Here is an op-ed that Stuart leeds and I wrote and that appeared today, July 4, 2010, in the El Paso Times rebutting an op-ed City Reps Steve Ortega and Robert O’Rourke wrote about a case Stuart Leeds and I won last week. The case involved El Paso Police Sgt. Louis Johnson brutalizing our client, lying about it and the City Reps. Susie Byrd, Steve Ortega, Robert (Beto) O’Rourke an Mayor John Cook covering up for the problem.
Details show complexity of case, weakness of DIMS in justice system
By Stuart Leeds and Theresa Caballero \ Guest columnists
Posted: 07/04/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

Last week, a jury returned in an hour with a not-guilty for our client. They then took the unprecedented step of writing a collective letter calling into question the El Paso Police Department and District Attorney Jaime Esparza’s DIMS arrest program.

City Reps. Ortega and O’Rourke wrote an op-ed condemning the court process, the basis of the jury’s verdict and the jury’s opinion. Here is what they omitted.

It was Thanksgiving and our client was outside his apartment when his life changed forever. El Paso police Officer Louis Johnson had been dispatched to a domestic disturbance when he saw our client littering. Johnson, who was training Officer Moreno, totally abandoned the wife-beating call and became fixated on our client.

Within minutes, Johnson had brutalized our client, entered his apartment without authority, and pulled his gun on the terrorized family. Johnson then arrested my client.

Instead of taking him to a judge as per the law, Johnson called the district attorney, who said arrest him for assault on a peace officer (felony); here is the bond amount; don’t take him to a judge before you take him to jail. That’s too time-consuming. Skip the judge. This way, you get to be investigator, “victim,” bond-setter and judge all at once. It’s great. It’s called DIMS.

Reps. Ortega, O’Rourke, Byrd and Mayor Cook have consistently funded DA Esparza’s DIMS despite lawsuits and constituents begging them not to.

We wrote Mayor Cook about Johnson’s dangerous behavior.

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No action taken. Johnson has brutalized and falsely accused others.
They, too, complained to Cook. No action taken. Officers complained against Johnson. Action: Promotion to sergeant. Johnson killed a man last year. Action: He is now an acting lieutenant.

Who is responsible for this? City government is.

Trial commenced. Rep. Byrd was in the jury pool.

Aside from sticking her tongue out at us during the selection process, when we called upon her to answer about DIMS, the arrest program she supports with tax dollars, she had no idea when an arrestee sees a judge, the issue that is the crux of the complaints and lawsuits.

She could not even recall her employee Johnson shooting to death Ruben Troncoso last year.

The jury was seated without Rep. Byrd. Despite Johnson’s partner saying our client committed no felony, the DA refused to dismiss.

Our defense was our client’s innocence, Johnson’s record and DIMS.

Who should know these issues better than our mayor and city manager? They were summoned to court as all citizens are, without notice and at work. They were angry, showing they believe they are above us and the law.

Cook testified outside the presence of the jury. Like Byrd, he didn’t know when a person sees a judge. “I would have to research that” he said. Cook was unconcerned that a judge had found that his employee Johnson had lied under oath. “That wouldn’t necessarily concern me,” he said.

On April 29, 2010, Rep. Ortega, in an effort to skirt his obligation to represent indigent, criminal defendants like our client, wrote to the judges stating, “I have never practiced criminal law and don’t feel comfortable, professionally or morally, doing so.”

O’Rourke, a non-attorney, would know even less.

Yet Ortega and O’Rourke opine on a case and a judicial process they don’t understand. They call for the Congress to legalize marijuana and they defend Byrd for sticking out her tongue in a felony trial, instead of addressing bad cops and DIMS.

Express yourself the way the jury did. The court and jury produced the correct verdict. Now it’s your turn to speak at the polls.

Stuart Leeds and Theresa Caballero are criminal defense attorneys and former prosecutors.

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