What follows is the content of a letter I have written and sent to El Paso Times editor Don Flores. Read it and weep.
April 23, 2007
Dionicio Flores
Editor of the El Paso Times
El Paso, Texas
79901
Re: The Alberto Ocegueda story and D.A. Jaime Esparza
Delivered by regular U.S. mail, return receipt requested U.S. mail and by fax
Dear Mr. Flores:
On November 8, 2006 your newspaper published a story about Socorro school teacher Alberto Ocegueda who was accused of aggravated sexual assault of a six year old student at school.
On April 6, 2007, I filed some court papers which alerted Jaime Esparza to the fact that I was aware of the Alberto Ocegueda story and the legal history. The Alberto Ocegueda story is a very bad story for Mr. Esparza.
One week after I filed these court papers and Mr. Esparza became aware that I knew what was going on with the Ocegueda case, the case was magically dumped by a special prosecutor, attorney Chris Bradley, making it appear that Esparza had had nothing to do with the case.
Today, April 23, 2007, you published a story on the front page of the Borderland Section above the fold about this case. It was all about how the special prosecutor declined to pursue charges on Alberto Ocegueda. You have a picture of Ocegueda wiping a tear from his eye and you spend quite a bit of ink talking about how traumatized he was by the ordeal.
You published, "...district attorney Jaime Esparza, citing a conflict of interest, referred the case to a special prosecutor, local lawyer Chris Bradley."
Why did you not include the following information in your article?
-Why was there a special prosecutor?
-Why did you not mention that Ocegueda had just been put on the first time offender’s program for DWI right before he was arrested?
-Why did you not, in either one of your two articles, mention that Alberto Ocegueda is the brother of Jaime Esparza's personal secretary Amy Lujan (Amelia Ocegueda).
-Why did you not mention that this is the same Amy Lujan who Esparza pays an approximate $30,000 "supplement" to on top of her county salary?
-Why did you not mention that on all of the jail records and court documents Ocegueda’s name is spelled as “Osegueda.”
-Who misspelled his name and why? To make it harder to find the records perhaps?
-How did your newspaper know the correct spelling when on official records it is spelled wrongly?
-Why did you not mention what happened with the case between the arrest in November 2006 and the dismissal on April 13, 2007?
-How long did that case sit on Esparza's desk before it was passed on to Chris Bradley as a special prosecutor?
-How long did Chris Bradley have the case before she declined it?
-Did a Judge order the arrest of Ocegueda for the molestation charges? That’s usually the way it goes? If so, why did you not publish what the judge was basing the arrest order on? On what evidence did the judge base his finding that there was probable cause that molestation had occurred? That would be a simple matter of looking at the arrest warrant.
-Why not publish who Chris Bradley is?
-Why didn't you publish that she was a long time employee of Jaime Esparza and a supervisor in his office before going into private practice?
-Why didn't you publish that she is the wife of former police union president Chris McGill?
-Why didn't you publish that Chris McGill was a co-defendant of D.A. Esparza's in the Nancy Hollebeke Civil rights suit which was another sexual assault case that got dumped by Esparza’s office and that case also coincidentally was an allegation of rape against a family member of an employee of Esparza’s?
-Why didn’t you mention that I was a lawyer who sued Chris McGill in that civil rights trial and now I am running against Esparza?
-Why didn't you publish that Ocegueda's defense attorney, Joe Spencer, is Esparza's political supporter, best friend, and campaigner and perhaps campaign treasurer?
Why didn't you mention that Joe Spencer's sister, Dina Spencer, works for Esparza and did and may still run the "Victim's Assistance Program?"
-Why didn't you mention that various members of Alberto Ocegueda's family work for Esparza, not just his sister Amy Lujan?
-Why didn't you mention that I had filed court documents on April 6, 2007 which alerted Esparza to the fact that I knew about the Ocegueda case lying around getting old and it was not less than one week later that it was dismissed?
-Who asked Chris Bradley to handle the case? Esparza's office? Because that is what he did recently on a case I am handling. I got him off because he had a conflict of interest and then he turned around and had his office contact a special prosecutor when he should have done nothing, absolutely nothing. Once you have a conflict you simply tell the judge and then completely remove yourself from the case. You don’t get to appoint your successor. Or do you think you should?
-What happened here? Your own article said “…Esparza…referred the case to …Chris Bradley.”
Did you ask Bradley who called her about handling the case?
Why didn’t you ask her?
Did you ask her who she was with her when she got sworn in?
-Does the little girl's family know about the above?
-Do you think they might want to know?
-Do you think other parents who have children at Ocegueda’s new school, Elfida P. Chavez Elementary School, might want to know about this?
-If you were a parent would you? How would you feel about a newspaper editor who didn’t tell you about the facts surrounding this kind of case and you had a female child at Ocegueda’s new school?
Do you think that family member's of the District Attorney's close staff should get special treatment, especially on child molestation charges? Does any of this concern you? Do you think that leaving this information out of your article is a normal way to do business?
