This week we saw the State Bar of North Carolina strip a sitting district attorney, Mike Nifong, of his right to practice law. North Carolina cited and proved to its satisfaction that Nifong, in the Duke Lacrosse players case, had abused his authority by lying to the tribunal, not disclosing evidence favorable to the defendants and making prejudicial statements to the press regarding the accused. If half of this is true, and it surely appears that it is, the State Bar of North Carolina should be proud of itself for properly policing its profession as it is mandated to do. There is nothing more dangerous than a dishonest, unscrupulous prosecutor.
Where you might ask is the State Bar of Texas, specifically its lawyer employee Mr. George Smith regarding what is going on out here in El Paso in our District Attorney’s office? Does Mr. Smith not read the newspapers? Is he not aware that Brandon Moon spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit and 8 years of that time was after the DA Jaime Esparza had become aware that there were issues with the DNA? Has Mr. Smith not read Mr. Moon’s petition/federal lawsuit wherein he outlines that Asst. DA John Davis submitted a document to the court stating that if there is a mix up with the DNA chain of evidence it is the fault of the defendant? How is that being truthful to the tribunal? Has Mr. Smith interviewed Mr. Moon and his attorneys regarding this and other allegations? Mr. Moon’s lawsuit has garnered much publicity and sits in a US District Court, where? Why in San Antonio, TX right where Mr. Smith’s office is. Is Mr. Smith aware that Jaime Esparza had Nancy Hollebeke thrown in jail for reporting a rape? The stated reason being, “complaining witness’ testimony not credible.” Esparza then turns around and subpoenas Ms. Hollebeke to the grand jury to testify, without an attorney present, to the very same allegations he is prosecuting her for and that he says are not credible? Could Mr. Smith and his cohorts possibly think THAT is ethical? This action has been made public in the news and in court documents. Where is Smith? How about Jaime Esparza setting bonds on defendants and authorizing their incarceration before being taken before a judge and on top of it all receiving funds for all of this? Does Mr. Smith think this ethical? Or how about Esparza stating under oath that he is not setting the bonds when all documentation and understanding of the process is otherwise? Is that ethical? Is that being truthful to the tribunal? Or does Mr.Smith not know about this even though it has been the subject of much public dicussion here and in Austin, TX? What are Mr. Smith’s credentials? Has he ever practiced criminal law? Does he understand probable cause and grand juries? Are we correct to rely on him and people like him to safeguard the public’s trust in the legal profession? Oustide of the typical case where the defense attorney has stolen money from a client, what is Mr. Smith capable of recognizing as being unethical behavior especially on the part of a sitting DA? Is Mr. Smith willing to contact the ethics departments of law schools and go on the record saying that law students should be taught that the above behavior is ethical? If not, why not? And if not what is he doing about what is going on in El Paso, TX. Consider this. In the North Carolina case no one even had to go to prison for the bar there to make short shrift of that DA and in no time at all. Here, we have people going to prison and to jail, tens of thousands incarcerated without the overview of a judge, year after year and the lives that lay in ruin…Texas has had scores of cases overturned, two recently in this jurisdiction, because it has come to light through DNA evidence that the wrong person was convicted and sitting in prison. One of these individuals, Brandon Moon, has alleged that the DNA evidence was not properly turned over to him by Jaime Esparza’s office. This case and other Texas cases have become scandals publicized on a worldwide level. WHERE-IS-MR. SMITH-INDEED?

Methinks that the next person who is found to have been wrongfully prosecuted in El Paso or anywhere in Texas has a wonderful, beautiful, ripe lawsuit against the mighty State Bar of Texas and its righteous employees. The question to the grievance committee and its lawyers then becomes what did they know and when did they know it? And with the new DA in Dallas opening up old cases of people currently sitting in prison to DNA retesting you know there’s gonna be just such a case. Does the grievance committee really think it is immune from lawsuits from just such wrongfully prosecuted individuals when it is its very mandate to protect society from rapacious attorneys including bad district attorneys who send innocent people to prison?

Considering that nothing, not one thing has happened here to cause us to believe that there is proper oversight of the DA’s office coming from Austin, the lesson is to not rely on Austin or Mr. Smith and company whose background and credentials we know nothing about and would serve us well to question. We must sigh at our bad luck to not have a State Bar like North Carolina. We must just take matters into our own hands.

Go to the polls! Vote for me. No one is going to save us but ourselves. The cavalry is not coming and if they did they’d probably just mow us down because they too are either crooked or too stupid to do the right thing. Vote for someone who will not engage in the above conduct and will get rid of unethical attorneys by the very least not employing them. Vote for Theresa Caballero.