Theresa Caballero
300 E. Main St., Suite 1136
El Paso, TX 79901
915.565.3550
Fax 915.562.5250

December 28, 2007

Dear Tejano Democrats,

My name is Theresa Caballero. I am excited to announce to you that I am running for the office of District Attorney of the 34th Judicial District of Texas as a Democrat. I am humbly seeking your endorsement of my candidacy.

I write to you because we share the same mission: to promote the most qualified candidates for positions of leadership in our community. You have taken the time and the energy to devote yourself to this most worthy of causes in our democracy. I know that you want your personal vote in the upcoming primary on March 4, 2008, and the endorsement of your organization, to be based on the best information possible.

The office of District Attorney is a powerful one. The 34th Judicial District covers three counties—El Paso, Culberson, and Hudspeth—and amazingly enough, spans two time zones. Many, many lives are affected by who occupies this critical office. The District Attorney is responsible for INVESTIGATING and PROSECTUING misdemeanors as well as felonies including petty theft, all the way up to capital murder. The District Attorney is also responsible for prosecuting public corruption. Our future depends on electing a DA who is honest, afraid of no one, who owes no favors, and who loves the people of this community. I am that person.

As we see from the current federal investigation and intervention in our local sphere on the issue of public corruption, which we all know has been allowed to openly flourish for years, we need change in the DA’s office, and we need it now. I represent that change. I am seeking to be your next DA to end the corrosive atmosphere that has plagued us for too long, and I am well qualified for that task for many reasons.

First and foremost, I have for years fought publicly against corruption. I have used my resources as an attorney in solo practice and all my energies to bring an end to the malfeasance we see in our courts, in our district attorney’s office, in the arrest process, in the misappropriation of public funds, in rapacious taxes, and in dishonest public officials.

In 2004, I initiated a Court of Inquiry to draw attention to the errors wrought in our local courts, and the current regime occupying the DA’s office. I am a licensed attorney in good standing with extensive trial experience in justice of the peace courts, municipal courts, military courts, federal courts, and state and county courts. I have tried many jury trials as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney. As a defense attorney since 1998, with the exception of one jury trial, I have prevailed against my opponent’s office in all other jury trials. I have taken on many cases championing those in our community who have been wronged by the corruption that surrounds us and I have stood steadfastly by them, and therefore by us, as a community, even in the face of unrelenting opposition. I will do the same as District Attorney.

My experience and education have prepared me for this moment. I have had the great privilege of enjoying the finest education. I attended one year at Burges High School and graduated from Loretto Academy High School. I received my Bachelor’s in Latin American Studies from Barnard Women’s College, part of Columbia University in New York City. I was also fortunate to have studied Mexican history at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. I received my law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin. I went on to work in Democratic Congressman Ron Coleman’s office in Washington, DC. From there I taught English and travelled in Asia, specifically Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. This wealth of cultural, educational, and professional experience I now offer to the voters of El Paso who have not had an alternative choice for District Attorney for sixteen long years.

Please endorse me and help me carry my message of good government and strong democratic values, where justice and fair treatment for all prevails under the watchful eye of an honest District Attorney.

Sincerely,


Theresa Caballero

I write about this to further illustrate what goes on in our city unchecked and to give you information that will allow you to come to your own conclusions as to where the real thieving is happening. It is also an additional piece in the Rachel Quintana story. While El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson is reporting Rachel Quintana to her pet Police Chief on the matter of a $75.00 discount and possible forgery resulting in Rachel being publicly arrested (and mind you, in the beginning, Fed Ex was NOT complaining) we have Joyce Wilson "allegedly" altering/amending/extending contracts to the tune of a million dollars WITHOUT council's approval. When an employee, Rozanna Mendoza complained that this cannot be done, Wilson FIRED her and then sent out an e-mail telling everyone Mendoza was "unstable." Ms. Mendoza filed a slander suit against Wilson on Monday, December 10, 2007 which was reported today in the El Diario of El Paso.

