TIDBITS FROM JUDGE ANDREW S. HANSEN’S ORDER IN THE JUAREZ LAWSUIT VS. THE BISD GANG OF $4

By Juan Montoya

A CONSPIRACY OF FOUR
On Kent Whittenmore’s grievance against former Brownsville Independent School District Chief Financial Officer Tony Juarez:
“…a complaint allegedly filed at the behest of the trustee defendants (Rolando Aguilar, Joe Colunga, Ruben Cortez and Rick Zayas) according to a tactic of ‘setting one employee to grieve against another’ so as to give the Board an excuse to remove employees.”

LEAVE OR BE FIRED
“Plaintiff was asked to resign as CFO (after only three months on the job), and either take a reassignment as Grants Administrator or face termination.”

THIS DISTRICT AIN'T BIG ENOUGH...IT’S EITHER ME OR YOU TONY
“At that point defendant (Hector) Gonzales allegedly told (Juarez) that he had been forced by the trustee defendants to seek (his) resignation or be terminated himself.”

COME WITH US IF YOU WANT TO LIVE…
“Juarez alleges that the trustee defendants sought his aid in ousting Gonzales, and they believed the superintendent was really behind his Stop-Loss recommendation (against Johnny Cavazos’ bid for $40 million insurance contract with BISD).”

RICK ZAYAS SCHEMES BEHIND THE SCENES
“Trustee defendant Zayas allegedly had enlisted Elizabeth Brito-Hatcher to file a grievance against Gonzales.”

AND OTIS AND JOE WEREN’T FAR BEHIND…
“Then, former trustee Otis Powers and defendant trustee (Joe) Colunga allegedly sought Juarez’s support in ousting defendant Gonzales.”

JUAREZ DECLINES, CALLS IN THE FEDS
“Instead of cooperating, Juarez states that he met with FBI agents on Jan. 15, 2009 to report what had been going on at the BISD. After contacting the FBI, Juarez informed the defendants of his report, and ultimately on June 30, 2009, his contract with BISD was not renewed.”

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING…
“The court has reviewed the materials (tapes, affidavit) and finds that, to the extent that the tape recordings contain relevant statements and that the recordings have been authenticated, they are admissible summary judgment material. As pointed out by Juarez, some of the materials are relevant to the matter of whether a genuine issue of material fact exists concerning the alleged conspiracy, which bears on his 14th Amendment claim.”

ENTER STAGE LEFT…ELIZABETH BRITO-HATCHER…
“During her conversation with Juarez, Brito-Hatcher makes statements regarding what defendant Zayas and Saldana ‘wanna hear from him’ in a grievance they want him to file against Defendant Gonzales. She makes statements describing various relationships – e.g., ‘Rick and Saldana were partners…they were buds’ – that are relevant to the issue of whether or not a conspiracy existed.”

ENTER STAGE RIGHT…OTIS POWERS
“Otis Powers has been linked to the conspiracy by Juarez’s conversations with Brito-Hatcher, and the statements in Powers’ conversation with Juarez are also suggestive of a conspiracy to have Juarez file a grievance against another employee, Superintendent Gonzales.”

OTIS THE CANARY SINGS, AND SINGS, AND SINGS…
“Your grievance is against Hector Gonzales and the board is gonna love you for that. My sister-in-law filed a grievance. ..Elizabeth Hatcher filed a grievance.”

“Then, he tells Juarez 'you need to protect your job, bottom line…'”

“They (the board) might say, you know what, yeah, we’ll do it because you burned Hector…”

“Dude, I give you some good advice. Here you have it. Can you hurt Hector to protect you.”

“..you’re willing to go from a pay rate 8 to a pay rate 5... is that a 5 position? (Juarez “Yeah”) And like I told Tony Juarez…he has to file the grievance because I mean…he went from a pay level 8 yo a 5 and he has to reapply for the position.”


LEHMAN’S GOSSIP OUT, HANSEN SAYS
“As for the affidavit of Patrick Lehman, the court finds that certain portions are admissible and others inadmissible. To the extent that statements within the affidavit contain relevant factual information of which Mr. Lehman has personal knowledge, they are admissible. Statements that are double hearsay, however - for example, Lehman’s statement that he was told by Superintendent Gonzales: 'Rick Zayas threatens and orders Superintendent Gonzales to remove Juarez or be removed' - are not admissible.”

HANSEN AFTER THE TRUTH…
“In their objection to the report and recommendation, the defendants have asserted that none of the summary judgment evidence in the record supports Juarez’s claim that he made a report to the FBI or that the defendants had knowledge about the report. This court agrees that there is no such evidence on the file. However, the court is granting Juarez a short period of time to fix this flaw. Therefore, while the court agrees that the record before it has no evidence that Juarez made a report to the FBI or informed the board about it, the court solely for the purposes of this order will assume such evidence exists…

“The court finds, contrary to the defendants’ objection to the pleadings, that Juarez has sufficiently asserted facts regarding his report to the FBI and his later report to the defendants.

“Juarez describes his report (to the FBI) as one that ’concerned matters of public concern,’ not of personal interest. There was a great public concern regarding the treatment of the superintendent and the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money toward the district’s Stop Loss insurance.”

“Juarez reports that he has informed the FBI of the board’s wrongdoing, including: (i) coercion regarding grievance against superintendent (ii) bidding practices regarding Stop Loss bids.”

“These facts, while perhaps not as vividly as the defendants would like, are sufficient to meet the law’s demand of identifying the precise speech that Juarez claims addressed a matter of public concern and triggered retaliation.”

“Finally, this court hereby admonishes Juarez to comply with future orders of the court or face dismissal of his entire case.”