SOSSI TRIES TO SCURRY, BUY TIME IN FEDERAL COURT

By Juan Montoya
Well, here's something else we can blame former mayor City of Brownsville mayor Pat Ahumada.
The graphic below at right is the contract signed between Ahumada, city manager Charlie Cabler, and contract attorney Mark Sossi that saddled the city with his services at a cushy $10,000 a month salary. He has buttressed that with an additional $5,000 from the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation for a grand total of $180,000 a year in public funds.
In the seven or so years since Sossi and the city inked the deal, Sossi will have received $1.26 million for his services.
And what does the city get in return?
We have just found out that a a few days before our anti-SLAPP lawsuit against Sossi in state court before visiting judge Manuel Bañales was to be heard – and our later counter suit against the city – Sossi, through city-paid attorneys, in an obvious attempt to buy time, is seeking to move the case to federal court.
Sossi first filed an amended complaint for defamation and infliction of emotional distress against the writer of this blog on March 11, 2016 in the 138th District Court. On Friday, April 29, he non-suited his state claim.
On the same day, defendant Juan Montoya filed an answer and a counterclaim against Sossi and a third party claim against the City of Brownsville. In the counterclaim, the writer asserted that "City attorney Mark Sossi and the City of Brownsville have illegally attempted to silence the defendant...in violation of the 42 US.C., 1981, and in violation of the Texas Constitution.
On May 3, Sossi and the City of Brownsville removed the case to (federal) court...asserting that the counterclaim gave it original jurisdiction...The counterclaim, which invoked federal law, was the sole basis give for federal jurisdiction in the case.  
Sossi and his lawyers were  put on notice May 5 with the order by U.S. Magistrate Ronald Morgan that they have until May 12 to convince the court that based simply on the counterclaim, the case can be moved to federal court.
The lawyers hired by Sossi – since there is no mention of this being authorized by city commission action – are none other than the same labor lawyers which have a long history of losing in claims between the city and the Firefighters' Union. They are Denton, Navarro, Rocha, Bernal, Hyde and Zech, P.C. with a regional office in Harlingen.
Navarro et al have been used extensively by Sossi to handle labor claims in mediation and the courts, often with disastrous results for the city.
The five-paragraph contract between the city and Sossi states that "this agreement may be unilaterally terminated by either the City of Brownsville, though action by the City Commission or by Mark E. Sossi, at the will of either party."
To many observers, Sossi has led a charmed existence despite numerous instances of ineptness and negligence on his part.
He has done exactly as his benefactors have asked him to do, from closing off the public comment section from the city's air waves citing a fear of litigation, doling out legal work to a firm to which he lost a court settlement, has allowed the GBIC's corporate charter to be forfeited because he didn't file the mandatory four-year report, and even has allowed his own law license to lapse, as he did his Mark Sossi P.C. corporate charter.
How, then, does this lawyer remain on the public payroll?
Let's go over his sins.
Perhaps the current commissioners and Hizzoner Da Mayor Tony Martinez do not recall that Sossi, at the behest of a majority on the city commission and then-Mayor Eddie Treviño, Carlos Cisneros, Ricardo Longoria, Charlie Atkinson and others, challenged a watchdog group in court after they sued them and the city for giving themselves health insurance, mileage and other benefits that were not enumerated in the city charter.
A state district judge did not buy Sossi's argument that since they were not specifically prohibited in the charter they could continue receiving them.
Sossi's soaring oratory and smoke and mirrors were unceremoniously rejected by the court, but not before he nailed the city for a reported $40,000 in fees to represent the commissioners in an indefensible position.
Before the issue reached the courts, Sossi was also put into the charter review committee where the group discussed the possibility of allowing the mayor and commissioners to give themselves a salary at a level of their own choosing.
This despite the fact that voters, in a charter amendment election, voted down the amendments that would have accomplished the very same thing.
Then there was when Sossi represented the city in court when incumbent Charlie Atkinson took his challenger Jessica Teteau-Kalifa's to court and questioned her residency in runing for the position of commissioner for District 2.
