Well here we are just a few months from the primary and I would like to recap what I stand for and how I am different from my opponent:

-I promise I will treat all the same under the law.
-I promise I will not let my friends go when they get caught with a loaded gun at the airport when I prosecute others for the same offense; See Joe Wardy case/blog.
-I promise that I will defend the Constitution and uphold its tenets at all times; See Dims blogs.
-I promise I will not set up illegal, parallel legal systems like DIMS where people are thrown in jail without going before a judge and then ask you to pay for it; See Dims blogs.
-I promise that as my first act in office I will do away with DIMS with the stroke of a pen;
-I promise that I will not hide evidence that proves that an individual is innocent; See Brandon Moon case where Esparza is being sued for this very thing as we speak.
-I promise that I will not let someone rot in prison for 17 years or even one day who is innocent; See Brandon Moon case.
-I promise that I will not throw women in jail for reporting that they have been raped by someone let alone two police officers (Jose Garcia and Albert Machorro, Jr.) and especially when one of them has a father (Albert Machorro, Sr,) who works for me; See Nancy Hollobeke case/blogs and NY Times 6-4-04.
- I promise not to fly to the other side of the state to attend a party instead of obeying a subpoenae to testify in federal court; see Esparza's trip during Nancy Hollobeke's federal civil rights trial.
-I Promise I will not jail and prosecute people who report drug corruption in the police department: See George Deangelis case/blogs;
-I promise to fiercely protect freedom of speech and not stamp it out; See Dangelis editorials and cartoons in Times regarding Esparza's vendetta prosecution and gagging of Deangelis by having him arrested for whistleblowing.
-I promise to prosecute police officers who shove nightsticks up people's rectums: See where Esparza let police go on nightstick up the rectum case reported in NY Times.
-I promise I will not abuse the grand jury; See Hollobeke and Moon cases, rectum case and hundreds of others;
-I promise I will not charge and jail someone for murder without any evidence; See William Ferguson case/blog;
- I Promise I will not use a Medical Examiner who falsifies his credentials; See Dr. Paul Shrode blog.
-I promise that if I do find out that the med examiner has falsified his credentials, I will see to it that he is immediately fired before harm to us is done instead of saying, "If you want cadilllac service you have to pay for cadillac service." See Esparza's comments to KVIA 11-13-07.
- I promise I will not fail to notify defense council of exculpatory evidence as required by Brady V. Maryland; See Dean Kinder case.
-I promise I will not lie to the People through press conferences or directly to the El Paso Northeast Demo forum about Judicial decisions; See blog on Esparza’s lying about Fed decisions on DIMS.
-I promise I will not falsely accuse people of food stamp fraud especially to collect a fee from the State; See Tampering cases and Esparza's money contract with State and his "cut."
-I promise I will maintain a healthy relationship with law enforcement so as to properly oversee their activities: See DIMS contract where Esparza collects legal fees directly from the police department thereby compromising his neutrality and prosecutor's role.
-I promise that I will prosecute all people who wrongfully attack members of the public: See where Esparza covers for police abuse perpetrated on the public.
- I promise I will not prosecute cases where law enforcement has broken into people’s homes without consent or a search warrant; See James Terrell case;
-I promise not to feign ignorance regarding corruption going on right under my nose at the court house.
- I promise I will not authorize the illegal arrest of innocent citizens; See Major Mark Bittakis case chained to a pipe at airport and jailed for 10 days for having a bag of laundry soap;
- I promise I will not bill the Federal Government for cases I am not entitled to bill on to the tune of $3-6 Million or even one cent. See recent and ongoing Federal audit of Esparza.
-I promise I will not use taxpayer/public money to augment my secretary’s salary to the tune of $45,000 to put it up to $80,000 plus, nor will I take her on out of country trips with me at taxpayer expense. See Amy Ocegueda Lujan blogs.
-I promise I will not sit on allegations of child molestation lodged against my secretary’s brother; See Albert Ocegueda case/blogs.
-I promise I will not dismiss strong DWI cases against the sons of wealthy car dealers; See Dick Poe case/blog.
-I promise I will not employ sleazy, sloppy tactics in trial to win a case and then have to retry it because I couldn’t do it right the first time; See Renteria capital muder case blog (Alejandra Flores murder) where Esparza personally tried it and his sleazy comments got the case reversed. They started picking a jury a while ago and then mysteriously stopped.
-I promise I will not use drug forfeiture money to funnel to courts thereby compromising the neutrality of the courts and the judges; See Esparza’s asset forfeiture money going to DWI courts.
- I promise I will not stay in office for more than two terms and I promise to keep that promise. See Esparza’s early broken campaign promise to stay in office only for two terms and now he is seeking a fifth. He is on his 16th year and he wants 4 more.
- I promise to establish a professionally staffed mental health unit to properly handle cases involving the mentally ill instead of simply criminalizing all of them without regard to retardation or illness as does Esparza.

