<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet href="http://theresacaballero.com/rss/rss20.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>


<!-- generator="WebBlog 1 , http://www.cognent.com" -->
<rss version=".92">
 <channel>
	<title>Justice &amp; Reform</title>
	<link>http://theresacaballero.com/index.php</link>
	<description>Justice &amp; Reform in El Paso</description>
	<language>en</language>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Challenge to Incumbent by Appointment, Jo Anne Bernal]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[				Theresa Caballero
				Attorney at Law
				300 E. Main St., Suite 1136
				El Paso, TX 79901
			915.565.3550/562.5250 fax
				
						January 18, 2010
Ms. Jo Anne Bernal
County Attorney
500 E. San Antonio St.
El Paso, TX 79901
			
Re: Debate on Dr. Paul Shrode, El Paso County Medical Examiner

Dear Ms. Bernal:

	The issue of El Paso County Medical Examiner Dr. Paul Shrode, his continuing viability, if any, as a credible witness and his lying on his resume and in court about his credentials have become a matter of public discussion.  Your office, by and through your employee, assistant county attorney Bruce Yetter, called Dr. Shrode to the stand in a jury trial wherein I represented the mother.  Through answers elicited by my cross-examination, your witness, Dr. Shrode, admitted that he did not possess a law degree as he had listed on his resume, and as he had testified to under oath, in open court, on the record.  Mr. Yetter personally handed Dr. Shrode’s false resume to the Court and had it admitted into evidence to be given to the jury.
	As the County Attorney by appointment only (by a three to two vote, no election), as head of the office that put Dr. Shrode on the stand as a witness when he admitted to having put false information on his resume, as advisor to Dr. Shrode’s employer, El Paso County Commissioner’s Court, as legal counsel to Human Resources that should have but did not check Dr. Shrode’s credentials, as employer to assistant county attorney Holly Lytle who had a part in the selection of Dr. Shrode, as a person subject to the El Paso Ethics Commission, as a person seeking to advise such Commission and as a public official who has taken the public position that Dr. Shrode claiming to have credentials that he does not have is nothing but “puffery,” I invite you to a debate on the issue of El Paso Medical Examiner Dr. Paul Shrode.  As we are the two main protagonists in this matter with diametrically opposing opinions on t ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/165/Challenge-to-Incumbent-by-Appointment-Jo-Anne-Bernal</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Letter to Jo Anne Bernal, et. al Re: Ethics and Dr. Paul Shrode]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Theresa Caballero
Attorney at Law
300 E. Main St., Suite 1136
El Paso, Tx 79901
915.565.3550
915.562.5250 fax
January 12, 2010


Mr Gerry Williams
TDFPS General Counsel
Mr. Trevor A. Woodruff
Appellate Attorney
Ms. Johnnie Beth Page
Director of Program Litigation
2401 Ridgepoint Dr., BLDG. H-2
MC: Y-956
Austin, TX 78754

Ms. Jo Anne Bernal
El Paso County Attorney
500 E. San Antonio St
El Paso, TX 79901

Re: Ethical obligations re: In the Interest of D.J.R., E.N.R., and A.D.R., Children, Cause no: 08-07-00354-CV/ 2006CM4085


Dear Counselors:

Candor Toward the Tribunal, Rule 3.03 of the Rules of Professional Conduct states in pertinent part:

(a)  If a lawyer has offered material evidence and comes to know of its falsity, the lawyer shall make a good faith effort to persuade the client to authorize the lawyer to correct or withdraw the false evidence.  If such efforts are unsuccessful, the lawyer shall take reasonable remedial measures, including disclosure of the true facts.

On August 13, 2007, the State of Texas, represented by the El Paso County Attorney’s Office, called Dr. Paul Shrode to testify in the above styled case. Under oath and in response to a question posed by your trial attorney, Assistant County Attorney Bruce Yetter, Dr. Shrode testified, “I passed my forensic pathology boards…” 2 RR 134.

You then filed a brief on behalf of the State of Texas in which you stated to the Eighth Court of Appeals, &quot;Dr. Shrode…has passed the forensic pathology boards. 2 RR 134”

On January 6, 2010, The Eighth Court of Appeals rendered an opinion in which the Court stated, “[Dr. Shrode]…is board certified in forensic pathology.”

