A federal jury has ruled in favor of former Texas Southmost College president Lily Tercero, awarding her $675,000 in back-pay and $12.5 million in punitive damages.
Tercero's case was buttressed by former trustees Ed Rivera and Reynaldo Garcia when they testified that they believed the college’s former president was set up to be fired. It took the jury just a few hours to reach a verdict after the four-day long trial ended with closing arguments Thursday afternoon. They issued their verdict in the early evening.
During the trial, trustees said they had followed the instructions of their legal counsel in effecting the hearing and termination. TSC is expected to appeal the verdict.
The jury awarded Tercero $674.878.66 for lost earnings from her contract, which trustees voted to renew for three years in May 2016. After elections that same month, the trustees changed and a new majority fired her just months later.
The jury also awarded Tecero $12.5 million for diminished earning capacity and mental anguish.
As reported before in the Brownsville Herald, trustees fired Tercero in September 2016 for deliberately and recklessly failing to obtain windstorm insurance with board approval in compliance with state law; for allowing TSC checks to be stamped with signatures of people who were no longer trustees; for failing to timely search and fill the position of vice president for finance and administration; for failing to inform the board of the ailing nursing program and its pending suspension; for refusing a board member’s request that he personally sign and review checks in the amount of $10,000 or more and for not complying with a request for information sought by another member.
Tercero’s termination followed the renewal of her contract in May 2016 that was approved by the college’s board of trustees, prior to an election that changed the makeup and majority of the board, for an annual salary of $228,228 that would have expired on May 1, 2019.
Tercero's attorney called both Rivera and Garcia to the stand on behalf of Tercero and both men expressed that they believed Board Chair Adela Garza was out to get Tercero and that the outcome of the public hearing where Tercero was fired was decided before hand.
“I don’t see how anyone could not deduce that it was their intention to fire her,” Rivera, who did not sit on the board at the time of her termination, testified.
Garcia, who voted against firing Tercero, echoed those sentiments.
“It was already decided what was going to happen,” Garcia testified.
However, under cross examination by TSC’s attorney, Eduardo G. Garza, Garcia testified that no votes were taken during the 41-minute executive session deliberation prior to Tercero’s termination, and also said that he had made up his mind prior to the hearing that he would vote against firing Tercero.
Both men testified that it was Tercero’s obligation to inform the board of trustees and seek its approval for windstorm insurance renewal and Rivera testified that he never provided his consent for his stamped signature to be used after he left the board of trustees.
11 comments:
Juan, today was a very sad day for retired city employees who are veterans. They were not allowed to attend the annual Veterans Day luncheon hosted by the city at the Civic Pavillion. Retired City employees who are veterans have been invited to attend this event since the mid 1990s. All because the Inteim City manager did not want them, what a shame and disrespect to these veterans. To make matters worst, the city did not have an invocation, posting of the colors and the National Anthem. Hope that the city commission hold this person accountable for making decisions without asking them.
Holy shit $12 MILLION, those board members should be fired!!!!
Browntown never fails to amaze me. You will always be a shit stain at the bottom of Texas’s toilet. You belong on the Mexican side of the wall.
Close that useless college down! Embarrassing.
Time to change attorneys TSC, this should have been a slam dunk.
$12 million. Holy shit. Fire those commissioners.
Rita 3.2 mil
Tercero needed to go and I know that from first hand experience. That said, the Board should have let her go and paid out her contract. Adela and the new Board members thought they could fire her for cause and save the money. It was a put up deal and they got caught with their pants down to the tune of 13 million dollars. I am certain, the final amount will be much less than the 13 million, but still it will cost the taxpayers real big bucks.
I continue to shake my head at the fools that get elected down here. Surely there are some competent people who don't employ Matamoros thinking to U.S. institutions. Under the table deals, planca, compadrismo and the like drain tax money pretty damn quick. There is a political class of people that are sucking the town dry.
The voters of Brownsville are their own worse enemies. I would be OK with that, but they are pissing off my tax money as well, due to their inability to elect honest, smart people that understand what it means to run American institutions.
Thanks Adela...good job
Rey Garcia your hatred for Adela is so evident. You rather lose the college just to watch her face. No wonder you go to church all the time God knows you need it. Kiko the loser will get a cut for his testimony he always has a hand out. The college was falling apart under your watch bozos. Tercero had to go. If the Attorney’s couldn’t win this case I feel sorry for Cameron County, citizens are used to superintendents and President s breaking the law all the time. Look they even get rewarded with millions..
When your boss doesn't like you: you have to go and find another job.
When your boss doesn't like you but it is a fair boss: he helps you to grow and become the kind of employee he needs. You can still leave the job but with experience.
When Your boss doesn't like you: and fires you. Depending on the situation: you can hire a lawyer and get millions.
Tercero hired a lawyer to show us that she was working but that her boss did not like her.
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