D.A. SAENZ'S AVERTEST DRUG-TEST HORRORS COME TRUE

By Juan Montoya

Members of the local defense bar have put the Cameron County District Attorney's Office on notice that they will not tolerate the continued subjection of their clients on Pre-Trial Diversion program to humiliating drug testing procedures through Avertest, a commercial substance-abuse testing company.

Among other things, they charge that some of their female clients on the PTD agreement have been subjected to humiliating procedures that included having women "raise (their) shirt above her belly button in front of the person administering the test and then must take (their) pants and underwear down and pee with (their) back side to a mirror."

Additionally, the lawyer said the same client "stated that the person proceeded to look at and ask her about her tampon; even more insulting."

"Nothing changed," stated another attorney, "The horrors predicted (about Avertest) are all coming true. Please beam us up Scottie, no intelligent life found here."

In emails addressed to Asst. Rene Garza, other attorneys charged that the "Draconian" manner in which the drug-testing program was being conducted was both humiliating and economically punitive to their clients on the first-time offender program.

"This lady was assessed 300 hours and the form for her to be able to pay off her hours (if she could possibly afford this) was marked N/A," one wrote. "I was not her original attorney who helped her, but come on, 300 hours. Wouldn't 50-75 be more reasonable? This lady works full time, has two kids and often works another part time job just to make ends meet."

Garza, in his response, suggested that she contact her probation officer and then have the PO inform his office of the woman's progress and hardship.

"If you could be so kind as to have this lady report to her probation officer and let PO know of her testing frequency and hardship, her PO should then forward a progress report to me," he replied.

"Hopefully this report would indicate that this lady has tested and each of those test results were negative for any substances. It would be helpful if she can demonstrate that has complied with the other requirements to her agreement. With this information I can request to lower the number of times she test in a month or suggest a possible termination of her agreement."

"This response is infuriating," retorted the attorney. "I do not think you seem to understand how you are hurting people, or if you do, you do not seem to care.
"Why the hell would you need a progress report? This manner of testing is not appropriate, and it doesn't matter what else this woman has done or hasn't done. The fact is, she can't possibly do anything else when she is burdened with this drug testing FOR AN OFFENSE THAT DID NOT INVOLVE THE USE OF ALCOHOL OR DRUGS. You are setting her up to fail. When the hell do you expect her to perform 150-250 hours of community service?"
"And let's not forget: YOU ARE BREACHING HER CONTRACT. She did not agree to this. None of the people you are testing agreed to this."

"Checking her progress report and reducing her testing is also not the point. This isn't about one person. You are hurting lots and lots of people, and I can't believe you are still so oblivious to that given how many of our colleagues have relayed similar stories. Everybody on this email knows that this is how this program has been implemented from the beginning. And you have the statistics! You showed me the report. Nobody needs to provide you the information. You need to review that testing report for yourself."

Garza also got an earful from another attorney whose client had been subjected to the Avertest "random" drug testing.

"During the past 8 days she has had to report for the "random" drug test 4 times with each test coming out negative," he wrote Garza.

This is a lady who works full time on the island and has had to drive to Brownsville each time to test. She lives in Laguna Vista. She states that she wakes up at 5 a.m. to call in so that she can go and drop her kids off early at school and then drive to the test center and try to make it to her job on time. Normally, she reports to probation in Port Isabel, but the closest center to test is 45 minutes away in Brownsville. Each test has cost her $20 with roughly $10 in gas each time she has to test.
"This "random" drug testing is outrageous!!!! It would be interesting to see a tally of how many people call in on a given day and how many are called upon to go in and test. This drug company with its random policy is undoubtedly making a fortune off of the hard working people of our community.

"Your office holds tremendous power over the lives of ordinary, mostly poor, nonviolent first time offenders. (Why do I feel compelled to remind you of that over and over and over again?)," the attorney wrote.

"We know this was your baby, Renè," he wrote.

"We know you were the one who went up to meet with Avertest (Kansas? Missouri?) and brought them down to Cameron County. And of course we know you came back and threw probation under the bus as a pretext to imposing this on people who didn't deserve it. 

"Which is why it is so maddening that you seem to be the one pretending not to realize the harm you are causing the people of our County, and you are the one who doesn't seem to understand basic principles of first year contract law, because if you did, you would know that you are materially breaching the contract of every single PTD that you are subjecting to this. Luis (Saenz) understands it. Edward (Sandoval) understands it. Every judge and attorney and random dude on the street understands it. Why don't you?"

"So help me God, Renè, if you don't stop hurting these people, we are going to stop it ourselves," the a lawyer wrote.

"So no more meetings, no more discussions. Everything is on the table. You guys need to implement the compromise at a minimum, and do so immediately. And you need to cease ALL testing on PTD agreements. The Defense Bar will take the action necessary to get rid of Avertest completely so that you can't keep selling our people's freedom to companies that profit from the deprivation of their rights."