ACCION AMERICA DEPOSITION HEATS UP

By Juan Montoya
Remember the case filed by Brownsville Independent School District Board of Trustees members Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez charging that Acción America President Carlos Quintanilla had defamed them?
Apparently, the depositions of the fiery president of the community-action organization took place last week. Reports indicate that if Cortez and Zayas and their attorney thought the Dallas-based leader was going to be an easy nut to crack, they had another thing coming.
Quintanilla charged in a counterclaim that Zayas and Cortez had committed “malfeasance, fail(ed) to disclose material fact(s) related to potential criminal wrongdoing and conflict of interest,” in the 357th District Court and demanding the removal of the duo for failing to perform their fudiciary duties to the district’s students.
This followed Quintanilla and his organization's general denial of charges contained in a previous lawsuit where Zayas and Cortez accused them of libel and defamation. Quintanilla and Acción America charged that the duo had engaged in “conduct unbefitting a (BISD) member elected by the citizens of Cameron County, in particular the residents of Brownsville.”
Further, the suit asked the court to remove the duo for “incompetency, official misconduct, intoxication on or off duty and conviction of a trustee for any felony or misdemeanor misconduct.”
The depositions were held in the office of McAllen attorney Adrian Martinez, and reliable reports indicate that over the course of the questioning, the two men were involved in heated exchanges and at one point the deposition threatened to turn into a slugfest.
In fact, the deposition was halted and both men went off the record, with Martinez allegedly threatening Quintanilla with arrest, unspecified bodily harm (kick your ass), and then threw the activist out of his office.
The unseeming behavior came about as Cortez, Zayas, and the court reporter and cameraman who filmed the deposition were sitting there watching, reports indicate.
Questions about alleged nepotism, sweetheart contracts, and excessive legal fees to keep public documents from being released documents elicited heated exchanges, with Quintanilla suggesting that Martinez ask his clients about the alleged wrongdoing. A paraphrasing of the exchanges follows:
On Nepotism: "Why don't you ask your client Coretez about who made all those telephone calls to a principal and the superintendent trying to get (one of his relatives) hired?"
On Sweetheart contracts: "Why don't you ask Mr. Cortez who showed up at the printers and paid for his signs if it wasn't a delinquent school property tax representative?"
On suppressing public documents: "Why don't you ask Mr. Zayas, who's a lawyer, why he sued the attorney general to keep public documents secret?"
Martinez, bristling at being baited by Quintanilla replied in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to be told what to do and warned Quintanilla he would call the judge in the case to complain about the activist's behavior.
Thereupon, Quintanilla pulled out his cell phone and himself tried to call Alejandro, only to get a busy signal.
After Martinez allegedly warned Quintanilla off record that he would "kick your ass," Quintanilla allegedly told Martinez to act like an attorney and not like a bully and the exchange deteriorated after that.
"I've seen better attorneys fighting a traffic ticket that you," Quintanilla shot back before being unceremoniously being asked to leave.
Stay tuned for Round Two.