ZAYAS CORTEZ LOSE ANOTHER ONE: PRE-ELECTION DEFAMATION LAWSUIT AGAINST HEALTHSMART, TED PARKER DISMISSED

By Juan Montoya

A lawsuit filed against HealthSmart and its owner Ted Parker by eventual school district losers Rick Zayas and Ruben Cortez was dismissed with prejudice Wednesday by visiting judge Don Wittig.
Parker and HealthSmart were added as defendants to the original defamation lawsuit filed just prior to the Brownsville Independent School District election against Accion America president Carlos Quintanilla.
In the lawsuit, Zayas and Cortez claimed Parker and HeathSmart – though Quintanilla – defamed them when a local Political Action Committee (defeatzayascorgtezpowers PAC) ran ads criticizing their performance as board members.
The two former trustees filed the lawsuit alleging libel and slander against Quintanilla, the Hispanic action group Accion America and the Web site Care Brownsville.
In August, 2010, Quintanilla and Accion America started the Care Brownsville Web site, which called for the ouster of BISD board members Rolando Aguilar, Joe Colunga, Zayas and Cortez. The lawsuit says that Quintanilla made allegations through his Web sites and by other means that amount to libel per se and slander per se against Zayas and Cortez. Zayas and Cortez charged that the Accion America Web site published a statement on or about Sept. 17, 2009 that Cortez and Zayas were corrupt.
Their lawsuit also charged that on Sept. 19, 2009 the Accion America Web site published false statements that Cortez and Zayas will receive kickbacks as a result of a contract between BISD and Mutual Assurance Administrators and that Zayas and Cortez committed malfeasance "by suppressing relevant school district reports."
The reports were related to the annual fundraisers histed by former Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez, who has since retired.
The BISD fought to suppress the reports and sued the Texas Attorney General after that office issued an opinion that the documents were public records and should be made accessible to the public.
After protracted (and costly) litigation BISD eventually gave up the fight. Also, the lawsuit contains allegations that on Sept. 23, 2009 the defendants "published on the Accion America Web site 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 contracts.
In August 2009, the BISD board awarded to Mutual Assurance Administrators the contract as third-party administrator for BISD’s $40 million self-insured employee health plan.
Healthsmart was the previous third-party administrator. The lawsuit also alleges that sometime in 2009 the defendants "published false statements, through public advertising and videos, that Mr. Cortez and Mr. Zayas are corrupt, entered into illegal contracts, act for their own personal greed, and made other statements of malfeasance."
Quintanilla and Accion America filed an answer and counterclaim to the libel lawsuit against them by two members and elaborated on the allegations concerning the third-party administrator for the district’s $40 million self-insured employee health plan.
Judge Wittig dismissed Parker and HealthSmart from the lawsuit, although their action against Quintanilla continues. Quintanilla, acting in his own defense, said that Witting had found no evidence to show that the two plaintiffs had any proof of a conspiracy between Parker, HealthSmart and Accion America.
"They ran ads in the local newspaper alleging that Luci Longoria (the eventual winner over Zayas) was "in bed" with with Parker, HealthSmart and myself and it didn't work," he said. "They lost anyway. Now how are they going to prove that HealthSmart was behind the work of the PAC?"
Quintanilla predicted that the lawsuit would die a slow death and said the duo's other lawsuit filed prior to the election to have BISD recover some $7 million in alleged overcharges from the company would suffer a similar fate. "The motivation behind the lawsuits was to try to influence the election and they failed," he said. "After this setback, perhaps they will change their minds and cut their losses."