The City entered into a three year contract with First Transit Inc. to come in and "clean up Sun Metro." By the end of the first year, the company, through its representative, Timothy Omick, had spent a million dollars over what it should have. Omick then went to Joyce Wilson with the matter. According to reports, Wilson told Omick she would take care of it and to go ahead and hire whom he wanted and to keep on trucking. Wilson then told employee Rozanna Mendoza to go find money to continue with the contract. According to reports, Wilson did this without city council approval. When this came to light, Wilson said that she had informed council. When members of council said, no she hadn't, she then had a mea culpa. She is now saying "OOPS, I should have informed council."

In the meantime, some members of council came to Wilson's rescue on this no small matter, and voted to extend the contract AFTER the fact and make it all better. What this means in regular parlance is that we, the People, were only supposed to have paid this company a million dollars the first year and we ended up paying them a million more, because Joyce Wilson, our overpaid, over-glorified, power-grabbing, secretary SAID so without our elected officials' vote and consent and even knowledge up front.

It's just a million dollars. What does our District Attorney, Jaime Esparza, have to say about a city manager playing around with accounts and doling out money she does not have the authority to do? What does Wilson's pet police Chief, Wiles, say about that as well? So while Joyce Wilson is siccing the dogs on Rachel Quintana for what amounts to a few dollars from a PRIVATE COMPANY, compare that to the extra million OF PUBLIC MONEY she signed over to Mr. Omick and company.

It will be interesting to see what attorney for Mendoza, Doris Sipes, is going to do with Ms. Wilson. Sipes is well known for taking no prisoners and having no friends amongst the establishment. I like Doris Sipes. Sipes will be asking Ms. Wilson some very interesting questions in deposition. According to some observers, Ms. Wilson does not do to well on the witness stand (she was recently in court regarding the municipal court judges-she is trying to usurp their independence) and her performance was shockingly bad; apparently Wilson does not understand that raw displays of arrogance on the witness stand do not help her. That transcript is being prepared as we speak. Now Ms. Wilson, through this lawsuit can then tell us ALL about how she came to approve the expenditure of a million extra dollars without council approval, BEFOREHAND. This slander lawsuit will be very interesting indeed. My bet is that she settles up real fast.

So you see what goes on around here? What do you think should be done with Joyce Wilson? What do you think about that million dollars you just gave away?

As I write this blog, Jaime Esparza is busily re-picking a jury on the Renteria capital murder death penalty case. This is the case were little Alejandra Flores was abducted from Wal-mart and brutally killed by Renteria. A jury convicted Renteria of murder and then at the punishment phase chose to give him the death penalty over life in prison. Renteria's attorneys appealed the case based on error made by Esparza who personally prosecuted the case. The appeals court, which is normally loathe to overturn a verdict, in an unusual move, agreed with the defense and overturned the death penalty verdict and remanded the case back to the trial court for a second trial on the penalty verdict only. The appeals court made its decision due to inappropriate statements Esparza made in the punishment phase.

Now the community is having to pay for a second emotionally and financially costly trial because Esparza does not know or possess the skills to try a clean case that will withstand the appeals process.

Every good prosecutor knows that she must be very careful to stay away from evidence or conduct that will jeopardize the integrity of a trial. It is easy to get a guilty verdict when you play dirty and pull fast ones. The problem then becomes that the appeals courts will overturn the verdict because it was a product of a dirty trial. A skillfull and honest prosecutor knows where to go and where not to go. The name of the game is to never get greedy and to always protect the record from future attack. An honest and skillfull prosecutor can get a guilty verdict without resorting to dirty tricks.

You should know that when picking a jury for a death penalty case, the lawyers question each juror individually and sometimes for hours. The process takes days if not weeks and months. It requires hundreds of potential jurors to come in and be interviewed by both sides to see if the juror can be fair. It is an extremely lengthy process, as it should be. It is also extremely expensive as well as inconvenient to the jurors who are called in and have to leave their homes, jobs and families. Too bad Esparza couldn't do the Renteria case right the first time so we don't have to go through this ordeal twice. And to add insult to injury, this is not the first time Esparza has had to re-try a case.

If you look at Esparza's campaign finance report he has listed as a campaign expense taking the Flores jury out to eat. No pun intended, but is that Kosher? Esparza plays real loose with the rules and we get to pick up the tab when it backfires. It is also interesting to note that this is what he teaches his young attorneys to do and how to try and win a case. A few more years of Esparza and we will have created an entire generation of lawyers just like Esparza.