I promise that I will prosecute the guilty within the parameters of the law even when the corrupt and compromised press is against me.

I promise that I will restore dignity to the District Attorney’s Office by not doing the above which my opponent has done for years and years and years.

I promise that I will continue to stand for what I have always stood for which is the law and justice even in the face of ill informed mobs being led around by the nose of an ill informed and dishonest press.

I promise to represent the People of the State of Texas with the same zeal, knowledge and preparedness as I have done for my clients as a criminal defense attorney and as I did when I was a prosecutor EVEN in the face of adversity and criticism.

I promise NEVER to back down from doing what is right whatever the pressure.

I promise that I will acquit my duties as a prosecutor and as a lawyer guided only by the law and what is right without regard to personal gain or popularity.

What do I ask of you? I ask you to look at all the horrible, cruel things that my opponent has inflicted on our community and the national embarrassment he has caused us. I ask you to weigh that against the very worst thing that a most compromised press has had to say about me and that is I have defended a woman accused of forgery who came to me and asked me to help her in my capacity as a defense attorney. See who comes up positive on the balance sheet between Esparza and me.

I ask you not to be misled or tricked by a Newspaper and its progeny TV stations that receives the bulk of its income from the City of El Paso and the politicians who run it. These are the very politicians who are afraid of my anti-corruption stance.

I ask you to use your mind and question what you hear and read from this same corrupted press. I ask you to question your government, most especially Jaime Esparza on all of the things I have listed and the many, many more I have not and the many more I do not know about it. YOU must do it because the Peter Dauts and Sito Negrons and Darren Hunts and Dionicio Flores of the world are not going to. And how do you know? Because they haven't yet.

Then I ask you to make this a better place, a place where people are not afraid of their police department or the DA’s office or the City. I ask you to make El Paso a place where people believe, and in fact it is true, that everyone is treated the same under the eyes of the law, a place where people can once again put their trust in their courts and judges.

I ask you to then go vote for me, Theresa Caballero.

I will continue to tell you what happened to my client Rachel Quintana but first I have to divert for a day to tell you about some more unpleasant things that you need to know about our fair city and the escapades in my opponent’s office. While everyone is out trying and convicting my client in the press they might not notice what Esparza and the medical examiner are up to. While the press and the lynch mob are doing 360 degree head spins and vomiting up green bile over a class A misdemeanor, they have no idea about the lives of people on the chopping block that hinge on the truthfulness of Jaime Esparza who we know to be a liar, and his expert witness medical examiner who invents degrees on his resume.

In El Paso we have a medical examiner (ME) named Dr. Paul Shrode. He was hired by Commissioner’s Court (not the current one). Commissioner’s court is advised by County attorney Jose Rodriguez. Some of the ME's duties are to perform autopsies and testify in court. He looks for manner, means and time of death. He will testify in court in many different cases including, among others, CPS cases (if there is a death of a child involved) and murder cases. A medical examiner’s testimony carries great weight in a courtroom because juries tend to believe a doctor. They tend to think, “Well he is a man of science and is neutral.” The testimony of a medical examiner can change a lot of lives. It can send someone to the death chamber. It can lead to the termination of someone’s parental rights. Few witnesses carry on their face greater authority. Juries rely on the ME’s expertise. They rely on his honesty. An ME’s testimony can hold the greatest sway.

So let me tell you about what happened here in El Paso with our ME, Dr. Shrode. This past August I had Dr. Paul Shrode for the first time as a witness on a case. I noticed an unusual item on his resume. He claimed to have a graduate law degree from a Texas school. After my many questions and his many evasions, he finally admitted that he had no diploma, no certificate, no document, no evidence whatsoever that he had a law degree. Of course this would have been impossible. You see, there is no law school at the school he claimed to have studied law.

This exchange occurred in open court. Dr. Shrode’s answers regarding his credentials (or rather absence thereof) were nothing short of breathtaking. The County Attorney’s office was present. They were the party that called Dr. Shrode to the stand. Did they have a problem with his apparently fabricated resume? You can guess the answer to that one.

