COURT NIXES COLUNGA'S CASE AGAINST SANCHEZ

"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
From The Hollow Men, by T.S. Eliot


By Juan Montoya
And so in the end, more than two years after the lawsuit filed againt Robert Sanchez and your truly by Brownsville Independent School District trustee Joe Colunga and his son Stephen though contract attorney Mark Sossi was bannered in the local press and the litigation dragged on, it died a quiet death.
Colunga filed the libel and invasion of privacy civil lawsuit individually and on behalf of his son Stephen against us after a post titled "Colunga Milking BISD?" appeared in the now-defunct blog called RobertSanchez2011 Dec. 2, 2008. At the time, sources quoted in the post said Stephen was the only student receiving special education classes and services athough he was 23, and said his father's position as a BISD trustee was the reason.
Sossi filed the lawsuit less than a week later in the state's 404th District Court.
On February 2, 2011, District Court Judge Elia Cornejo granted Sanchez's motion for an order for summary judgement dismissing the claims.
Colunga alleged that Sanchez and Montoya co-authored and published an article on the RobertSanchez2011 blog site on Dec. 7 titled "Colunga Milking BISD?"
In the peittion, Sossi claimed that the article disclosed private facts about Stephen Colunga's medical condition, special educational needs at BISD, and location where he attended the special programs as both a minor and after the age of 18.
But, for the second time that Sanchez's attorney Monte English had made a motion in the same case, neither Sossi nor Colunga appeared at the hearing. Sossi and Colunga were demanding unspecified actual and exemplary damages are sought against Sanchez and Montoya, neither of which the court granted.
"It is therefore ordered. adjudged, and decreeed that the plaintiff take nothing by his claims and that all claims against Robert Sanchez be dismisses and that...all costs of court assessed against the party so incurring," Lopez-Cornejo's order stated.
Stephen Colunga's medical condition was well known within the BISD, and during discovery, produced a CD of the meeting where his father was sworn into office at his re-election that showed him sitting in his wheelchair and the older Colunga telling the overflowing crowd that his son was the reason he ran for office.
The disc indicated that not only did the crowd at the BISD main office see his disabled son, but that it was also broadcast to thousands of cable subscribers who saw the broadcast in their homes.
Colunga's charges that the posting disclosed his son's special educational needs at BISD, and location where he attended the special programs as both a minor and after the age of 18, have since been made part of the public record through a lawsuit initiated by former Special Needs Department director Art Rendon.
In documents filed in federal court, Rendon outlines the efforts he said Colunga personally made to have his son be provided with special services.

53. At the conclusion of the 2007-2008 school year, (Rendon) had to make arrangements to accommodate trustee Colunga''s special needs son in a program that had been in the same location for ten years.

54. Mr. Colunga did not approve of this program location which was currently situated in a strip center off of the North Expressway and Price. Colunga insisted (Rendon) move the program to a new location.

55. The program was subsequently moved to the ITSC building off of Mexico Boulevard. Two months after the program was moved, Colunga contacted (Rendon) complaining he wanted the program relocated again.

56. Costing taxpayers an abundance of money, the program was relocated again, at the urging of Colunga. Colunga's constant harassment of (Rendon) was also witnessed by the BISD maintenance director Ray Arteaga, who complained on more than one occasion , about the inappropriateness behavior of Colunga's behavior to (Rendon), the superintendent (Hector Gonzales) and Dr. Sal Cavazos.

This is not the only case in federal court involving Colunga. He is also named in a federal lawsuit filed by former BISD chief financial officer Tony Juarez where he is allegedly talking with former trustee Otis Powers about a grievance they wanted Juarez to file against Gonzales.

The taped conversation was admitted into evidence by the court saying it indicated that there was a conspiracy to manipulate the district's grievance process to terminate Gonzales. Along with Colunga and Powers, otters named in the case involved Rolando Aguilar, Rick Zayas, and Ruben Cortez. The court's decision to allow Juarez to proceed with his case was appealed by the defendants to the federal appeals court in New Orleans.