice of the County Attorney’s office that said the records were not confidential. Ms. Moore was present as well when this was testified to.

Despite this, Commissioner Escobar persists in making the following statements and threatening to conduct the following activities:

She has threatened to use her position as County Commissioner to 1) put an item on the County Commissioner’s Court agenda calling for a tabulation of expenses related to court proceedings stemming from Emma Acosta’s ethics complaint against Judge Cobos and 2) vote to support the proposition that Judge Cobos pay these expenses 3) threaten to make Judge Cobos pay for the costs of the litigation when, in fact, the costs of the litigation were run up by others, including Commissioner Escobar herself, at the County and not Judge Cobos and the litigation itself is the result of others at the County and not Judge Cobos all in effort to prohibit/threaten/ thwart etc. him from campaigning in the future for himself or others and to punish him for past political activities.

First of all, there would have never even been an Ethics complaint filed by Ms. Acosta but for Judge Cobos, correctly and within the scope of his employment, receiving expert legal advice from the County Attorney that the records he released were public and contained nothing confidential. Judge Cobos was under a legal duty, pursuant to Texas state laws relating to Open Records Requests, to release Emma Acosta’s employment records.

Secondly, the County Attorney’s office that gave Judge Cobos the advice he acted on then stated that they had a conflict of interest and could not participate at all and abandoned Judge Cobos. The County Attorney, Jose Rodriguez, then attacked Judge Cobos in legal proceedings. Judge Cobos never released the County Attorney as his legal counsel in this case or consented to this behavior.

Judge Cobos then was forced to seek legal advice and legal counsel elsewhere outside the County at his own expense.

Commissioner Escobar’s job is to use her votes in accordance with the law and to use her power blindly. She is to set aside personal bias and hatred and future political ambitions when exercising her authority. By threatening to use her vote to 1) encumber Judge Cobos with a debt and 2) to encumber him with a debt to the County which may prevent him from being eligible to hold his office or seek re-election and 3) to use her vote and position wrongfully to indebt Judge Cobos so as to weaken him politically so she can then run for his position is behavior singularly and collectively in direct violation of the ethics code. This is what the code was set up to prevent.

Commissioner Veronica Escobar has abused her position by using “County equipment and supplies” by intentionally driving up the costs of litigation associated with Acosta’s ethics complaint when she deliberately infused herself into the process by making herself a witness against Judge Cobos by swearing to an affidavit (On or about June 3, 2009 in El Paso County, Texas) that was filed in the case, and then using the offices of the County Attorney’s office to file a Motion to Quash her subpoena on her behalf (On or about June 8, 2009 in El Paso County, Texas) and then threatening to assess costs she deliberately ran up on Judge Cobos (On or about June 9, 2009 in El Paso County, Texas). The affidavit Escobar signed was produced by county equipment and paper paid for by the taxpayers. The Motion to Quash her subpoena was produced on county equipment and used county paper. These documents were produced by county employees. And if Escobar threatened Judge Cobos with costs referred to above during a Commissioner’s Court meeting, then she was using the equipment at Commissioner’s Court (computers, microphones, chair, dais, and all employee services that go into the running of Commissioner’s court). Escobar also stated that she will ask the County Auditor and the County Attorney to use their offices to give her an accounting of costs she is threatening to assess against Judge Cobos for allegedly participating in a political campaign. This is exactly in contravention of the El Paso County Code of Ethics.

Escobar’s actions are political, vindictive and part of her strategy to run for County Judge and to prevent Judge Cobos from participating in politics. They are part of her strategy to put a chilling affect on Judge Cobos and to prevent him from participating in his friends’ campaigns and to punish him for supporting the political campaign of Alejandro Lozano. Escobar’s behavior is exactly the kind of conduct that the Ethics Code was created to proscribe. (See Attachments: El Paso Times newspaper article and editorial).

Thank you for promptly investigating this complaint and sanctioning Commissioner Escobar. We look forward to hearing form you within ten working days of this letter as per XII D of the Code.


