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	<title>Justice &amp; Reform</title>
	<link>http://theresacaballero.com/index.php</link>
	<description>Justice &amp; Reform in El Paso</description>
	<language>en</language>
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	<pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:28:47 +0000</pubDate>
	<managingEditor>blogs@elpasotex.com</managingEditor>
	<webMaster>blogs@elpasotex.com</webMaster>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Chris Lopez Subjects El Paso Times to possible slander suit]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Mr. Lopez,

Yesterday the US Attorney's office came down with 11 indictments against prominent members of El Paso's political community.  Everyone knew all day long that it was going to be one of the biggest stories of the year.  Knowing that, one would think that you would have taken the time to make sure that your usual shoddy product, with fact mistakes, typos, names misspelled, inaccurate quotes, etc., would not be the order of the day today.  One would think that you would know the difference between the lawyers and the accused.  Nope.  That is too tall of an order for you.

On page 11A, you have a list of &quot;players&quot; referring to the accused and on top of the description which includes the words, &quot;charged with fraud, racketeering,&quot; you have lawyer Sib Abraham's picture, who is not accused of anything.  He represents an accused person.  Now you have published to the world that Sib Abraham is an alleged criminal, mug shot and all.

Nice slander suit you may have there.  I wonder what corporate would think?

But you have been warned over and over again.  Last year you and your reporter Darren Meritz, mishandled another one of Mr. Abraham's stories, the Kuchle case.  You published that Mr. Kuchle was involved in the drug violence in Juarez when that was not the case AT ALL.  A lawyer from Mexico City had to call you to correct your wrong and damaging publication.  

You are a menace.

We have to write you about your terrible mistakes and your lies.  This week a district court judge did.

You and Marty Schladen were the butts of criticism on the radio, again, yesterday for your protective coverage of Veronica Escobar.  

When are you going to buckle down and run the shop correctly, starting with being there and then hiring talent.  On a major news day, you were out to dinner with your family instead being at the paper burning the midnight oil, making sure things were done correctly.  Not you.  Steak first, facts second.

Theresa Caballero
Stuart Le ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/179/Chris-Lopez-Subjects-El-Paso-Times-to-possible-slander-suit</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:28:47 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/179/Chris-Lopez-Subjects-El-Paso-Times-to-possible-slander-suit#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Chris Lopez at the El Paso Times hides the truth in Embezzling Case]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Below is  an e-mail Stuart Leeds wrote to El Paso Times editor Chris Lopez regarding a story Lopez published today entitled &quot;Paralegal, husband indicted in $1 million law-firm embezzlement.&quot;  Read Stuart's e-mail to learn what Lopez and his reporter Maggie Ybarra intentionally left out of the story they published.  After the e-mail, I have pasted Lopez' innacurate and slanted article so that you can compare information.

RE: Paralegal, husband indicted in $1 million law-firm embezzlement‏

7:57 AM
Reply  ▼
  stuart leeds
To chris lopez, milan simonich, mybarra@elpasotimes.com, Theresa McGill
Mr. Lopez:
 
How could you publish this story and not mention, not one time, the salient relationships, that by the way, the entire legal community and their families are aware of? This woman is being told she better plead to 40 years or else. And as Mr. Gibson correctly said, 40 years is more than what most murderers get. I would add, a lot more. So why the vehemence and the outrageous plea offer from Esparza? Because the alleged victims are his friends, political allies, and relatives of his lawyer, County Attorney Joanne Bernal. But then you should know all this. CA Bernal, Esparza's lawyer and friend who has made a career covering up for Esparza, is a close relative of complainant Bernal.  Do you know what that relationship is, Mr. Lopez? And if you don't, why not? Shouldn't this have been a basic question asked and answered in your story? Oaxaca is the same Oaxaca on the Ethics Commission who votes continously to keep Joanne Bernal as the Commission's attorney thereby compromising the Commission's independence. This is a debate that has been raging for 6 months, a debate I am confident you know not one whit about. And as the editor of the newspaper, you don't care. The connections beteween the DA's office and the alleged victims are profound. Esparza should have disqualified himself from this prosecution.  And as long as you continue to hire insipid reporting  ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/178/Chris-Lopez-at-the-El-Paso-Times-hides-the-truth-in-Embezzling-Case</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:05:48 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/178/Chris-Lopez-at-the-El-Paso-Times-hides-the-truth-in-Embezzling-Case#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Obituary for Dorothy Jean McGill, October 27, 1945-July 17, 2010]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Dorothy Jean McGill passed away on July 17, 2010, in the beauty and comfort of her home surrounded by her sister Mary Edwards and all of her five children who adored her.  Her children, though living both near and far, considered it their greatest honor to walk alongside their mother, these last months, through the final mile marker in her life.  She was 64 years old.  