Last Thursday, November 8, 2007, Stephanie Valle at KVIA did an outstanding piece of investigative journalism on Dr. Shrode. Among other things, Ms. Valle telephoned the institution from which Dr. Shrode claimed to have received a graduate law degree. They confirmed that they have never offered a graduate law degree. All right. So the Dr. lied about his legal credentials. The county attorney’s office didn’t seem to mind. So far, so good. After all, what’s a little fib about one’s professional background matter when the unimpeachable integrity of your testimony can determine the fate of your fellow citizens? At least the Dr. retained the qualifications for his primary expertise, right?

Not so fast. Ms. Valle also discovered that the county job description for medical examiner specifies a “standard” that the medical examiner should have Graduate Medical Education certified training in anatomic and forensic pathology. Dr. Shrode does not, repeat NOT meet this requirement. Commissioner Haggerty told Ms. Valle that ”’Shrode actually applied for the deputy medical examiner’s position in 2005-which doesn’t list certification as a job requirement, but commissioners chose Shrode over his then partner who did have the certification…commissioners felt Shrode was more personable and could better serve as an expert witness in court.’” Personable? Evidently, we need to choose personality over qualifications. Now there’s a plan. And in fact part of Shrode’s testimony was struck down last week in a murder trial handled by Esparza’s office because Shrode’s expertise was questioned.

I am sure Esparza is upset that the public is now learning that he uses expert witnesses whose expert testimony is being struck down. In fact, Jaime Esparza uses Dr. Shrode as a witness all of the time. Did Esparza not notice that Shrode listed a bogus law degree on his resume? And if not, why not? How many cases will have to be reopened because Esparza doesn’t mind using a witness with false credentials on his resume? Or because his expert witness does not meet the basic standard of training in forensic pathology? How many people are sitting in jail on wrongful convictions? How many real criminals are still at large?

Instead of being appalled at Shrode’s lack of truthfulness, Esparza’s comment on the news last night was, “It certainly helps to be well qualified. If we want someone to go give Cadillac service, then we have to pay for a Cadillac. Everyone deserves due process.”

WHAT AN INSULT TO THIS COMMUNITY! Is he saying that because we bought a $210,000 plus Studebaker we send people to prison on tainted testimony?

Compare Esparza’s pitiful answer to that of Harris County where Shrode also did work: “The county attorney’s office there said it has started looking into any possible violations there.”

Now that is an appropriate response.

So Esparza has no problem with a medical examiner who imagines that he has a law degree. Never mind this is a fantasy. Esparza’s response is that the $210,000 we pay Dr. Shrode isn’t enough to expect him to tell the truth about his credentials let alone already have credentials that meet minimal professional standards. Keep in mind that Esparza makes sure that his secretary Amy Lujan gets paid “Cadillac” wages by giving her $45,000 on top of her county salary of our taxpayer dollars. Now there is Cadillac service.

Does anyone else but me think this is an outrage?

Also note the deafening silence from Dionicio Flores at the El Paso Times. Why so quiet? Where are the editorials and more editorials about the medical examiner. How about just a news story? Just one? Is Flores flying cover for Esparza by remaining silent and failing to inform his readers about this remarkable story? Readers who may be called to be jurors on a murder case? And while you’re pondering the curious silence of our hopelessly biased local newspaper, note that TWO stations in Houston picked up and ran the KVIA story last week because Dr. Shrode had practiced in Houston and therefore the story, though Shrode is long gone, remains important to them. Their own cases may now be in jeopardy. And El Paso? Here and now where the ME is currently practicing? Nothing. Why the silence from old Don Flores at the Times? Someone might want to call and ask.

Esparza’s office is now retrying the Renteria case at our expense. Why? Because the original conviction was reversed as to the sentence and remanded to the trial court. Why? Because Esparza himself pulled a sloppy, dirty trick in his closing argument at the first trial and got caught with his pants down. So now we have to do it all over again. At what expense, financial and emotional? This very well could be what will happen with Shrode’s cases because we have a District Attorney who sees nothing wrong with the ME claiming he has degrees he does not.

The stench from Esparza’s office grows stronger and stronger every day.

I will not use expert witnesses who have lied about their credentials. I will not seek convictions that are wrong. This community deserves much better. Vote for Theresa Caballero.

Note: On Sunday, November 11, 2007, I wrote the first part of my blog on my client Rachel Quintana. I encourage you to read that blog as it forms the foundation for this one.

