JUDGE REJECTS ZAYAS AND CORTEZ DEMANDS AGAINST QUINTANILLA

"El piruli (Zayas) se derritio y el Caveman (Cortez) salio corriendo," said Fernando Ruiz, who attended the hearing.

By Juan Montoya

A district judge has denied a motion by Brownsville Independent School Board trustees Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez to hold Accion America Director Carlos Quintanilla in contempt and make him pay for costs associated with their defamation lawsuit.
Judge Doug Witting made the decision Thursday and said Quintanilla did not have to pay attorney fees, court costs, or provide personal finance records that the two demanded in their demand for discovery.
Witting instead said that Quintanilla could respond to the duo's discovery questions in writing and gave him 30 days to submit the responses.
"The judge basically turned them down on all their demands," said Quintanilla. "They didn't expect for me to be prepared and to be ready for their maneuvers."

Zayas and Cortez are being represented by Adrian Martinez, of McAllen. Quintanilla is repesenting himself.

"El piruli se derritio y el Caveman salio corriendo," said Fernando Ruiz, who attended the hearing. "Carlos ate their lunch."
Zayas and Cortez have filed a lawsuit against Accion America http://www.accionamerica.com/ and its president Quintanilla,for slander and defamation and charged that Quintanilla has made several false statements defaming Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas including but not limited to the following:
a. The Publishing on or about September 17, 2009 on the Accion America website, a false statement that Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas are corrupt.
b. The Publishing on or about Sept. 19, 2009 on the Accion America website, a false statement that Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas will receive kickbacks as a result of a contract between BISD and Mutual Assurance Administrators.
c. The publishing on or about Sept. 9, 2009, a false statement that Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas committed malfeasance by suppressing relevant school district reports; and
d. The publishing on or about September 23, 2009, on the Accion America website, and to other individuals, a false statement that Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas criminally converted benefits that were intended to revert to BISD, namely the HealthSmart contract.
They have now added HealthSmart and Ted Parker to the Lawsuit.
Quintanilla charged that both Zayas and Cortez are bringing a wasteful, punitive lawsuit filed with the sole purpose of silencing any criticism of wrongful behavior.
"They have opted to file this lawsuit knowing full well that there is no evidence to substantiate their lawsuit," he said.

Further, he said that Accion America has been accused by the pair for exposing what many in Brownsville have stated repeatedly and fervently in blogs, in lawsuits and with personal actions.
"We have exposed this behavior by releasing audit reports, internal memos and documented evidence that something is seriously wrong with the leadership at BISD, specifically (Rick) Zayas and (Ruben) Cortez," he said. "Instead of joining us to expose unacceptable behavior, both Zayas and Cortez opted to hide these reports even suing the Attorney General with your taxpayer dollars, only to be repudiated, having their lawsuit dismissed, because of the actions of Accion America."

"We have said that Brownsville needed to end nepotism, sweetheart contracts, abusive legal fees, and compadrismo," he charged. "That is what was said in our information piece used as evidence by attorneys for Zayas and Cortez. I said that and I stand by my statements."
As evidence of alleged malfeasance, Quintanilla cited the suing the Texas Attorney General to suppress two BISD Internal Audit Reports that specifically stated potential criminal wrongdoing, cited multiple violations of state and federal laws, including falsifying time sheets, soliciting contributions using BISD Charter, paying personal expenses on BISD credit cards, paying ghost vendors.

"The reports speak for themselves," he said.
"We have raised questions about the excessive legal fees that were incurred in defending Special Needs disputes that could have been easily resolved with understanding, comprehension, working to find solutions and caring for (these) children," he said.

"I had the honor of traveling to Austin with several dozen children with special needs to address problems as simple as lack of running water to bathe them. The problems were pervasive and regretful in that we had to expose the reports that questioned the integrity of Special Needs.

He said that Accion America also exposed the "atrocities" within Special Services and the excessive legal billing by Walsh Anderson, the same law firm that recently sued HealthSmart. The comprehensive reports, two of them, were highly critical of BISD, stating that (these) children's were “grossly violated” and that BISD staff should “dilute the reports”, as if Children with Special Needs had neither dignity nor rights.

"For us," Quintanilla charged, "it has been about the children and our track record confirms that."

As the November election approaches, Quintanilla said that the two – both up for reelection – are pulling out all the stops by using BISD-funded legal maneuvers to divert attention from their actions.

"We have pointed out the mismanagement at BISD, calling on fiscal responsibility, " he said. "We coined the slogan "From Road To Broad to Road To Broke" because BISD is now in a $38 million deficit and as the current CFO has no comprehensive experience in fiscal management of a $1/2 billion school system, we call the situation dire."
Quintanilla said Accion America is ready to help restore Broad to Brownsville for the future of children who will "impact us not only in Brownsville, but also in Dallas and throughout America.

"I prefer to spend my money, our resources, and our time defending children and our community, instead of defending ourselves against lawsuits that serve only one purpose and that is to preserve the alleged integrity of Mr. Zayas and Mr. Cortez, whatever integrity that might be."