The civil lawsuit that County Attorney Jose Rodriguez filed in federal court last week over the Catalina land deal and two other county controversies goes where no one has gone before in terms allegations and naming names.
Documents that the U.S. attorney’s office has filed in the cases of 11 people who have pleaded guilty to corruption charges refer to others who were allegedly involved but against whom no charges had been brought as unnamed co-conspirators.
But Rodriguez’s civil suit accuses three known, but unindicted targets in the federal investigation of engaging in illegal activities and names others as well.
There are 20 defendants named in the county’s lawsuit over three issues: (1) the 2003 sale of 305 acres by the county for $3 million to a joint business venture that involved Carefree Homes, (2) a salary settlement with sheriff’s deputies and (3) a proposal to digitize county court records.
The lawsuit alleges specifics acts of bribery or other offenses involving former county Commissioner Betti Flores, who has pleaded guilty, on the parts of former County Judge Luther Jones and lawyers David Escobar and Martie Jobe, among others.
Flores has pleaded guilty to six counts of fraud, conspiracy and bribery that involve a number of county transactions, including the 2003 land sale, salary settlement and county records.
A lawyer and county official have told Newspaper Tree that they think Rodriguez’s civil action could interfere with the federal investigation in which Jones, Jobe and Escobar have been identified in federal documents as alleged co-conspirators not by name but by descriptions of them and their positions.
Any of the defendants in Rodriguez’s case could seek to depose Flores as part of the discovery process in the suit and ask her questions she would have to answer regarding events about which federal officials may be planning to seek indictments.
Asked about those complications and the possibility that his suit could interfere with the federal investigation, Rodriguez said he is well aware of those issues.
“I can’t comment on pending litigation except to say that we have considered the concern that you posed,” he said. “We have considered all of those things, but that’s about all I’m going to say.
Early on, Rodriguez said he would not open any investigation that could interfere with federal prosecutions. But, he said this week, he never said he would take no action at all.
“I said we will be looking at each and every transaction to ensure that we protect the interests of the taxpayers,” he said.
Last year, Rodriguez filed suit against Ruben “Sonny” Garcia and his company, LKG Inc., to recover $600,000 that the lawsuit claims LKG was paid for services it did not perform for the Children’s Mental Health Collaborative.
RICO action names Escobar, Flores, Jobe, Jones
In alleging that the land sale, sheriff’s deputies’ salary settlement and the digitization of court records constituted a civil Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO), the suit alleges that Flores, Jones, Escobar and Jobe “formed a consensual informal enterprise to further racketeering activities.”
“Jones serves as the principal decision maker,” the lawsuit alleges. “Jones, Escobar and Jobe would pay and/or arrange for monies and other benefits to be paid to Flores in exchange for her official vote as El Paso County Commissioner.
“Jones, Escobar and Jobe would receive compensation from individuals and/or entities doing business with the county for insurance Flores’ favorable vote for the benefit of the individuals and/or entities.”
Flores, in pleading guilty to six charges in 2007, admitted that she traded her votes and support for cash in several transactions, including the 2003 sale of 305 acres of land on the East Side, adjacent of Loop 375.
Ten years earlier, Commissioners Court agreed to sell that land and more to Greg Collins and Catalina Development. But, before the documents were signed, a new Commissioners Court backed out of the sale.
Collins sued for breach of contract and lost his appeals up to the Texas Supreme Court. Somewhere along the way, Collins sold most of his stake in the case and the land to a joint venture involving Tropicana and Carefree homes.
Jones and Escobar became involved and before the state Supreme Court judgment was final, they threatened to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court if the county didn’t settle.
Going against Rodriguez’s advice, Commissioners Court agreed to sell the land after the county had fought for a decade to keep it.
Then came Flores’ guilty plea and the admission that she had sold her vote.
The county’s lawsuit seeks to recover the undeveloped land and the profits the purchasers have made from the property they sold for homes and a school.
The suit names Robert Bowling III and his son, Robert Bowling IV of Tropicana Homes Inc. and Tropicana Development Inc. and accuses Bowling III of direct involvement in a civil conspiracy.
“Betti Flores agreed to receive monies and other benefits from Luther Jones, David Escobar, Robert Bowling III and others in exchange for Flores’ vote in her official capacity to settle the lawsuit against the county involving the tract of land and to sell the land to the clients of another,” the suit states.
That is the only time that Bowling III is personally accused of wrongdoing in the suit.
"Jose Rodriguez made the outrageous claim in his lawsuit that I bribed somebody,” he said. “There is no hint of me being involved in anything like that. … He just dreamed this up and put me in there to hurt me personally."
Jones and Jobe could not be reached for comment but Escobar came to the phone to say “The allegations in the lawsuit are not true.”