Sincerely,
Theresa Caballero
Cc: Socorro School District; tc4da.com blog readers
April 23, 2007
Dionicio Flores
Editor of the El Paso Times
El Paso, Texas
79901
Re: The Alberto Ocegueda story and D.A. Jaime Esparza
Delivered by regular U.S. mail, return receipt requested U.S. mail and by fax
Dear Mr. Flores:
On November 8, 2006 your newspaper published a story about Socorro school teacher Alberto Ocegueda who was accused of aggravated sexual assault of a six year old student at school.
On April 6, 2007, I filed some court papers which alerted Jaime Esparza to the fact that I was aware of the Alberto Ocegueda story and the legal history. The Alberto Ocegueda story is a very bad story for Mr. Esparza.
One week after I filed these court papers and Mr. Esparza became aware that I knew what was going on with the Ocegueda case, the case was magically dumped by a special prosecutor, attorney Chris Bradley, making it appear that Esparza had had nothing to do with the case.
Today, April 23, 2007, you published a story on the front page of the Borderland Section above the fold about this case. It was all about how the special prosecutor declined to pursue charges on Alberto Ocegueda. You have a picture of Ocegueda wiping a tear from his eye and you spend quite a bit of ink talking about how traumatized he was by the ordeal.
You published, "...district attorney Jaime Esparza, citing a conflict of interest, referred the case to a special prosecutor, local lawyer Chris Bradley."
Why did you not include the following information in your article?
-Why was there a special prosecutor?
-Why did you not mention that Ocegueda had just been put on the first time offender’s program for DWI right before he was arrested?
-Why did you not, in either one of your two articles, mention that Alberto Ocegueda is the brother of Jaime Esparza's personal secretary Amy Lujan (Amelia Ocegueda).
-Why did you not mention that this is the same Amy Lujan who Esparza pays an approximate $30,000 "supplement" to on top of her county salary?
-Why did you not mention that on all of the jail records and court documents Ocegueda’s name is spelled as “Osegueda.”
-Who misspelled his name and why? To make it harder to find the records perhaps?
-How did your newspaper know the correct spelling when on official records it is spelled wrongly?
-Why did you not mention what happened with the case between the arrest in November 2006 and the dismissal on April 13, 2007?
-How long did that case sit on Esparza's desk before it was passed on to Chris Bradley as a special prosecutor?
-How long did Chris Bradley have the case before she declined it?
-Did a Judge order the arrest of Ocegueda for the molestation charges? That’s usually the way it goes? If so, why did you not publish what the judge was basing the arrest order on? On what evidence did the judge base his finding that there was probable cause that molestation had occurred? That would be a simple matter of looking at the arrest warrant.
-Why not publish who Chris Bradley is?
-Why didn't you publish that she was a long time employee of Jaime Esparza and a supervisor in his office before going into private practice?
-Why didn't you publish that she is the wife of former police union president Chris McGill?
-Why didn't you publish that Chris McGill was a co-defendant of D.A. Esparza's in the Nancy Hollebeke Civil rights suit which was another sexual assault case that got dumped by Esparza’s office and that case also coincidentally was an allegation of rape against a family member of an employee of Esparza’s?
-Why didn’t you mention that I was a lawyer who sued Chris McGill in that civil rights trial and now I am running against Esparza?
-Why didn't you publish that Ocegueda's defense attorney, Joe Spencer, is Esparza's political supporter, best friend, and campaigner and perhaps campaign treasurer?
Why didn't you mention that Joe Spencer's sister, Dina Spencer, works for Esparza and did and may still run the "Victim's Assistance Program?"
-Why didn't you mention that various members of Alberto Ocegueda's family work for Esparza, not just his sister Amy Lujan?
-Why didn't you mention that I had filed court documents on April 6, 2007 which alerted Esparza to the fact that I knew about the Ocegueda case lying around getting old and it was not less than one week later that it was dismissed?
-Who asked Chris Bradley to handle the case? Esparza's office? Because that is what he did recently on a case I am handling. I got him off because he had a conflict of interest and then he turned around and had his office contact a special prosecutor when he should have done nothing, absolutely nothing. Once you have a conflict you simply tell the judge and then completely remove yourself from the case. You don’t get to appoint your successor. Or do you think you should?
-What happened here? Your own article said “…Esparza…referred the case to …Chris Bradley.”
Did you ask Bradley who called her about handling the case?
Why didn’t you ask her?
Did you ask her who she was with her when she got sworn in?
-Does the little girl's family know about the above?
-Do you think they might want to know?
-Do you think other parents who have children at Ocegueda’s new school, Elfida P. Chavez Elementary School, might want to know about this?
-If you were a parent would you? How would you feel about a newspaper editor who didn’t tell you about the facts surrounding this kind of case and you had a female child at Ocegueda’s new school?
Do you think that family member's of the District Attorney's close staff should get special treatment, especially on child molestation charges? Does any of this concern you? Do you think that leaving this information out of your article is a normal way to do business?
Sincerely,
Theresa Caballero
Cc: Socorro School District; tc4da.com blog readers
on April 23, 2007, 4:37 pm
Reply to this comment