Dorothy was born on October 27, 1945 in Denver, Colorado to Dr. Joseph John McGill, II (surgeon) and Dorothy Jean O'Grady McGill.  She was number four of seven children.  She is preceded in death by her father and by her sister Anne McGill Burford (Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency 1980-1981). Her remaining siblings are Mary Edwards of Severna Park, MD, Theresa Peace of Lincoln, NB, Veronica Urban of Santa Cruz, CA, Rosie Binge of Littleton, CO, and Joseph John McGill, III of Frisco, TX.

 
Dorothy was a lifelong, devout Roman Catholic. She attended Mass daily, prayed the rosary, and was a patron of the Virgin and of St. Jude, often petitioning them for their mercy and intercession.   At the age of seven, her parents took her to Mexico City where she celebrated her first Holy Communion at the main altar in the Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica.  Dorothy was graduated from St. John the Evangelist gradeschool and St. Francis High School in Denver, CO.  She was a champion swimmer and spring board diver, competing for years for the Denver Athletic Club.  Through her family travels, she developed a life-long love for all things Mexican.  She and her sisters as young girls spent many summers studying Spanish in Mexico City.  Dorothy inspired in all of her children a great love for Mexico, its language and its culture.
 
Dorothy attended her first year of college at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri.  She did her second year at St. Joseph's College in Albuquerque, NM.  She married in 1965 and divorced in 1988.  She completed her college degree with a BA in Polit ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/177/Obituary-for-Dorothy-Jean-McGill-October-27-1945July-17-2010</link>
      <pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:17:40 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/177/Obituary-for-Dorothy-Jean-McGill-October-27-1945July-17-2010#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Letter to Steve Ortega about Indigent Defense]]></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

Stuart L. Leeds
Attorney at Law
1715 Wyoming Ave,
El Paso, Texas 79902

July 7, 2010

Mr. Steve Ortega. Esq.
El Paso, TX 79901

Dear Mr. Ortega:

We understand that you will be reporting to the courthouse tomorrow to comply with your obligation of representing an indigent person accused of a crime.  We have a copy of a letter you sent to the council of judges seeking to be released from that obligation.  The rule, as you know, is pay $600 and be relieved of the duty, or keep your money and take the criminal case, which you will be paid for. Many lawyers who do not practice criminal law and who feel that they would not possess the requisite skills to represent a person in a criminal case pony up and pay the $600. Despite your written protests that you have “never handled a criminal case and do not feel comfortable morally or professionally doing so,” it appears that you will stick with your cash and take the appointment.  This is a grave responsibility.

Criminal cases are the most severe in our system.  A person stands to lose his freedom, his right to bear arms (affecting his right to protect himself and his family), his right to vote, his right to hold office, his right to serve on a jury, his right to seek certain occupations, his right to compete for certain school loans. Everything is at stake for an accused person.  How can you educate your children if you are in prison or a convicted felon? Generations of people stand to be harmed and pay the price for a criminal conviction. That is why the burden of proof in a criminal case, beyond a reasonable doubt, is the highest burden in American law.