Rachel Quintana was such a successful campaigner that despite all pre-race prognostications, she found herself in a runoff with the El Paso Times favorite Jimmy Suerken. Keep in mind that retiring representative Presi Ortega and all of his allies, city reprentatives Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd, were also fervently backing Suerken. Also note that never once did the Times dare to mention that their golden boy’s chief cheerleader, Presi Oretga, had acquired the status of not just tax deadbeat, but serious tax deadbeat as evidenced by the $350,000 tax lien the IRS had levied against him. Wouldn’t want to tarnish an image of an ally by reference to a fairly salient fact, now would they? Don Flores at the Times beat the drum weekly for Suerken against Quintana. It became deafening. Paul Strelzin, another known tax deadbeat (in 2001 he supported his politician friend’s 11.89% tax increase on all of us while it turned out that he himself hadn’t paid his own property taxes in four years) used his bully pulpit at Univision 1650 AM to push and then push harder for Suerken. If that weren’t enough, average citizens, people just like you who dared to support Quintana were publicly savaged.

For example: Jery and Marvin Rosenbaum who had been quietly minding their own business, literally, for years, providing a service and creating jobs for El Pasoans, suddenly discovered to no one’s greater surprise than their own, that their businesses (at least one flea market and the El Paso-Los Angeles Limousine Service) were now located in a zone slated for takeover by City Manager Joyce Wilson. Why? So Miss Wilson could turn around and give the property she coveted to her friends at the private land hungry organization she aslo represents, the Paso del Norte Group. Note once more: the PDN are not only Joyce Wilson’s friends but she is actually their spokesperson. The Rosenbaums did not sit idly or silently by. They actually had the audacity to fight for their property rights and our property rights and their businesses and their livelihoods and those of their employees. They made their message very clear. Their parents had owned a store in Nazi Germany which the Nazis seized from them. The Rosenbaums said that they were not going to let that happen again.

They hooked themselves up and got information from the national movement formed by Americans fighting the Joyce Wilsons in other parts of the country, fighting the taking of land by cities to give to their friends in private industry. And one of the best things and most effective things the Rosenbaums did was support and donate to several candidates running for El Paso city council, especially those who opposed the use of eminent domain to take over private property to give to other private owners like the PDN. They were fighting for their life’s work, their employees’ jobs, their own private property rights, and by extension, the private property rights all of us cherish. Of course they supported Rachel Quintana.

Dionicio Flores’ onslaught continued. He ran all kinds of ink attacking the Rosenbaums’ lawyer. He ran all kinds of ink insinuating the Rosenbaums themselves were a special interest group ignoring in fact what they really were: hardworking, quiet, private citizens and property owners, now fighting for their rights against Joyce Wilson and her powerful minions. 2001 tax deadbeat Paul Strelzin resumed his venomous on-air attack, unleashing slanderous callers on the Rosenbaums on his talk radio propaganda-for-his-friends show. Jery and Marvin Rosenbaum did not understand this media cabal yet. They did not understand that it is a one-two knock out. Don Flores at the paper (witness today’s editorial) lays the foundation for the public lynching that is about to occur and Paul Strelzin uses the radio to allow mobs to savage their enemy du jour. The Rosenbaums naively went on the Strelzin show as guests. Did Strelzin let them state their position? Nope. Then why invite them on? To allow caller after caller to repeat over the air nothing but unsubstantiated rumors that had nothing to do with the matter of Joyce Wilson wanting to appropriate private citizens’ land and hand it over to her PDN group. The real issue becomes obfuscated and the coffins of any unwitting, purported adversary are nailed shut with bone-chilling deliberation. The press does not flinch. The press does not protest. The press actually aids and abets.

One woman called in named “Sue” (no last names required for those known to the bouncer). She claimed to be a member of the synagogue. She claimed she knew about the Rosenbaums, as though being a member of the same religion and congregation endowed her with x-ray knowledge about their businesses. “Sue” somehow knew that the Rosenbaums conducted business “under the table” and they weren’t paying their taxes. The modus operandi of tax deadbeat Strelzin is to allow his microphone to be used to spew lies and gossip and once it is out there, how does the besmeared victim fix it? Refute it? Where? How? Not on his show and certainly not in the Times. Strelzin allows people to call in and identify themselves anonymously, utter the most horrible things about you, and then deny you a response. You’re not just put on the defensive. You’re on the chopping block. The axe has fallen before you realize it. The Rosenbaums were being schooled on what happens when you oppose big money like Bill Sanders at the PDN and his politician son-in-law Robert O’Rourke and Joyce Wilson carefully placed at the City with powers of eminent domain. And “Sue”? Mission accomplished. I don’t believe we’ve heard from her again. But you can be sure we will. Her or another anonymous would-be confidential informant. You don’t need to be dancing-with-the-stars qualified when the sleazy bouncer admits you past the slimy velvet rope. Just a tight dress, exposed cleavage, and a willingness to say whatever he wants to hear.