And on top of it all, re-trying a case at the punishment phase means that members of the Flores family will have to come in and relive and testify about their pain and grief ALL OVER AGAIN.

Elect a district attorney who knows how to try a clean case. Elect me, Theresa Caballero on March 4, 2008 in the Democratic Primary. Also, I will be constantly reminding you of the following: My inside sources at the El Paso Times say that Dionicio Flores is going to run a series of articles and editorials three weeks out from the election date blasting me. The Times and its puppeteers cannot afford to let me win because I don't play ball. I play fair. Make up your own mind. Don't be brainwashed. Tell everyone what Dionicio Flores at the Times is planning to do.

Yesterday, December 3, 2007, I am very excited to announce, that I formally filed my paperwork to run for the office of District Attorney in the 34th Judicial District. This is a district that covers El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties. It is so large geographically that it covers two time zones. My filing for this office is a historic event. It is the first time in 16 years, you the voter will have a choice as to who will be your next elected DA, a very powerful position. It is also the first time my opponent will have had a challenger since taking office 15 years and FOUR terms ago. It is also the first time a female has ever run for this position in this district.

To give you a perspective on how badly change is needed consider the shambles that is our legal system in El Paso. Consider the widespread corruption that has been allowed to flourish under the regime of my opponent who has the power and the duty to investigate and indict crooks and hasn't. Also consider the fact that we have had only two district attorneys in the last THIRTY-FIVE years. Talk about a lock down on power.

No one should be DA for more than two terms for a variety of reasons. As more time passes, the words and policy of President George Washington become ever more prescient. When pressed to serve for a third term, Washington said words to the effect, "Let no man serve more than two terms." It is now the law of the land. How is it that my opponent believes that he is entitled to a fifth term and is more important to El Paso than the man who fought and led the American people to independence from the most powerful nation on earth at the time? Keep asking yourself that question.-- By virtue of the job, the Distirct Attorney, if she does her job right, should also become a somewhat unpopular figure since she should be investigating and indicting people who have committed crimes including the rich, the powerful and the connected. A good district attorney needs to get in, hire go getters, clean up and get out. There is no room in this job for winks and nods and popularity contests.

For those new to my blog, be sure to read the two blogs before this one to get a sense as to what I stand for and what the issues are and what is coming down the pike in this race.

Please suppport me in any way you can. I will do what you have elected me to do and I will bring good and positive and wonderful change to our community. I will make you proud of your vote for me. Vote in the Democratic primary March 4, 2008.

Where in the world has our elected District Attorney Jaime Esparza been for the last 16 years on the matter of widespread public corruption? The FBI is probing ever deeper and has now produced four guilty pleas on the part of City, County and school board officials and one architect doing busines with the school board. Again, where has Esparza been? Wayne State University Law School Professor Peter Henning hit the nail on the head when he said, '"This is the type of investigation you get when you have an entrenched government...By entrenchment, I mean the same people run for the different offices and their friends run for other offices. All these people grease each others' hands."' Does this sound familiar?

In El Paso we know Professor Henning's observations to be particularly true. Election after election we see the same people running for office and usually winning. Even if we manage to get rid of an incumbent he invariably pops up somewhere else, usually appointed by his friends to some unexpired term that is vacant. One blatant example of this is the case of Larry Medina. In 2001, it was reported that Medina and three others survived a small airplane crash in the Chihuahuan desert. Medina, at that time a city representative, Carlos Aguilar a Comissioner on Commissioners' Court and at least one school board member were on a small plane with a local architect who did business with all three public entities. They were on a fishing trip. It appeared that the architect had chartered the plane but when questions regarding the ethics behind the trip and who had paid for it came up, (questions NOT raised by the El Paso Times controlled by Dionicio Flores,) the public officials, including Medina, said that they had paid for their fare "in cash." If that weren't enough, it was also reported that on a prior occasion Medina had gone into a convenience store and tried to strong arm the clerk into selling him some booze after hours. The reports said Medina told the clerk words to the effect, "Do you now who I am?" In 2002, Medina also voted to raise our city taxes by a whopping 11.89%. He said it was for progess. Have you seen the "progress" from that tax increase yet? Also in 2002, Medina was involved in the TIF fiasco which involved his voting to seize private property around the Thomason Hospital area, using eminent domain if necessary, to turn the land over to private interests. The current "downtown plan" and the Paso Del Norte Group/Joyce Wilson scandal to do the same is nothing but a continuation of that earlier failed plan. What happened to Medina? Medina's constituents, despite Dionicio Flores at the El Paso Times and then tax deadbeat Paul Strelzin at KROD disparaging these constituents fighting for their houses (just like we see now), rose up and booted Medina out of office.

