ONCE UPON A TIME IN A FEDERAL COMPLAINT DEPOSITION

By Juan Montoya

Curiously enough, the last time I was deposed in a civil complaint it also had to do with reporting on an issue having to do with the progeny of an elected official.

That time it was the son of Brownsville Independent School District trustee Joe Colunga who charged that I had violated his son's privacy by stating he suffered from a disability. The gist of the story was that many parents of other disabled kids complained that – because he was the son of an elected officials – he received favorable treatment their kids did not.

Then case lingered for months, maybe even a year or more, before Joe thought better of it and non-suited me. His attorney was none other than former City of Brownsville Attorney Mark Sossi. The case lost legs when my attorneys produced a DVD from Colunga's swearing in where he and his wife – with their obviously disabled son sitting in his wheel chair between them – are shown on BISD TV, effectively displaying him and his disability.

If he had voluntarily exhibited his son's disability to thousands of cable viewers. the argument went, how could he blame the writer for doing something similar to a far smaller audience?

This time, Billy, the process sever, called me to say I had been subpoenaed to be deposed in the case of Elia Cornejo-Lopez vs, BISD. This time it was over a post which dealt with the 13 or so grievances she had filed on behalf of her progeny, a son and daughter, both BISD students.

Apparently, a former trustee had asked for a summary status of the grievances and then had them sent to all the other trustees, the district's attorneys, and other appropriate administrative personnel. Copies of the summary went out to maybe a dozen individuals and some other people in the BISD bureaucracy.

The BISD is notorious for leaking info like a worm-eaten ship, and a manila envelope containing the summary without a return address appeared in my mailbox a week or so after the board members and BISD personnel had received copies. I asked some former BISD trustees and administrators to confirm that the summary was legit, and I paraphrased it without naming the student and posted it.

What Elia and her lawyers wanted was for me to tell them who it was that had made the info available to me. I could honestly – under oath – tell them that I really didn't know. People in the news business get these type of leaked info all the time. I did tell them that sources in the city, county and 
BISD do this all the time. Whether the motive is to advance an agenda, discredit some administrator, or advocate for some cause, it happens routinely.

Then there's always the reporter's privilege in not revealing his sources, which in this case really didn't apply because there was no way of me knowing who had dropped that off in the mail. Before me, former trustee Caty Presas-Garcia and her husband – Ardian, a retired BISD coach who ran the golf program in the district – had been deposed before a court reporter and videotaped by Leo, Elia's hubby, that morning.

Even if the administrators at these entities implement policies to protect confidentiality, prevent retaliation, etc., information will find its way to the media from people within the bureaucracies. If it deals with an elected official, if the info shows how a system is working or not working, or if it requires some accountability to the constituents, it's fair game and something the public has a right to know.

These sort of cases, unfortunately, sometimes take years to wend their way through the courts. Elia moved this case to federal court, which will probably lengthen the process. We wish her and the district – and the students – luck.

Better them than us.