Also remember that, although “Sue” and her friends and Strelzin were so concerned about the unsubstantiated rumor that the Rosenbaums did not pay their taxes, a rumor she herself created that day on the Strelzin show, Sue et. al. made no mention of Presi Ortega’s established $350,000 tax debt to the federal government (i.e. you the taxpayer). Why were “Sue” and Strelzin not interested or concerned about Presi Oretga’s huge and not rumored but factual tax debt? Honor among prospective thieves? Hmmm. And note the final irony in this game of smoke and mirrors and deception and insinuation. Presi Ortega said that the land downtown needed to be taken over because it didn’t generate enough taxes. Taxes he himself, interestingly, had failed to pay.

The Rosenbaums plodded on trying to shield themselves from these unprovoked, vicious attacks. They continued to believe that right would prevail. Enter Rachel Quintana, whose message was clear and simple. She stood for no new higher taxes, and no use of eminent domain to take land from private owners and give it to other private groups. In other words, Rachel Quintana was fighting Joyce Wilson, Bill Sanders, Robert O’Rourke, the PDN and Don Flores at the Times. That’s a tall order for a young woman, mother of a five year old and a FedEx employee.

Despite Don Flores’ harping and pounding in the paper and despite Strelzin’s similar efforts on his propaganda show, a miracle happened. The voters of Rachel Quintana’s district were able to hear her message of no higher taxes and no eminent domain. They not only could hear her over Don Flores’ and Strelzin’s screaming, trying to shout her down, but they voted for her and elected her as their city council representative.

But remember. Rachel was never supposed to have won that election. City Rep. Steve Ortega, supporter of Suerken and Joyce Wilson and the PDN was on the Strelzin show before Quintana had even been sworn in. Before she had voted on a single item. He was smearing her almost before the election results had been confirmed, casting aspersions on her and insinuating she was corrupt. Democracy had prevailed against entrenched special interests. But damn democracy. The special interests were going to get rid of Rachel one way or the other, come hell or high water.

Welcome to hell ladies and gentlemen. Do you feel how hot it’s getting around here?

To be continued.

It is difficult to tell you the story and convey how wrong all of this is. To the lay person who has no experience with the courts or to the reporter with limited experience, it would be hard to discern what is normal procedure and what isn’t, who is lying and who isn’t. But I will try and tell you what happened to my client City Representative Rachel Quintana as best as I can. This is a story about liars, cowards, crooks and hysterical lynch mobs. It is a story that illustrates why I am running and how rampant the corruption in this town is. It is a story about a bad District Attorney, Jaime Esparza, a bad City Manager, Joyce Wilson, and a bad Chief of Police, Richard Wiles. It is also a story about a community that either watches bad things happen to other people or actually joins in the feeding frenzy and most say nothing. It is a story about two El Pasos. It is a story about what happens to the haves and the have nots and the haves who seem to never have enough.

First I want to explain something that has been a discussion in the press, on the radio and in classrooms. I am an attorney in private practice. While I do a variety of work, the lion’s share of my practice is devoted to criminal defense work. I represent and defend people who have been accused of a crime. It is something I enjoy doing and I am proud to do it. As we all learned in fifth grade social studies, everyone in this country is entitled to a defense and everyone is innocent UNLESS proven, not until proven, but UNLESS proven guilty.