Then what happened is enough to make even the most optimstic citizen burn his voting card. Commissioner's Court had a vacancy and who did they appoint? You guessed it, the upstanding Larry Medina. Once again the voters had to trudge out and defeat Medina at the polls. Which they did now for a SECOND time. And just when you think you have seen the last of Medina, what happens next? Why he was recently appointed to serve at the Housing Authority a place with access to millions of dollars and is purported to be so corrupt it would take ten FBIs to sort through it all.

Now remember that Medina voted for Jaime Esparza's UNconsitutional DIMS program (under the DIMS regime, citizens are hauled off to jail and charged without ever seeing a judge) a program Medina voted for time after time as both a City Rep and a County Commissioner despite its harm to us as a community. Medina's vote on DIMS to the tune of over half a million dollars every year (not to mention what we have spent on lawsuits that DIMS has generated in wrongful arrest suits) was to give our money, taxpayer dollars, to Esparza and his loathed DIMS. Also keep in mind that Esparza has an actual written policy stating that public officials are EXEMPT from DIMS. They are not subjected to the system they vote to fund with our money and thrust on the rest of us. They do not have to go through the hated DIMS and they get to see a judge if arrested. Unlike the rest of us chumps who go straight to jail. Why the two El Pasos, one for us the People and one for those who control the tax dollar purse strings? Does this appear to be greasing the palms of one anothers' hands? It is like the proverbial onion. Just keep peeling away.

Where has Esparza been when Coach Carlos Cordova from the school district (who pleaded guilty in Federal court just this last Thursday) was selling his votes year after year after year? And what were Cordova and others selling their votes for? We know that Hector Zavaleta, Jr., who is now cooperating with the FBI, worked for a bond company. These are the companies that arrange for school bonds and city bonds, etc. Were Cordova and others selling their votes to vote YES on these bond matters? And when bonds are passed, who benefits? Answer: Lots of people but most especially contractors and architects who will be on the receiving end of the bond money (taxpayer money) to build all those schools and roads for the benefit of the little children.-- But don't worry, when these same little children grow up and can't afford their own homes because the taxes are so high to pay back the money owed on the bonds, the Housing Authority will gladly provide them with public housing as long as they don't get arrested. Notice that when most bond issues come up, the billboards around town supporting the bond issues (which means if the bond passes your tax bill is going up) are put up by contractors. They even say who is paying for the billboard right there at the bottom.

You don't have to live here for long to suspect that there is widespread graft and stealing going on at the City, County, Water Utility (PSB-the Public Service Board which controls our water and about 28,000 acres of public land) and school districts and the Housing Authority. Now ask yourself also, why hasn't Dionicio Flores and his team of crack investigative reporters and journalists at the Times exposed this before now since they purport to cover all those public entity meetings? Where has Dionicio Flores been? The lowliest janitor at the court house and the shool districts can tell you what is going on with the contractors there. The independently owned newspaper, the El Paso Diario, reported in 2004 that: Dionicio Flores' tax appraisal miraculously hardly moved up since he bought his house in the Willows in 1994: The Diario also reported that while Flores' property appraisal had gone up a mere $2,000 in ten years, Dionicio Flores' neighbors' appraisals had gone up 70% to the tune of thousands of dollars during that same period. Perhaps that fact answers some questions as to the Times' silence on the shennigans involving the bonds and tax increases. You'll never read that one in the Times. What is going to happen when it comes out that some of these for sale votes may have been for all of these taxpayer crushing bonds that have been passed? Dionicio Flores at the Times has supported many of these bonds in his paper bonds that account for millions and millions of dollars of the current expenditures in our local economy. If there has been fraud passing bonds and tax increases involving votes for sale on the part of elected officials, the ramifications to our local financial structure are staggering.