The El Paso Times, in an article published on November, 27, 2009, (herein enclosed) stated that “Fisher’s complaint comes about a year after Shrode’s standing to take the combined Anatomic Pathology and Forensic Pathology examination expired, according to the American Board of Path ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/164/Letter-to-Jo-Anne-Bernal-et-al-Re-Ethics-and-Dr-Paul-Shrode</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Charlie Edgren hurts El Pasoans by his Opinions]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[El Pasoans have tried to achieve positive change over the years.  However,  it has been almost impossible for them to get rid of bad politicians and bad public policies.  Why? Because they are dragging around the ball and chain that is the editorial page of the only English Daily, the El Paso Times.  At the helm of that page and the author of many, many bad, misinformed, agenda driven opinions is Charlie Edgren.  Edgren is the personification of dishonesty, laziness and cowardice, traits you do not want in an editor issuing opinions.  Edgren is destructive to this community.  Here are a few examples why. 

Recently, my good friend of many years and practicing attorney, Stuart L. Leeds, was named to be the chairman of the newly created ethics commission.   Leeds has been a member in good standing with the State Bar of Texas for over thirty years.  Besides graduating from college with high honors and law school with honors, he retired a full colonel in the US Army JAG reserves.  He has had a long career both prosecuting and defending the highest level of cases.  He has performed all of his duties with honor and distinction.  Leeds stands above the crowd because he is willing to protect the common man against powerful, corrupt officials.  His weapons are his education, his intelligence and his courage.  ---Charlie Edgren was maddened by Leeds and his continued battle against the entrenched and putrid County Attorney's office, an office that has allowed and protected corruption.  What does this tell you about Edgren as a human being?   

Stuart Leeds contacted Edgren and told him he wanted to write an op-ed piece delineating why the County Attorney cannot and should not advise the ethics commission.  Edgren told Leeds to have the piece in by Wednesday noon for the Sunday edition.  By Wednesday morning before eight, strangely, Edgren called Leeds and asked him where the piece was. Leeds told Edgren he would have it in before noon as originally advised.  Leeds wondere ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/163/Charlie-Edgren-hurts-El-Pasoans-by-his-Opinions</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Sloppy Autopsies in Texas Re: Paul Shrode, Contin and Corrine Stern]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Editor's note: What follows is the second piece in a series of articles that the Fort Worth Star Telegraph is running on the junk science of Autopsies in the State of Texas and how bad medical examiners and wrong autopsies are skewing the legal system.  The article is by reporter Yamil Berard.  It is excellent.



By YAMIL BERARD

yberard@star-telegram.com

An unlicensed physician determined that toddler Lacey Lynn Nichols died in 2006 from blunt-force injuries to the head and brain. Lesli Tull, a fellow in training at the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office, said the child’s death was a homicide, and a foster parent was charged with capital murder.

Tull also gave cause-of-death opinions in dozens of other cases, including accidental deaths and suicides, without a Texas medical license or a training permit from the Texas Medical Board. 

Around the state, some medical examiner offices have relied on the work of medical school interns and unlicensed doctors, as well as physicians who have repeatedly failed certification exams or been disciplined for poor work — even for complex capital murder cases.

Relaxing qualification requirements is one way the offices have tried to keep up with overwhelming caseloads and a shortage of forensic pathologists.

Some pathologists also operate what critics deride as &quot;path mills.&quot; That can lead to significant errors, undermining the criminal justice system, some medical examiners themselves worry.

&quot;Justice becomes secondary when too many bodies come into the morgue every day and when too few people are doing the autopsy,&quot; Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik said.

Professionals say medical examiners should have specific certification in anatomic and forensic pathology, even though the state requires only a doctor’s license. Without the certification, says Bexar County Chief Medical Examiner Randall Frost, &quot;that’s like graduating from medical school and immediately going in a ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/162/Sloppy-Autopsies-in-Texas-Re-Paul-Shrode-Contin-and-Corrine-Stern</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Hawaii article re: US Rep. Abercrombie and Mr. Woody &quot;Ethics&quot; Hunt?]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Editor's Note: Pasted here for your reading is an article that came out in a paper in &quot;Hawaii Free Press&quot; on July 12, 2009 about Congressman Abercrombie who allegedly promoted high dollar construction of a military base that would directly benefit one of his biggest campaign contributors, Woody Hunt.  The main point of the article is that the construction proposed by Abercrombie would benefit his largest campaign donor, Hunt corporations run by Woody Hunt, our very own El Paso ethics expert, corruption buster and coincadentally, military base contractor.--Please read on.