Perhaps Sossi's shining moment was when the visiting judge admonished him for saying that what Atkinson's attorney saying was "crap."
But maybe the most damning indictment of Sossi's ethics was his doling out city jobs to his former law firm, Willette and Guerra.
Local watchdog Argelia Miller wrote Cabler to complain that Sossi had let out city-paid contracts to Willette and Guerra LLP, "a firm that had sued him and won a judgement of $167,00. He took money that belonged to the firm...and was sued and lost..."
"At the time I wrote the letter," Miller continues, "he had given Willette and Guerra city contracts in excess of $37,000. Now in 2011, records indicate he has given them contracts for over $75,000 from January to March 2011."
Miller wrote Martinez that it was hard for her and others to understand how Sossi "could favor a firm that sued him and that he owed $167,929 to as of 8-09-2009. It is also hard to understand how the city of Brownsville allows this arrangement.
Since this has happened, Sossi has been sued twice for legal malpractice, and has been accused of underpaying the Texas Workforce Commission unemployment fees of $20,711.66."
He is also been diligently working to produce a code of ethics for the City of Brownsville at Martinez's request.
Yet, a cursory glance at his legal work would indicate that it's anything but ethical.
There have been more than one dissatisfied customer who had to go seeking relief in the local courts alleging that Sossi's performance in their litigation amounts to nothing more than legal malpractice.
Brownsville Independent School District teacher and soccer coach Jesus Abete sued him through local attorney Peter Zavaletta. Abete filed his lawsuit against the city's contract attorney in the 357th District Court.
Abete claimed s in his lawsuit that he "duly signed a contract" with Sossi and that the attorney signed the contract to represent him to recover legal damages sustained as a result of an accident. The Oliveira Middle School algebra and math teacher also claims that Sossi represented to him that the case was timely filed in court.
"In the ensuing months, (Sossi) repeatedly lied to (Abete), and misrepresented the true facts of the underlying lawsuit to (him).
"The truth is that (Sossi) never filed suit on behalf of Abete, and by law, suit had to be filed before the statute of limitations expired. The statute of limitations was two years from the date of the accident (January 2, 2009) Jan. 8, 2011. If the suit was not filed by then, (Abete's) rights would have been forever extinguished," the lawsuit states.
"(Sossi) failed to file (Abete's) suit," it continues. "Now that the statute of limitations has expired, (Abete) is forever barred from recovering damages for the serious personal injuries he suffered in the (crash).
That's one.
Rogelio and Ingrid Gonzalez, also of Brownsville, filed a lawsuit against Sossi in the 138th District Court and said the lawyer committed malpractice when he represented them in a real-estate dispute with a bank and title company.
Sossi, they said:
* engaged in conduct, acts, and omissions below acceptable professional standards;
* engaged in conduct, acts, and omissions below standards of good and workmanlike legal services;
*was negligent;
* breached a warranty implied in law of good and workmanlike legal services; breached an express warranty of competence and skill to handle this type of case;
*breached an implied warranty of competence and skill to handle this type of case;
*committed acts and omissions of professional negligence;
*breached his contract to represent plaintiff in a skilled and competent manner; and
*committed fraud.
The Gonzalez's lawsuit stemmed from a purchase of two lots in the Gem Estates Subdivision that unbeknownst to them carried a lien from a bank (Hibernia) and when that bank was bought out by another, the new bank Capitol Bank, it moved to foreclose on them, as it did another couple who also had interest in the lots.
Like Abete, the couple charged that even though Sossi told them he was on top of the case, in the end, they found out that he had not been totally truthful with them and that their lawsuit had been dismissed by the court "for want of prosecution" on Sossi's part.
Like Abete before them, the Gonzalez couple claimed that Sossi committed legal malpractice.
And like the Abetes and the Gonzalezes, city residents are still awaiting the appearance of the code of ethics he is supposed to be writing to guide the conduct of our public servants.
Now a federal magistrate awaits to hear the legal eagle convince him that he can hide out in federal court at public expense.