El Paso Media Group, which publishes The Newspaper Tree online, has filed a motion in federal court calling on Federal Judge Frank Montalvo to open his court hearings and docket in El Paso’s years-long public corruption investigation.
The motion to intervene, filed this morning, seeks a hearing on Newspaper Tree’s petition to open future hearings and unseal court documents related to the guilty pleas of nine individuals who have pled so far. [motion]
Since John Travis Ketner, the former chief of staff to County Judge Anthony Cobos, pled guilty in a closed hearing before Montalvo more than a year ago to charges involving bribery and wire fraud, all but one of the subsequent hearings involving other defendants also have been closed. [public corruption, closed courts, may 12, 2008]
The judge’s court docket, which normally alerts lawyers and the public of upcoming hearings, has been kept secret, and most documents in the investigated cases have been ordered sealed by the court.
“With a secret docket and closed hearings, legal professionals, the public and the press have no glimpse of the court’s administration of justice,” the media group’s motion states.
El Paso Media Group and the Newspaper Tree are represented by attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin and its affiliate, the Paso Del Norte Civil Rights Group.
“We’re a very small media group, and we had to use all the resources that were available just to get this done,” the media group’s owner and publisher, Keith Mahar, said of the motion challenging the court’s actions. “This is a monumental task for us, but we believe, but we believe in what we’re doing. It’s important.”
In May, Montalvo filed a memorandum of opinion in response to a motion by Carl Starr to intervene that also called on Montalvo to open the hearings, docket and documents in the public corruption cases on First Amendment grounds. [corruption court stays closed, but judge offers new information, may 28 2008]
Montalvo dismissed Starr’s motion, citing cases in which other courts found “no First Amendment right of access” to hearings or documents considered important to a continuing investigation.
But the judge did say he would open some previously sealed documents as long as certain names and other information were removed.
“I don’t think the judge’s ruling went far enough regarding Starr’s motion because the presumption is always going to be in favor of total transparency and openness in terms of court files,” said attorney James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project. “You still haven’t achieved that openness and transparency such that people can understand what is happening in the case.
“All we have is Montalvo’s word, which was ‘trust me.’ ”
Harrington cites a 1982 Supreme Court ruling in which the high court found the press and public have a right to be present in proceedings that traditionally have been open and where “public access plays a significant positive role in the functioning of the particular process in question.”
He also refers to a 1984 Supreme Court decision stating that if “closure is essential to preserving higher values,” then it must be “narrowly tailored to serve that interest” and explained “so a reviewing court can determine whether the closure order was properly ordered.”
In the public corruption cases, Harrington contends that Montalvo has not narrowly tailored his rationale for the ongoing secrecy.
“Usually when a court is allowed to seal, it’s for a very limited period of time and for an articulated reason,” he said. “Here, we have something that’s been going on for four years. That’s not what the narrowness requires.”
“You never see this ongoing veil of secrecy going on in cases the way we have in this cases.”
The earliest known wiretapped telephone conversations in the FBI’s investigation date back to 2005.
In his memorandum of opinion in May, Montalvo said the records were being sealed and the courts closed to protect the investigation and the individuals involved.
The judge further disclosed that he did not order the secrecy on his own but closed the hearings and sealed documents upon the oral requests of the federal prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanoff, and with the consent of defense lawyers.
“This court is not asking anyone to ‘trust me because I say so,’ ” Montalvo wrote. “Instead, the court is suggesting that the public should trust the system, because the procedures in place have withstood the test of time.
“Although we tend to equate transparency with openness, no investigation of this nature and magnitude can proceed unimpeded without the level of confidentiality discussed in this memorandum opinion. Under the circumstances, permitting the requested public scrutiny would obliterate the possibility of conducting the investigation.”
Harrington said he would question that, given the federal law enforcement agencies' long record of bringing public corruption cases forward without the secrecy in these cases.
The latest guilty plea to a public corruption charge before Montalvo came from Fernando Parra and was conducted in open court because Parra was originally arrested in February on child pornography charges, not for public corruption.
But at the July hearing, Parra pled guilty to surprise charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and the deprivation of the right to honest services.
Parra also pled guilty to a charge of receiving "obscene, lewd and lascivious matter" over the Internet, but not to possessing child porn.
In June, lobbyist Tony Dill pled guilty at a closed, unannounced hearing to conspiring with others to pay cash to a member of the El Paso County Commissioners Court to secure that official’s support and votes on contracts with private vendors seeking the county’s business.
All told, nine people have pleaded guilty in the investigation. [public corruption 101, compilation of background articles, updated july 16, 2008]
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To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605
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Antonio
August 6, 2008
Congratulations... at least one media company have the courage to confront the legal system in El Paso. This is a corrupt city.