Respectfully submitted,




_________________________
Stuart L. Leeds, Complainant



_________________________
Theresa Caballero, Complainant

Ashlie Hardway, reporter for Channel 7, KVIA, in El Paso, Texas was sued twice in one month in 2008. On October 27, 2008, my lawyer, Doris Sipes, served a lawsuit on Ashlie Hardway. I am suing her for a false and defamatory story she ran on the public airwaves regarding me during the 2008 Democratic Primary when I was a candidate for District Attorney. (See blog dated October 28, 2009.) Amazingly, less than one month later, on November 26, 2008, in another city where Ashlie Hardway used to live and work, Mr. Rene Cervantes of Laredo, Texas filed a lawsuit against Ashlie Hardway in Webb County, Texas District Court for Tortious Interference with Prospective Relation and Tortious Interference with Existing Contract. The cause number is 2008CVQ0018532 styled:

Rene Cervantes
v.
The City of Laredo
PRO 8 News, Hearst
Newspapers II.L.L.C. D/B/A
The Laredo Morning Times,
Entravision-Texas G.P., L.L.C.
D/B/A KLDO-TV, and Ashlie Hardway,
Defendants

I will post this lawsuit as a link on Friday, May 22, 2009.

Mr. Cervantes is suing Ashlie Hardway for a story she ran on him. According to his pleadings, Hardway used documents that were not available to the public and she admitted to having received them from the Laredo Police Department. Mr. Cervantes has sued several entities but Ashlie Hardway has the distinction of being the only individual actually named in his lawsuit. He has a special place for her.

Ashlie Hardway has racked up at least two lawsuits in her short career as a reporter. No wonder she moved to El Paso from Laredo. However, her past is catching up with her. Now the question is, how many more lawsuits are out there against Ashlie Hardway? How many more are there to come? Most people live their whole lives without ever being sued even once. Not Ashlie Hardway. She just rackin'em up. KVIA is now on abundant notice about Ashlie Hardway and her work practices. It will be interesting to see them defend her in future lawsuits. Ashlie Hardway is the caliber of reporter El Paso, the 99th market place, attracts and whom KVIA is eager to hire. Lucky us.

KVIA, channel 7, car crash reporter Darren Hunt, was roughed up on the side of the freeway by an El Paso Police Sgt. last month. Darren Hunt and KVIA have gotten as much mileage out of the footage as they can. My perspective has been that the police department has needed reformation for many, many years now. The average citizen has suffered greatly by our poorly trained police force; they have been subjected to being shot in the back, maimed, sodomized, crippled, raped and accused and convicted on perjurious police testimony.

Darren Hunt and his ilk in the local media have watched the suffering of El Pasoans and have either ignored it or slanted the reporting to shield the police and District Attorney Jaime Esparza. If Darren Hunt and the press had truly acted as watch dogs, things would be different in El Paso for everyone, not just Darren Hunt. The brutality endemic in the police department and the collusion of District Attorney Jaime Esparza had to be covered by an outside news source because the locals, i.e. Darren Hunt/KVIA, would not do it. The New York Times sent reporter Ralph Blumenthal to El Paso in May of 2004 to research the complaints, most specifically my client's, Nancy Hollebeke's. He spent days here talking to different people. Why did it take the New York Times to expose the problems here?

I called Mr. Blumenthal and asked him to come to El Paso specifically because the local press was purposefully ignoring the problem. And again, where are the local news stories since the NY Times' 2004 article. Since 2004, several El Pasoans have been shot and killed by the police and a settlement has been reached by the city on at least one of these cases that I know of. Where are the stories? Yet we have to watch Darren Hunt night after night ad nauseum getting arrested and roughed up as if this were the worst example of police brutality ever committed in El Paso, Texas.