Some people have made the comment that I am against corruption but now I am defending a “corrupt politician.” The inference is that because I am defending someone accused of “corruption” (which by the way is not the accusation against my client) that I am actually for corruption. Now try to follow this flawed argument. I am against murder and rape but I defend people accused of murder and rape. By this contorted logic, if I say I am against murder and rape and then I take a case defending someone who has been accused of murder and rape I am now supposedly for murder and rape. This makes no sense. Just two months ago I represented someone Esparza wrongfully accused of murder. After I proved in court that Esparza had wrongfully accused my client of murder, he was forced to dismiss the case. -- I have also represented people who were guilty of their charges. They too need a zealous defense. The sixth amendment of the US Constitution says, "In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the assistance of counsel for his defense." The Constitution also guarantees trial by Jury to determine guilt, not trial by Joyce Wilson and a corrupt newspaper that will act as judge, jury and prosecutor. This is our system. Today is Veteran’s day. Soldiers have given their lives to uphold this system. We commemorate the sacrifices our soldiers have made on Veteran's Day but based on some of the comments I have heard this week we seem to have forgotten as a society what our soldiers died for and what our system is about. This is not about defending a "corrupt politician." This is about upholding and standing strong for our basic values even in the face of angry, ignorant mobs stirred up by El Paso Times editor Dionicio Flores, Chief of Police Richard Wiles, Joyce Wilson and their henchmen.

As you read this story, ask yourself if you are going to be part of the lynching mob?

People who condemn an individual without due process, people who think someone should admit to a crime, people who think that a defense attorney should parade her client out and join the lynching mob and violate her attorney's oath by judging and condemning her clientl instead of protecting and defending her client are either immensely ignorant of our legal system and the Constitution or they are liars and trying to mislead their listeners/readers. Listen carefully to who is saying what. Remember what you know is the true role of a true attorney. The role of an attorney is to represent her client whether the client is you, Joe Blow, or the state. When I represent and defend Rachel Quintana I am doing what I swore to do as an attorney. When Esparza
1) dismisses the DWI charges against Dick Poe or
2) when he lets his friend, former mayor Joe Wardy go after being found with a loaded gun at the airport, or when
3)he refuses to investigate charges of aggravated sexual child molestation against his secretary's brother, Alberto Ocegueda currently a teacher at an El Paso public grade school (the same secretary, Amy Ocegueda Lujan, whom he gives $45,000 of tax payer money to supplement her $30,000 county salary and whom he takes to Mexico City on "business"), Esparza is not doing his job as an attorney. He is not properly representing the people of the State of Texas. He is subjecting the citizens of El Paso to certain dangers and he is creating two El Pasos.

Who is Rachel Quintana? She is a young woman and the mother of a five year old daughter. She decided to run for city rep in district five when the seat came open. It was Presi Ortega’s District. Presi Ortega however, had other plans for his district. He wanted to hand pick his own successor, so he backed and was campaign manager for Jimmy Suerken, who it was believed would carry on Presi Ortega’s votes on higher taxes, higher fees, and the plan to take private land downtown by force of emminent domain if necessary and turn it over to a private group, the Paso del Norte Group for “development.” One would have thought that Presi Ortega would be ashamed to support higher taxes since he himself owed a whopping $350,000 to the IRS. This was reported only in the Mexican El Diario. How come? Where was Joyce Wilson's indignation for law abidingness on that one?

The Paso del Norte Group, a private land hungry group, had as a member and its head, multi-millionaire Bill Sanders who is coincidentally, the father-in-law of city representative Robert O’Rourke. In Spanish this is called "la Palanca."

Furthermore and most importantly, it was reported in the news that member and SPOKESWOMAN for the Paso del Norte Group (PDN) was none other than our very own city manager Joyce Wilson. In English we call this, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

No one in the press, not one single, solitary person, thought it odd or even worthy of a raising of the eyebrow that Joyce Wilson would be leading the charge in her capacity as city manager to acquire privately owned downtown land by force if need be and also simultaneously represent the PDN group that wanted the land as its spokeswoman poised to benefit from the land grab. Also in English legal/ethical parlance, we call this a conflict of interest.

The only people who really grasped these machinations were those of us who recognize the dangers of the current climate at city council and its hair trigger stance on eminent domain, those of us who value the long standing American principles of strong property rights, and more specifically, the downtown land owners themselves who were shocked to find out that they were the hunted prey and they were about to lose their land. These landowners quickly realized that running to the City for help from the PDN brought them straight into the loving arms of Joyce Wilson. It was worse than a bad nightmare. This was real.

So the land owners organized and tried to fight back. Leading the charge for the property owners were/are the Kimmelmans, who own Starr Western Wear and Union Fashion and the Rosenbaums who own at least one downtown flea market and El Paso-LA Limousine Service downtown. They hired an attorney; they had rallies; and they participated in the election process by donating to candidates who opposed the Joyce Wilson/PDN land grab.

Enters, young mother, concerned citizen and Fed Ex employee, Rachel Quintana, candidate for city council against higher taxes and the PDN.

To be continued.