AFTER HIS DISMAL LEGAL PERFORMANCE, BISD...HIRED HIM

"...BISD filed nothing. The old adage comes to mind that you can lead a horse to water, tell him to take a drink, give him extra time to drink, but you still cannot make him drink." June 2, 2005.

(Federal Judge Andrew Hanen on then-Brownsville Independent School District contract lawyer Baltazar Salazar's repeated failure to respond to insurance company's motions for summary judgment even after the court bent "over backwards" to make him do it over the mold problem at Aiken and Besteiro elementary schools.) From a Rrun-Rrun post on April, 2013

By Juan Montoya

In their rush to fire the existing legal counsel, a majority of the Brownsville Independent School District April 2, 2013 chose Houston's Baltazar Salazar to be the district's lawyer.

Now he commands a $300,000 annual salary second only to BISD Superintendent Dr. Rene Gutierrez, generously refers cases to outside counsel at the expense of the district, and is facing  possible termination at today's 5:30 board meeting. And, oh yes, there's a little dispute about whether he's a convicted felon.


Then-BISD trustees Otis Powers, Enrique Escobedo, Jose Chirinos, and Minerva Peña could have easily googled his name on the Besteiro and Aiken mold problem and found the legal citations that would have repulsed them and prevented  them from entering into a contract with his firm.

All the rest are gone, but Peña, an "old friend" of Salazar's is now board chair and has defended him tooth an nail from criticism. She is now running for reelection this Nov. 3.

Another trustee who defends him is federally indicted Dr. Sylvia Atkinson, who is facing trial October on bribery and conspiracy charges. Salazar is listed as a witness in that trial. One of her attorneys, Noe Garza, was one of the references listed by Salazar when he sought employment at the BISD in 2011.

Three current board members – Laura Perez-Reyes, Phil Cowen and Eddie Garcia –  placed the item on today's agenda.


What was the performance that impressed the board back then and earned him the admiration that got him the gig at BISD from those who hired him?

The BISD had sued Royal Supplies Lines Inc.Co. in  (No. CIV.A. B-03-109) federal district Court in Brownsville to pay for the damages after several hundred students and teachers claimed they had been injured by the presence of mold.

To put it bluntly, Salazar's performance in defending the district in the mold case – in the opinion of the court – was dismal, "feeble," and totally incompetent. His performance resulted in the district paying thousands of dollars in personal injury damages to the plaintiffs. It should have been a red flag, but it went unheeded.

In fact, Salazar – despite repeated efforts from the court to give him

more time and directing the manner of responding – failed to file any response to two of the motions for summary judgment from Royal Supplies Line and the one he did file was not "competent," according to the court order. He – or rather BISD taxpayers – lost all three judgments.

Hanen said just as much in his order. (Click on graphic to enlarge.)

Hanen stated this exchange in his summary of the decision:

HANEN:
Before this Court are three motions for summary judgment filed by the plaintiff, Royal Surplus Lines Insurance Company ("Royal" or "Plaintiff"). Each will be discussed in greater detail below but, suffice it to say, each seeks a judgment that Royal is not liable to the defendant, Brownsville Independent School District ("BISD"), for damages suffered by BISD due to the presence of mold at two of its schools: Bruce Aiken Elementary School ("Aiken") and Raul Besteiro Middle School ("Besteiro"). 

"Despite warnings by the Court and a direct order setting a deadline, BISD has not filed a response to two of the three motions. Also, despite warnings from the Court, including an admonition to supplement its sole response, and the issuance of a firm deadline, the one response filed was not supplemented to provide the Court with any competent summary judgment evidence that raises an issue of material fact. That being the case, the Court hereby GRANTS all three of Royal's summary judgment motions.
http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?page=1&xmldoc=20051346404FSupp2d942_11267.xml&docbase=CSLWAR2-1986-2006&SizeDisp=7

"The old adage comes to mind that you can lead a horse to water, tell him to take a drink, give him extra time to drink, but you still cannot make him drink. This Court cannot make a non-movant file a complete response (or any response for that matter) to a summary judgment motion, but it can grant the motions."

Hanen – and opposing counsel – knew Salazar was incompetent and a pushover who rolled over for the insurance companies in the case but a board majority still hired him. Will BISD's current board majority finally put an end to this charade at tonight's meeting?