Sylvia
August 6, 2008
David, the time has arrived for the citizens of this city to become informed. People are still in office representing our interests. We, the people, have no idea who is working on our behalf, or on their own and only using their office for their own personal benefits. I for one am ready to be told and become informed. If they made their bed, then they should lay in it and deal with the consequences of their choices. Enough with the secrecy. After all, it is beginning to make one wonder why the big secrecy in the first place? Whose identity is being protected, and why? Scandals are merely that, so let's put the cards on the table, face up, and let's have a clear look at what is reality and what are assumptions. Good work, David. Here's hoping everyone that is honest and wants the Truth will get on board and back you guys up. Too much time is wasting, and those who are guilty of misusing their constituents' trust need to face the music.
DJ
August 6, 2008
I understood and agreed that a temporary cloak of secrecy around this case could be beneficial to investigators, prosecutors and judges involved in this matter to get some of the lower-level offenders involved to open up their mouths and records and further the investigations of the main conspirators. Such measures go against the nature of how our government should work and there should be a fixed time limit on the secrecy. Every judge on the bench knows this or should know it.
As my granddaddy would say, in a much more colorful way, it’s time to ‘finish your business’ or get off the pot!
LisaT
August 6, 2008
I see it's easier to create news than report it. What a shame.
Keyn G
August 6, 2008
The secrecy may be understandable but we need to see results. We don't want this case to simply go away. Bribery involves two parties. Elected public officials have pled guilty to receiving bribes. Who offered or paid these bribes? We need to know sooner than later.
R Ruiz
August 6, 2008
I'm glad to see this effort on the part of your operation. So much of our standard media is operating on the fringe/weird, murder, mayhem, car accidents and crime.
You can only guess (if your not of this earth) that current print media is either tone deaf, paid off, ignorant, and or jaded and operate using the dramatic. (if it bleeds it leads mentality)
This community needs to have transparency from the political leaders, city Mgrs, and other gov't/state Agencies.
Lack of tranparency, influence peddling, and gain at the public's expense is the norm in El Paso. The public in El Paso is just here to be fleeced by the movers/shakers, developers, city,County, and state officials.
Perhaps, the 88 or so under investigation will be the examples for future leaders. As mean as this may sound, we need guilty people to go to jail and their personal fortunes secured illegally confiscated. ( up to an including the confiscation of the familes assets.) Perhaps this will be example enough to prevent others from trying the same game.
Great Hurray
Jerry Kurtyka
August 6, 2008
This is very courageous of NPT and is exactly what a free press is supposed to do: keep public officials honest with the perpetual threat of exposure if they are not. Too many citizens here have become so "domesticated" by fear of professional and social ostracization that they continue to allow thugs to get away with plundering public agencies for personal, financial and political gain.
It is almost an unwritten rule here that you never publically criticize someone who is in office and whose actions are suspicious or even egregious (HACEP is my favorite example). All that evil needs to succeed is that good men do nothing, said Edmund Burke, the 18th century political savant. Goes double in El Paso!
Frank Fundillo
August 6, 2008
It's about freaking time.
Maria Andrade
August 7, 2008
Mr. Crowder let me be one opinion that does not agree with NPT's approach to let the cockroaches know out loud that they are hot on their behinds and what the ammo is to use against them.
If those who are awaiting the noose to be prepared were able to see ahead of time what was going to used to catch them and who was going to be the ones to prepare the platform, do you really think they would not start their legal machines to jump at manipulating the hanging system that awaits them all.
My goodness, lets apply some common sense, this approach that NPT is taking is much like the one the El Paso Times would take in not reporting or investigating and placing the news on the front page, or better yet ignoring the news that was told to them.
They would avoid the subject to protect the innocent or friends, NPT would like to take one step further by better preparing those that will be wearing the blue jumpsuit, by asking the government to show their cards now, so they can be better prepared to fight the next hand?
Different media outlet and a different approach, but maybe the intent is still the same?
Concern
August 7, 2008
Guts! All I can say is Newspaper Tree is the type of reporting, research, newsworthy reporting that El Paso NEEDS. Yes, we would like to think that we can TRUST the system, but sad to say history has proven, we can't. Let the chips fall where they may, report, report, report!
Sylvia
August 7, 2008
If the Cockroaches don't know by now that they are being pursued, no wonder they were dumb enough to get involved in this stupidity in the first place! Those who are guilty, stand up and be counted, and don't bother hiding, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! This extermination has been years in the making. You better believe they already have contact with their lawyers, and are shaking in their boots, all six of them. It's not about protecting the guilty, it's about protecting the innocent, We the People. We Must be informed, the more the better. NPT - keep up the great work, and rock those boats, ROCK ON!
radiohater
August 7, 2008
How typical - This reminds me off all the drivers slowing down to gawk at an accident. NPT was tired of being left out in the cold so they decided to become part of the story as Sito said.
Guess they couldn't find any "unnamed sources" on the inside.
Talk about bad journalism and a publicity stunt.
I'd rather we not hear all of it and let the FBI finish what they started here in El Paso.
Whatever happened to letting them finish the investigation.
I hope the judge quashes this stupid request.