Perhaps it is just easier for a District Attorney to look the other way because if he had done his job properly and investigated and indicted a few people he might not have gotten their vote on his prescious DIMS money. An investigation might reveal to the public how bad he and his cronies are and that they, the public, have been duped for years. The public might find out that when they lost their houses (the Diario reported that 400 families a month lose their houses and are living in them up to the day of eviction) and they and their families ended up on the STREET because they couldn't pay their skyrocketing property taxes it was all because palms were so greased one can supply enough oil to refine from them.

I can tell you where Esparza has been on some occasions. When his DIMS approving buddy former Mayor Joe Wardy got caught with a loaded gun at the airport, Esparza said not to arrest him. And voila, Wardy wasn't arrested. Who followed those orders? Why Mr. law enforcement himself, Chief Richard Wiles abdicated his duty to protect the peace and dignity of the State of Texas and followed Esparza's don't arrest Wardy order. Also remember that this was an easy call for Wiles since Wardy was the very mayor who had elevated him to police Chief in the first place. And round and round we go. When Dick Poe, Jr. got arrested for DWI, Esparza dismissed the case even though it was a strong one, citing "evidence insufficient." When Dionicio Flores' golden boy reporter David Crowder also got arrested by EPPD for DWI, Esparza dumped the case On-The-Spot. Crowder never even saw the jail, Esparza was so quick. When Nancy Hollebeke accused Esparza's employee's son Albert Machorro, Jr. of rape, Esparza went a step further and threw NANCY in jail thereby saving his faithful employee's son. When Esparza's personal secretary Amy Lujan Ocegueda's brother, Alberto Ocegueda, who is a public school coach, was accused of child molestation by a six year old girl, Esparza got rid of the case. No charges for Alberto. Remember, Amy Lujan Ocegueda is the same personal secretary whom Esparza gives a $45,000 taxpayer paid "supplement" to every year, year after year on top of her county salary. In fact, the more the supplement is reported in the press the higher it goes. It is almost as though Esparza is taunting us with it. It has gone up almost $20,000 since I first brought it to light years ago. Esparza also takes Amy Lujan Ocegueda to Mexico City on the taxpayer dime for business reasons, he says. When questioned on this, Esparza gets very hot under the collar and says that, "Amy Lujan is a hardworkin' woman." This is also the same Mexico City located 1000 miles away from the 34th Judicial District in a foreign country called the United States of Mexico where Esparza writes off $350 meals at the Maria Isabela Sheraton as a "legitimate campaign expense."

This is what happens when you have a local district attorney unchallenged and entrenched for at least 16 years.

Do we wonder why the powers that be including Dionicio Flores, Paul Foster at Western Refinery, and the car dealers are shoveling money and support and free press Esparza's way, way away from me? Who do Esparza and his DIMS benefit? Certainly not us. Where has Jaime Esparza been? Where has he been indeed. He's been entrenched in...

If you haven't yet drunk from Dionicio Flores' well, and are scared of your next tax appraisal and tax bill, which you should be (which come due in January, next month) and don't think the above is good government, then vote for me, Theresa Caballero on March 4, 2008. Make up your own minds and don't be duped by the information machines like Dionicio Flores at the Times (the same newspaper that depends on millions in advertising revenue from the City of El Paso and its elected officials who vote to give them the advertising. That's right the same elected officials who...) and the other local hacks who are on who knows whose payrolls. They know I will come down on this kind of corruption with the wrath of years of a fleeced and disenfranchised community. And when, not IF, WHEN, they try and nail me to the public opinion cross which Dionicio Flores said he was going to do when he recently printed that I would be "grist for future editorials," know I am not backing down and neither should you.

Notice when Dionicio Flores promotes and denigrates different candidates. See as an example all the ink he has spent on Chief Wiles and none on the other contenders for Sheriff. How many stories do we need to read on how Wiles is retiring. We get it. Who do you think Dionicio Flores wants to be the next sheriff? Who do you think Dionicio Flores doesn't want to be the next DA? Flores is shameless.

Send this e-mail to your friends. Print it out for your friends and family who don't have a computer. Defeat the machine that is strangling us. Defeat it at the grass roots level. Now is the time for you to stand up and support me just as I have always stood up and supported you and will continue to do. End Corruption on March 4, 2008 in the Democratic Primary!