He would go no further in commenting on the lawsuit, however,
“I’m always open and honest in my pattern over the years,” Escobar said. “I really would be violating my own advice for clients of mine by commenting. It’s not prudent to talk to the press when litigation is pending.”
Bowlings say it's politics
Various people have called Rodriguez’s suit “political,” and Bowling III suggests that the root of it goes back to former Mayor Ray Caballero – elected in 2001 and defeated in 2003 – and to an ongoing political struggle in El Paso.
"We were very much anti the Caballero people, and he's very close friends with Ray,” Bowling III said of Rodriguez. “All those things come into it. He's a politician and he's trying to grandstand."
Bowling IV, who is known as “Bobby,” noted that Flores pleaded guilty to six counts, but that Rodriguez "discriminately chose the two that have to do with his political enemies."
And the younger Bowling told Newspaper Tree that he was not involved in the Tropicana-Carefree partnership that bought the land from the county in 2003.
Both Bowlings were open in discussing Rodriguez’s lawsuit case and in defending themselves from its allegations.
"Neither I nor my father nor any of the Tropicana family of companies nor Carefree nor the Thomas's have been approached, questioned, contacted in any way shape or form with regard to Ms. Flores' plea," Bobby Bowling IV said.
Robert “Bob” Bowling III said Rodriguez's charges are "outrageous" and that there's no evidence to back them up.
"At least in the (Betti Flores) information it refers to David (Escobar) and Luther (Jones) in code, but it has nothing to say about me," Bowling III said. "He inserted that on his own. It's just wrong to do something like that and shows a total lack of class.”
After the sale of the 305 acres closed, the lawsuit states, Escobar received $420,000 as trustee for the joint venture and $120,000 more and the joint venture’s lawyer. Jones also served as counsel for the joint venture, but the suit says nothing of his compensation.
The suit alleges, however, that the land that sold for $3 million was actually worth $6.6 million and that Flores admitted to the federal government that she took a bribe for her support of the transaction.
"We vociferously, adamantly disagree with that,” Bobby Bowling IV said regarding the idea that the sale hurt the taxpayers. “The taxpayers got value in the transaction. They got fair market value, they got attorney fees paid for, which was close to $90,000 going back to 1993."
He said way the county came up with the $6.6 million figure is flawed. It was, he said, extrapolated from a $200,000 investment for a 3 percent stake in the land as opposed to comparing what other parcels of land actually sold for.
The county retained 80 acres fronting Loop 375, which has been developed and increased in value from 25 cents to $3 per square foot, or $120,000 an acre.
Bob Bowling III and his son note that Commissioners Court voted 4-1 to sell the land in 2003 and that while the original 1993 price was $6,500 an acre, the price paid in 2004 was $10,500 an acre.
Bowling III added that the county itself defended the sales price when another developer filed a lawsuit to prevent the sale. [view spreadsheet of comparables developed by the county's appraiser via link below]
In addition to politics, the Bowlings think there may be another reason for the county’s lawsuit.
Bowling III and his associates filed a motion in early March seeking to force the county into binding arbitration to settle the issue. [link]
A hearing on that issue is set for April 20.
"We already had this thing scheduled in front of a judge," he said. "Why go grandstand and have a press conference? I can only get back to politics. That's all I can think of."
Bowling III said he doesn’t blame the media for covering the lawsuit, which is a public document, but he said it's easy to make claims in a lawsuit.
"I'd hope we'd elect people more responsible than that," he said.
Bowling III said Rodriguez used Chris Johnstone’s 7 percent investment to arrive at the $6.6 million land value. But, he said, Johnstone was a family friend who wanted in on a deal and paid a little more because he brought no expertise or business value to the venture.
If the county wants to base the land value on an investment such as that, Bowling III said, it will have to explain the price paid to buy out of two other partners in January.
Greg Collins and Allen Ortega, who have been named as defendants in the case, were paid $250,000 each for their 7.5 percent shares, Bowling III said.
If that amount were applied to the overall value of the investment the same way Johnstone’s was, it would come to $3.3 million for the 305 acres – the actual sale price for the land five years ago. Bowling said.
Bowling III said the county's lawsuit was premature and reflected a community-wide lack of information about the specifics of the FBI public corruption investigation and the associated court activities.
"If we could wait until the court, in its best judgment, releases all the information on the Flores case, it would make a hell of a lot more sense. … I pray the court will be releasing this information, because it's affecting innocent parties.
“The lack of information is causing the county attorney to jump to the wrong conclusions. It's real frustrating for me. We don’t do business like that, and we look for our day in court.”
"It would make a lot more sense if we waited for all the facts to come out in that investigation, and waited to see what Betti Flores really did say. Everybody's just trying to guess what she said," Bowling III said.
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