Where or where is our local press.  Why was this not covered in our press?

Sunday, July 12, 2009 
 Follow the money: $10B Guam pork project benefits Abercrombie contributor
By Andrew Walden :: 459 Views :: Oahu News, Oahu Politics, Hawaii State News, Hawaii State Politics, National News, National Politics    
&quot;In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.&quot;  President Dwight D Eisenhower, 1961

by Andrew Walden

As a hippie transplant from Buffalo, Neil Abercrombie was in the late 1960s and early 1970s involved in a scandal over tearing down military facilities--fighting to drive the ROTC out of what 1960s anti-American war activists called “the shacks” on the UH Manoa campus.

Four decades later, as a Congressman, Abercrombie could become embroiled in a scandal over building up military facilities--steering construction contracts of a military base on Guam towards a major campaign contributor.

Abercrombie was sharply criticized in the Washington Post June 30 for inserting a provision in the House version of the 2010 Defense Authorization Bill doubling the cost of relocating US troops from Okinawa to Guam.

What the media has not reported: Abercrombie’s provision could create a $10 billion opportunity for one of his largest campaign contributors, The Hunt Building ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/161/Hawaii-article-re-US-Rep-Abercrombie-and-Mr-Woody-Ethics-Hunt</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[David Crowder reports Sanchez right: Escobar received free legal services]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Yesterday El Paso County District Clerk Gilbert Sanchez filed a righteous ethics complaint against El Paso Commissioner Veronica Escobar.  Read yesterday's blog which has a pasted copy of the complaint.  As yesterday unfolded,  a very &quot;NOIVOUS&quot; and dancing Escobar actually ADMITTED on no less than TWO 1150 AM KHRO talk radio shows (the Hector Montes and Paul Strelzin shows) that she INDEED received free legal services from attorney John Wenke as a Commissioner.  (John Wenke represented Escobar before the ethics board on the ethics complaint Stuart Leeds and I had filed against her as a commissioner for misusing county resources in an effort to try and have court costs assessed against County Judge Anthony Cobos even after being told by the County Attorney that it legally could not be done.)   

The El Paso County ethics code prohibits officials from receiving gifts over a certain amount and not reporting them.  John Wenke, who does employment law, has had at least one case come before Commissioner's court while Escobar has been on the Court.  According to David Crowder's article on newspapertree.com, Escobar is a long time, very good friend of John Wenke.  Escobar says that she and her husband (Michael Pleters) socialize with John Wenke and that their friendship goes back years. However, despite this long standing, close friendship, according to David Crowder, Escobar, was in fact sitting on Commissioner's Court in March 2007 when it approved a settlement on a case involving John Wenke.

Did Escobar disqualify herself from voting to settle Wenke's suit, as ethics 101 would dictate?  In plain English, you don't get to vote on your buddies matters.  You have to, at the very least, disclose your friendship and then should gracefully/ethically bow out.  What would the public think if I were a commissioner and I voted to settle a lawsuit my good friend Stuart Leeds had brought before commissioner's court.  I daresay that if I had the temerity to be so blatantly disho ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/160/David-Crowder-reports-Sanchez-right-Escobar-received-free-legal-services</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[District Clerk Sanchez files Ethics Complaint v. Comm. Veronica Escobar]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[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 t ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/159/District-Clerk-Sanchez-files-Ethics-Complaint-v-Comm-Veronica-Escobar</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Ed Archuleta of El Paso Water Utility Forced to Provide Records ]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[On August 13, 2009, the Texas Attorney General issued Opinion OR2009-11323. (See &quot;Opinion&quot; attached.) This &quot;Opinion&quot; 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 &quot;Opinion&quot; attached).  The &quot;Opinion&quot; 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 &quot;Opinion&quot; that would shield him from turning over the public records states that he believes that the PSB can &quot;withhold the requested information from Plaintiff...&quot; 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.  

F ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/158/Ed-Archuleta-of-El-Paso-Water-Utility-Forced-to-Provide-Records</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Formal Ethics Complaint filed against El Paso Commissioner Veronica Escobar]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[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 ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/157/Formal-Ethics-Complaint-filed-against-El-Paso-Commissioner-Veronica-Escobar</link>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Ashlie Hardway Sued in Two Unrelated Incidents in 2008]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[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 H ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/156/Ashlie-Hardway-Sued-in-Two-Unrelated-Incidents-in-2008</link>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>