Another important point is that everyone who walks into court is presumed innocent and is absolutely entitled to that presumption and absolutely entitled to an attorney who will fight tooth and nail to preserve that presumption. Defenda ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/176/Letter-to-Steve-Ortega-about-Indigent-Defense</link>
      <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:38:25 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/176/Letter-to-Steve-Ortega-about-Indigent-Defense#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Steve Ortega and Beto O'Rourke Incompetent to Opine on Court cases]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Here is an op-ed that Stuart leeds and I wrote and that appeared today, July 4, 2010, in the El Paso Times rebutting an op-ed City Reps Steve Ortega and Robert O'Rourke wrote about a case Stuart Leeds and I won last week.  The case involved El Paso Police Sgt. Louis Johnson brutalizing our client, lying about it and the City Reps. Susie Byrd, Steve Ortega, Robert (Beto) O'Rourke an Mayor John Cook covering up for the problem.

Details show complexity of case, weakness of DIMS in justice system
By Stuart Leeds and Theresa Caballero \ Guest columnists
Posted: 07/04/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT


Last week, a jury returned in an hour with a not-guilty for our client. They then took the unprecedented step of writing a collective letter calling into question the El Paso Police Department and District Attorney Jaime Esparza's DIMS arrest program.

City Reps. Ortega and O'Rourke wrote an op-ed condemning the court process, the basis of the jury's verdict and the jury's opinion. Here is what they omitted.

It was Thanksgiving and our client was outside his apartment when his life changed forever. El Paso police Officer Louis Johnson had been dispatched to a domestic disturbance when he saw our client littering. Johnson, who was training Officer Moreno, totally abandoned the wife-beating call and became fixated on our client.

Within minutes, Johnson had brutalized our client, entered his apartment without authority, and pulled his gun on the terrorized family. Johnson then arrested my client.

Instead of taking him to a judge as per the law, Johnson called the district attorney, who said arrest him for assault on a peace officer (felony); here is the bond amount; don't take him to a judge before you take him to jail. That's too time-consuming. Skip the judge. This way, you get to be investigator, &quot;victim,&quot; bond-setter and judge all at once. It's great. It's called DIMS.

Reps. Ortega, O'Rourke, Byrd and Mayor Cook have consistently funded DA Esparza's DIMS despite  ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/175/Steve-Ortega-and-Beto-ORourke-Incompetent-to-Opine-on-Court-cases</link>
      <pubDate>Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:51:47 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/175/Steve-Ortega-and-Beto-ORourke-Incompetent-to-Opine-on-Court-cases#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[(Charles) David Crowder says, &quot;I am Not a Pervert&quot;]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[On Friday, May 7, 2010, El Paso Inc. &quot;reporter&quot; David Crowder called the live radio talk show hosted by Paul Strelzin on 1150 a.m. and announced, &quot;I am not a Pervert.&quot;  He sounded like Richard Nixon who said, &quot;I am not a crook.&quot;  Why would Crowder say, &quot;I am not a pervert?&quot;  Well for one he is not too smart and secondly he was trying to defend himself vis-a-vis his own words.  Crowder had sent me an e-mail at 3:21 a.m. the week before seeking a private meeting with me.  The text of the e-mail can be read on the blog before this one.  I published the e-mail in the El Diario of El Paso on Friday, May 7, 2010.  Talk Show host Paul Strelzin read the e-mail over the air. 

During the show, Crowder called in babbling a hundred miles per minute sounding like a nervous nut job on the brink of talking himself right off a cliff.  He went on and on about this really exciting&quot; story that he had written for the Inc. about City Representative Carl Robinson not having a Texas Driver's License, a story actually broken by the El Paso Times.  

Then Crowder had to explain why he was e-mailing me at 3:21 in the morning, (the real point of the call) and the more he talked the faster he talked.  He was on a rapid verbal vomit by the time Strelzin tried to do him the favor of shutting him down.  Crowder ended his call with these words &quot;I am not a pervert.&quot;--How eloquent and brilliant of this wordsmith.

The man was so desperate he had his step-daughter call the show.  She sounds like a teenager.  She didn't do him much good, poor girl.  In trying to make her step-father's abnormal behavior look normal, she ended up making him sound even nuttier, depicting him sonambulating around the house watching weird sci-fi movies which apparently inspire him to do strange things.  She even said that they needed to drug him and that they had told him to stop watching the sci-fi movies.  Crowder sounds like just the kind of guy you want to have around the house with your teenage daughter.

The ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/174/Charles-David-Crowder-says-I-am-Not-a-Pervert</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 14:47:21 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/174/Charles-David-Crowder-says-I-am-Not-a-Pervert#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Tom Fenton &amp; (Charles) David Crowder at El Paso Inc. Lack Reporting Ethics]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Be sure and pick up a copy of today's El Diario of El Paso.  On the back page of the &quot;A&quot; section is a half a page ad about Tom Fenton and  David Crowder of El Paso Inc. and their lack of journalistic ethics.  More interestingly in the ad is published, in full, a bizarre e-mail that David Crowder sent to me at 3:21 in the morning, April 24, 2010.  It appears that David Crowder has &quot;issues&quot; that his wife may be unaware of.  Also keep in mind when reading the e-mail that Crowder has twice been arrested for drunken driving.

Here is what Crowder wrote to me and what is published in the Diario today:

&quot;Theresa

I was watching a silly science fiction movie a while ago. Vegging out, when the crazy thought occurred to me that I would like to meet you for a human conversation.  We have been batting each other around for years, swirling in opposing orbits, picking up strange impressions of each other.  I've never liked it, any part of it.  I remember years ago, 2001 I think, Gary Scharrer wrote your sister a personal reply.  It got him in a ton of trouble.  I may be doing the same thing, but I don't have to worry about the Times management bitching me out now.

What I am suggesting is just a simple meeting and an off-time, off-the-record, candid conversation that might help put us on a different footing because we are both going to be around for a while...you longer than me.  It could be here at my house or at yours or...I don't care, just not public, for a period of truce, if you will, after which the world will go on, perhaps slightly changedc.

David
dc&quot;

Do legitimate professionals seek private, in-home meetings with women they don't know on a personal level?  Would Crowder send such an e-mail to a man?  Would you like such an e-mail sent to your wife or daughter by a reporter?  If your husband did this, what would you do?  Why not meet in public?  What is wrong with a public place if your intentions are honorable?

Methinks Crowder also burned Gary Scharre ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/173/Tom-Fenton--Charles-David-Crowder-at-El-Paso-Inc-Lack-Reporting-Ethics</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 07 May 2010 08:21:20 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/173/Tom-Fenton--Charles-David-Crowder-at-El-Paso-Inc-Lack-Reporting-Ethics#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[&quot;Judge&quot; Yahara Lisa Gutierrez does not know the law]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Judge Yahara Lisa Gutierrez of the 65th Judicial District Court does not know the law and continues to disregard the law. Specifically, she does not understand the expungement law and the laws governing Free Speech.  Expungement law enables you to have an arrest record destroyed.  Free Speech law enables the private citizen to talk about the arrest, whether the records have been expunged or not. One would think that Gutierrez would be very well acquainted with expungement law since she came from the County Attorney's office, the office that handles these cases.  Also one would think Gutierrez would know the expungement law since she loudly and proudly CLAIMS to have had her own arrest for drunken driving expunged.  (Of course she has never produced an order documenting this claim, if one even exists, so who knows?)  

We know Gutierrez doesn't understand expungement law and Free Speech laws because in less than two months she has filed two grievances against me with the State Bar of Texas and one against Stuart Leeds. The State Bar immediately dumped them all as frivolous. In the second complaint, the State Bar even wrote Gutierrez that she was carping about the same thing and that they had already dumped her complaint.  They basically told her to let it go and to move on with her life, such as it is.  What is Gutierrez' complaint?  In the first complaint she whines that Stuart Leeds and I have carried a placard with the El Diario article that came out about her drunken driving arrest, an article that also includes a color photo of her magnificent mug shot.  (see previous blog for photo).  She also snivels that I dared to use the placard on my channel 7 debate for the County Attorney race (check that debate out on line.  It is great).  Most recently she complains that I published her arrest records and the Diario article on this blog. 

