Former County Commissioner Betti Flores pleaded guilty Friday afternoon (July 7, 2007) to multiple charges of trading votes for cash. Hers was the second plea in what the FBI and federal prosecutors have called a widespread public corruption case involving the business community, the courts and politicians.
Filed Friday, the "Information," a charging document similar to an indictment, includes six counts in which Flores pleads guilty to a variety of crimes. The six counts involve conspiracy to commit wire fraud and the deprivation of honest services, and carry a possible sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 for each count. No sentencing date has been set. Flores pleaded in front of U.S. District Judge Frank Montalvo in El Paso.
The information carries the same case number as that used in the Information document charging Travis Ketner, whose guilty plea to charges of bribery and mail fraud, released June 8, made public the FBI public corruption case. [ketner plea]
A brief summary of the Flores charges, along with some background based on news reports and public records:
COUNT 1
-- Flores pleaded guilty to arranging with others, who are not named, to receive payments disguised as campaign contributions in exchange for extending the healthcare benefits administration contract with the County of El Paso.
Access is the administrator for the county. The CEO of Access, Frank Apodaca, recently was placed on paid leave by the parent company of Access, which cited the investigation in an SEC filing. [link]
“Although no indictments have occurred and no definitive allegations have been made or presented to us or Mr. Apodaca, we believe that the investigation involves allegations of official corruption relating to contract procurement by Access Healthsource and other companies from these local governmental entities,” stated the filing. “We are conducting our own independent investigation into those matters and are fully cooperating with the officials conducting the investigation. Mr. Apodaca is on paid leave pending the results of the investigation, allowing him time to address the issues he faces personally.”
Apodaca could not be reached late Friday. The FBI has searched his office and home, and seized some of his assets.
The court voted unanimously Feb. 13, 2006, to extend the Access contract for two years, from Jan. 1, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2008. Commissioner Miguel Teran made the motion, with Flores seconding. [minutes]
COUNT 2
-- Flores pleaded guilty to accepting cash bribes in exchange for her vote on an underwriting contract for a bond initiative for Thomason Hospital, an underwriting contract for bond issues at the County of El Paso, and financial advisory contracts at the county and for the Thomason bond initiative.
“The County Judge and Commissioners have never been in the habit of telling the Hospital District who or who has not contributed to their campaigns or made other donations to them. So I cannot speak to who may have attempted to influence any individual Court member’s votes,” said Thomason spokeswoman Margaret Althoff-Olivas in a prepared statement. She said Monday morning (July 9) that the hospital would have a news conference Monday afternoon to discuss the issues in more detail.
“I can say that all of the actions taken by the Hospital District’s Board concerning Thomason’s bond initiative were done in open session in committee meetings, and subsequently, by the Board-as-a-whole, in accordance with the law and were conducted fairly and legally.
“If others were engaged in other activities with individual members of the Court, the District was unaware of that,” Althoff-Olivas stated.
“We believe Thomason’s bond initiative was approved on its merits. It was and remains an important community project that will greatly enhance the quality healthcare services the Hospital District makes accessible to all El Pasoans. And I would like to add that it was approved by a unanimous vote of the Court.”
The Court’s approval of the bond project occurred on Nov. 21, 2005. [minutes]
[nov. 21 agenda backup]
Thomason Hospital had a news conference Monday to discuss the issues raised by Flores’ plea. Jim Valenti, Thomason CEO, said that the district took every action after extensive review, and the County Court’s approval took place after numerous reports and public meetings of the Hospital District. He also said the district is reviewing its actions, as are the companies involved, something he called “standard procedure” whenever serious allegations are raised.
The bond underwriters for the $120 million, 2005 bond issue were UBS and Bear Sterns as the principal underwriters, and Wells Fargo and Chase as local underwriters, Valenti said.
COUNT 3:
-- According to the plea, Flores stated that unnamed co-conspirators paid her $10,000 in exchange for a vote in favor of the El Paso County Parking Garage Annex and to advocate change orders to the contract.
The contractor on the County Parking Garage Annex was CF Jordan. Flores made a motion to approve change orders to the contract on Feb. 7, 2005, according to the county minutes. Commissioner Dan Haggerty seconded the motion. The minutes do not indicate the amount of the change order. [minutes] The item was posted as an addendum to the agenda, and was posted as “discuss and take appropriate action on issues pertaining to the status and progression of the new parking garage currently under discussion.” No backup information was included. [agenda]
According to a document filed as an attachment to an item for the June 12, 2006 meeting, the contract was $7.598 million, with $175,000 in change orders. [link] Flores made the motion to approve the item at the June 12, 2006 meeting. The motion was seconded by then-County Judge Dolores Briones. [minutes]
A representative for CF Jordan could not be reached late Friday. The company has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
COUNT 4:
-- Flores pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to benefit herself in her misdemeanor case in exchange for her vote to settle a lawsuit.
Flores was indicted on 18 counts of filing late or incomplete political reports in 2005. She eventually was acquitted of the charges. Lawyer Martie Jobe, who represented the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department deputies in a lawsuit to force overtime pay, recently filed a lawsuit against Ketner.
In his plea, Ketner claims someone conspired with a County Commissioner to exchange the commissioner’s vote for representation in a personal matter. The El Paso Times identified the commissioner as Flores and wrote that the other person “appears to be” Martie Jobe, who has not been named by the FBI or charged with any crimes. Jobe filed a defamation lawsuit against Ketner, noting, among other arguments, that the settlement with the Sheriff’s deputies took place before the indictment against Flores.
COUNT 5:
-- Flores pleaded guilty to taking money in exchange for a vote to settle a lawsuit against the County over a tract of land owned by the county and then to sell that land to “clients of another known but not named herein.”
Catalina Development, represented by Luther Jones and David Escobar, sued the county to enforce a sale of 302 acres of land in East El Paso. The county initially had agreed to sell the land, and took steps to sell, but stopped short of executing the contract. The lawsuit, titled Gregory W. Collins v. County of El Paso, was settled by the county at a special meeting Dec. 22, 2003. Although the county had won the lawsuit with a decision by the Texas Supreme Court that it was not bound to sell the land, the county agreed on a motion by Flores, and seconded by Haggerty, to sell the land for $3.04 million. [minutes]
For background on the Catalina lawsuit, check this NPT file. [>link]
The only commissioner to vote against the sale was former Commissioner Charles Scruggs. Read this interview from the NPT files. [link]
He said Saturday that he thought the sale “was a mistake.”
“It didn’t make any sense to me. We fought for 10 years to keep it, we win, then a few months later we sell it,” Scruggs said.
COUNT 6:
-- Flores pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to make payments to her in the form of campaign contributions in exchange for a vote to secure a contract for digitization of court records for the District Clerk’s office.
Commissioner Haggerty, who served with Flores on the court, said he was surprised at Flores’ guilty pleas on a variety of issues.
“I like Betti. I thought she was a lot of fun, we had some good discussions,” Haggerty said. “I’m shocked, I really feel bad for her, I feel bad for her family.”
Haggerty said he never has been offered a bribe, “but I made it know if anyone ever did offer me that I’d go right out and say ‘guess who offered me $10,000, $20,000.’”
In addition to the two guilty pleas, other action in the case involves the federal government filing a motion to disqualify lawyer Mary Stillinger, who represents three clients the government has said are potential “targets” of the investigation. [story]
Related Documents:
