Northeast city Rep. Melina Castro, who tried unsuccessfully to sue City Attorney Charlie McNabb and owed the city tens of thousands in court costs, was ordered by a judge last week to post a $32,000 bond and appear for a deposition within 30 days.
Castro could not be reached for comment. NPT has been told in the past that her appeal lawyer is John Mobbs; however, documents filed on her behalf in August were signed by lawyers Luther Jones and Doris Sipes. NPT was able to contact Jones and Sipes, both of whom declined to comment.
The orders were signed by Judge Neil Caldwell in the 346th District Court on Oct. 24. It's unclear from the order requiring payment of a $32,483.66 bond when the payment must be made. The order requiring Castro to undergo a deposition calls for it to take place within 30 days of the order.
Castro is required to pay the bond in order to pursue her appeal of a judgment from Dec. 2006, in which she was ordered to pay $30,000, plus ordered to pay up to another $27,500 in the event of an appeal "for legal services for the estimated duration of the appeal," states a document titled Writ of Supersedeas and filed Aug. 27.
She had attempted to post a $10 "Cash Deposit in Lieu of Supersedeas Bond" on Aug. 23, but after an exchange of motions between Jeff Ray, the lawyer representing the city on behalf Charlie McNabb, Judge Caldwell issued his ruling Oct. 24.
The ruling opens Castro for questioning under oath about issues related to her lawsuit; for example, her sources of income in order to pay attorney's fees.
The lawsuit had its origins in 2005, when Castro demanded to see documents related to a settlement with former City Attorney Rita Rodriguez. [castro threatens to sue mcnabb, nov. 28, 2005]
In a series of exchanges between Castro, Mayor John Cook and other members of council, and McNabb, the initial demand to see the documents in the presence of her lawyer -- who at the time Travis Ketner, the former chief of staff of Anthony Cobos who since has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges -- escalated into a threat of a lawsuit. At the time, Cook said he suspected Jones was advising Castro, something Jones denied.
The court action has gone back and forth since then, with the December judgment followed by a March notice of appeal. [castro goes another round with mcnabb, july 5, 2007]
KFOX TV, the media partner for NPT, also is following the Castro story, and earlier this week broke the story of Rachel Quintana's alleged forgery of a Fed-Ex document in order to receive a discount flight on Southwest Airlines. [npt story]
Quintana's lawyer is Theresa Caballero, who was among the first to publicly raise the issue of Rodriguez's settlement -- she claimed that the city settled the case for half a million because McNabb was friends with Rodriguez -- shortly before Castro made her demands to review the issue.
Castro and Quintana, who was elected to office this spring, are part of a minority voting bloc on City Council. They are joined frequently by Rep. Eddie Holguin in voting against taxes, the Downtown Plan, and other policy measures favored by the majority, made up by Reps Ann Lilly, Susie Byrd, Steve Ortega and Beto O'Rourke. The other Council member, Alexandro Lozano, has become a swing vote, although sometimes he votes with the minority, in which case the mayor typically votes with the majority.
Caballero, in defending Quintana, said the investigation against her client was politically motivated by the City Hall bureaucracy because of its alignment with the council majority.
If the split on Council ever could have been bridged, the two developments now have the potential to make it worse.
"Right now you probably have as politically charged an environment as I have seen since coming on council, so it's incumbent on all members of City Council to serve in a manner that is respectful and professional to staff and each other or the situation has the potential to become very ugly," Ortega said.
Lozano said he anticipated hard feelings, and said he thought the city should just back off Castro. Lozano also defended Quintana in interviews with other media outlets earlier this week.
"To me it's nonsense what they're doing, it shouldn't happen," Lozano said of the city pursuing the judgment in the Castro case. "Sometimes the city has their point, but they're making like an example, trying to tell a council person 'don't get involved in something we tell you not to or it's going to cost you money.'"
But Ortega disputed that characterization of the issue, noting Castro had the opportunity as a Council member to view the documents involved in the Rodriguez settlement, but not to bring in an outside lawyer.
"Let's call a spade a spade. Her attorneys wanted those documents to smear the name of Charlie McNabb, the city said she did not have the right to have her attorneys have access to those documents, and that's what this is about, and that's as simple as I can put it," Ortega said.
Cook said he hoped that the dispute would not spill into the Council meeting, as it did when Quintana read a statement from the dais Tuesday claiming her case was politically motivated. He said he thought Castro would maintain decorum in conducting City Council business at the meeting, as opposed to airing a political grievance.
"Rachel, she's a little new, she should not have made a comment from the dais because by Texas open meeting rules we would have to make an agenda item to make that comment, and she made the comment during call to the public, which we're really not supposed to comment on," Cook said. "To Melina's credit I would say she has never really brought those issues to the dais, in my opinion anyway."