The police sgt. in the Darren Hunt story was demoted. Readers of the NY Times article listed below should bear in mind that this sgt. was punished more than any officer involved in any of the horror stories recounted by Reporter Blumenthal. In fact, one of the officers involved in the police nightstick case has been promoted to trainer on the westside of town and officer Jose Garcia is in charge of the sexual offender registration department, irony of all ironies. The cop who shot the man at the Coronado Hotel 11 times last year, with most of the shots hitting the deceased in the BACK, was named officer of the year this year. Officer Louis Johnson, while on the stand in the middle of a hearing, was told by a district court judge, on the record, that she did not believe a word that was coming out of his mouth. After El Paso Mayor John Cook, Louis Johnson's boss, received a copy of the transcript, Louis Johnson was promptly promoted to sgt.

For memories that have faded or for people who were not tuned in at the time, here is the June 4, 2004, New York Times article which appeared on the front page of the National section. The story took up almost the entire front page and reports on corruption and brutality in the El Paso Police Department and the collusion of District Attorney Jaime Esparza. While all of this has been going on, where has Darren Hunt been? Why he has been spending his time and using the public airwaves chasing and reporting on car crashes.

Rarely Used Courts Investigate El Paso Police and District Attorney
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: Friday, June 4, 2004

EL PASO - What happened in the Chihuahuan Desert that May night in 2002 may never be known for certain.

But here in the nation's largest city on the Mexican border, a teenager's complaint that she was sexually assaulted by two El Paso police officers who remained free while she was jailed has set off an extraordinary set of judicial investigations.

Two rarely invoked State Courts of Inquiry are trying to determine in part whether the El Paso district attorney and the Police Department conspired to shield officers accused of brutalizing people in at least six cases.

District Attorney Jaime Esparza and interim Police Chief Richard Wiles denied any wrongdoing and said they were cooperating with the inquiries. "I don't lose any sleep over the outcome," said Mr. Esparza, now serving his third term.

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union say the investigations are overdue. "If you are a police officer in this town, you can violate criminal rights left and right and not get prosecuted," said Ed Hernandez, who with his wife, Maria, represents several plaintiffs.

Figures supplied by Chief Wiles suggest that dismissals from the department for use of excessive force were rare. From 1999 through March 2004, El Paso police officers made about 36,000 arrests, with 1,830 accusations of excessive force, which led to the dismissals of five officers and the resignations of two. In nearly all the other cases the complaints were ruled unsubstantiated or unfounded, with 84 cases still under investigation.

With city officials and the district attorney up for election every two or four years in this city of 638,000, the police department of some 1,100 officers and 300 civilians and all their dependents "constitute a pretty good voting bloc," said Sam Snoddy, another lawyer who represents people with complaints against the police. "The D.A. does not want to hack the police off."

Mr. Esparza said he recognized that critics saw his office as improperly close to the police. "The reputation of this office may be in some circles that we're giving the cops a break," he said, "but I think generally the reputation is we do what's right." He defended an unusual arrangement, which critics call unconstitutional, that has his office rather than a magistrate setting bail for many defendants.

The first inquest is set for June 14 with an open hearing into the case of the woman, Nancy Hollebeke, now 20. In an interview in her lawyer's office, Ms. Hollebeke said that on May 17, 2002, she had been drinking and smoking marijuana with friends, and was with them later at a party in the desert when two officers found her hiding behind shrubs, pulled down her pants and inserted fingers or an object into her vagina. A medical report said she had suffered "multiple abrasions to body and vaginal abrasion" and "a two-millimeter superficial tear" in her labia.

"I didn't think I'd make it home that night,&qu
ot; Ms. Hollebeke said. "I thought they'd leave me there, maybe kill me."

The officers were never charged. But four months after making her claims, Ms. Hollebeke was arrested on charges of filing a false report, a misdemeanor, and jailed for seven hours. Mr. Esparza later dropped the charges, "due to the ongoing Court of Inquiry." One of her lawyers, Michael R. Milligan, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, prosecutors and several police officers, including Chief Wiles and his predecessor, Carlos Leon.

Other cases under review by a second Court of Inquiry involve a woman who says she was raped by her husband, a police officer, who was exonerated without the district attorney ever calling her or other witnesses to testify before a grand jury; the former wife of a police officer who says he beat her and buzzed her house in a police plane; and a Marine corporal who says he was hit and jailed for no reason.

Some of the complainants, including Ms. Hollebeke, said police officers seemed to be stalking them after they made complaints. Chief Wiles, who took over in August 2003, acknowledged that the department's internal affairs unit did investigate members of the public in cases in which officers felt wrongly accused.

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Among other cases brought as federal civil rights lawsuits, an illegal Mexican immigrant, Andrés Pérez Ruíz, claimed that police officers who stopped his car thrust a police baton up his rectum, causing severe injury. He settled for a city payment of $195,000. No officers were ever prosecuted. The case was sealed, and Mr. Ruiz's lawyer said he could not discuss it.

In another lawsuit, a 49-year-old construction worker said he suffered a stroke and crashed his van on Interstate 10 in 2002. When he could not obey police officers' commands to put his paralyzed hand on the wheel, said the man, Luis Maldonado, officers put a gun to his head, beat him, dragged him out of the car and doused him with pepper spray. He now needs a wheelchair, he said, because he was denied immediate treatment. The officers were never charged.

Judge Richard Roman of the 346th District Court of El Paso found cause for the first Court of Inquiry in January after lawyers for Ms. Hollebeke, Stuart Leeds and Theresa Caballero, said no other judge would hear her complaint. Judge Roman called it an easy decision. "Something was wrong," he said. "They presented me with a compelling set of facts." The region's presiding judge, Stephen B. Ables, granted the inquiry, appointing himself to preside and naming a former El Paso judge, Dick Alcala, to gather and present the facts. The second Court of Inquiry into the other cases is separate.

But whether the courts can issue indictments is not clear. "This is uncharted legal territory," said Judge Roman, who said that the 19th-century statute that allowed the courts had rarely been invoked for criminal inquiries. The scope of the inquiries may widen. Among those talked to by investigators is George DeAngelis, a former assistant police chief who voiced concerns in 1999 about possible infiltration of the department by Mexican drug cartels. An inquiry was quashed, Mr. DeAngelis said.

The Hollebeke case is a special flashpoint. Although the district attorney's office does not usually electronically record complainants, it videotaped Ms. Hollebeke straight from the hospital as she spoke to a detective, Brigitte Ballou, with prosecutors concealed behind a two-way mirror. Mr. Esparza said he would have been criticized if he had not made an exact record. His office insisted Ms. Hollebeke was notified of the videotaping; she says she was not and the tape reflects no such advisory.

It does show that after two hours of questioning, Detective Ballou left and later returned wearing a headset, through which she often seemed to be receiving instructions. She told Ms. Hollebeke at one point, "If there are discrepancies, it's going to be really hard on you - if you lie to a police officer you can be arrested."

Ms. Hollebeke, upset, said, "I don't feel you're on my side at all" and walked out.

The officers she named, Albert Machorro and Jose Garcia, denied the attack, Chief Wiles said, and told investigators they were not the ones who found her in the desert. A third officer, Lance Martel, said he was first on the scene. But Ms. Hollebeke stuck to her account, although she said Officers Machorro and Garcia initially gave her false names.

Officer Garcia's lawyer, Jim Darnell, called the complaint "absolute baloney" and said the two men had passed polygraph tests, although Ms. Hollebeke's lawyers say no such evidence has been produced. Mr. Machorro's lawyer, Joe Spencer, said that Ms. Hollebeke's account was marred by contradictions and that the two officers "never touched her.''

Nothing much happened on the case for four months, although in July 2002 Mr. Machorro's father, Albert Sr., a former police officer, was hired by Mr. Esparza as an investigator. "I was not aware of the connection when I hired him," Mr. Esparza said. In September 2002, Mr. Esparza declined to bring the case against the officers, giving as the official reason "crucial witness testimony not credible."

Barbara Novovitch contributed reporting from West Texas for this article.

Correction: June 12, 2004, Saturday

An article on June 4 about inquiries into whether the El Paso district attorney and the Police Department conspired to shield officers accused of brutality attributed a distinction to the city incorrectly. It is not the largest American city on the Mexican border; San Diego is.