In her ethics complaint, Gutierrez actually wrote, &quot;Ms. Caballero has a blog on her website Theresacaballero.com (See Attachmen ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/172/Judge-Yahara-Lisa-Gutierrez-does-not-know-the-law</link>
      <pubDate>Tue, 04 May 2010 10:41:06 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/172/Judge-Yahara-Lisa-Gutierrez-does-not-know-the-law#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[&quot;The Honorable&quot; Yahara Lisa Gutierrez absent from Court again]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Today is another day you will find Yahara Lisa Gutierrez' courtroom empty and devoid of legal activity.  All those families living in legal limbo, clamoring, waiting, crying in frustration, scratching the walls, pounding the table, screaming that they need their family law cases heard, just got screwed again today by Yahara Lisa Gutierrez of the 65th Judicial District Court.  Gutierrez has been cited in recently filed legal pleadings as being a &quot;do-nothing, absentee judge...&quot;  But that doesn't stop Gutierrez from continuing to shirk her duties while cashing her paycheck. One of Gutierrez' staffers said this morning that Gutierrez cancelled her uncontested docket for today because Gutierrez is in &quot;training.&quot;  Training for what? Training on how to generate orders dumping her workload on another court? (See previous blog on Gutierrez with attachment of her signed order transferring her cases to the 171st effective her first day in office.)  The El Paso taxpayer has to pay to &quot;train&quot; Gutierrez while she continues to screw them, and hard, by not hearing their cases. Gutierrez promised the voters that she would tend to their languishing family law cases.  Gutierrez said she knew the families were suffering and she would end their misery if they would just give her their vote. And the families gave Gutierrez their vote.  And Gutierrez then put on her taxpayer paid for silk robe and kicked the suffering families' cases to another court.

In the private sector, an employee who takes money for work she has not done would be considered a thief and promptly dismissed. In the private sector, an employee who promises to perform certain duties to get the job and then refuses to do them once hired, would be considered a fraud, a liar, and promptly dismissed.

If you want/need a divorce, child support to feed your children, restraining orders, custody of your children settled, visitation issues heard, good luck when it comes to Yahara Lisa Gutierrez.  She is up for re-election i ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/171/The-Honorable-Yahara-Lisa-Gutierrez-absent-from-Court-again</link>
      <pubDate>Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:35:02 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/171/The-Honorable-Yahara-Lisa-Gutierrez-absent-from-Court-again#cmt</comments>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Attorney's Booths at El Paso Jail Bugged? Times story has mistakes]]></title>
      <description><![CDATA[What follows is an El Paso Times article titled 'Attorney's concerned that booths are bugged' published today April 17, 2010 on the front page of the El Paso Times.  I spoke to Times reporter Adriana Gomez Licon before 3:00 p.m. yesterday.  The article has some serious errors that I will address at the end.   Please read.

County jail: Attorneys concerned that visitation booths are bugged

By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 04/17/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- Lawyers say they are worried that telephones at the county jail's visitation booths could be bugged, creating a possible government intrusion on privileged conversations with their clients.
But El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said Friday that no recording or monitoring occurred during visits to the jail by lawyers. He agreed to allow a full examination of the booths after county and federal public defenders said they wanted to investigate the sheriff's system.
Wiles said the visitation booths have no capability to record conversations and he has no desire to listen to what jailed clients are saying to their attorneys.
&quot;I want the defense attorneys to have confidence that when they are speaking to their clients they can do so without fear of being recorded,&quot; he said.
Maureen Franco, who heads the federal public defender's office, said she still thought an independent inspection of the jail was a good idea.
&quot;I think we believe him, but we will verify,&quot;she said.
Franco said she planned to ask her bosses in San Antonio for approval to hire a surveillance expert to inspect the jail. She said federal and county public defenders would share the cost.
&quot;We are the ones who are most affected because we have the majority of the cases,&quot; she said.
Jesus Olivas, an attorney in private practice, said he began to feel uneasy a few weeks ago about the jail being bugged.
Olivas said he heard from sources he would not disclose that privileged conversations
Advertisement

were being taped.  ..]]></description>
      <link>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/170/Attorneys-Booths-at-El-Paso-Jail-Bugged-Times-story-has-mistakes</link>
      <pubDate>Sat, 17 Apr 2010 15:19:14 +0000</pubDate>
      <category>General</category>
      <comments>http://theresacaballero.com/post/index/170/Attorneys-Booths-at-El-Paso-Jail-Bugged-Times-story-has-mistakes#cmt</comments>
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