More than a year ago, a raid on the El Paso County Courthouse shook the community.
The FBI public corruption investigation became public in a big way.
Now, a year later, nine people have pleaded guilty to crimes of corruption. The pleas almost uniformly have been made behind closed doors, via a form called an "information," which avoids the use of a grand jury to issue indictments. There is no docket, no sentencing, and no records other than the increasingly sketchy informations to shine light on exactly what they did.
It's time to learn more about what is going on.
Carl Starr, a civic activist, took the lead a few months ago, filing a motion to unseal documents. The motion was denied by Federal Judge Frank Montalvo, who, to his credit, explained to some degree the procedures taking place, and shed more light on the investigation (for example, he disclosed that there are 80 persons of interest, 30 or more of whom are current or former public officials).
It was not enough.
We have schools spending hundreds of millions for bond projects. We have massive growth from Fort Bliss. We have the city engaged in massive infrastructure programs. We have Thomason engaged in a massive restructuring of its campus, attempting, with Texas Tech, to create a "university medical center." We have massive change planned for Downtown, and massive roadworks planned.
And, it seems, we have massive corruption.
The decision to challenge the process of the corruption investigation was not made lightly. Many in this community would prefer to leave the authorities be. We understand that sentiment. Where there is public corruption, we must root it out.
The motion serves two purposes. Public scrutiny helps make sure that investigators, prosecutors, and the court observe the checks and balances built into our system to assure the accused their Constitutional rights. And without full knowledge of the allegations, it makes it difficult for the community to assess whether justice was served. FBI or not, light is the best disinfectant.
Newspaper Tree, from its inception, fought hard against political corruption, the nature of which is often gray. Is influence corruption? Are legal campaign contributions corruption, when those contributions open a door? Is the ability to hire lobbying teams and have an impact on public policy beyond that of an average citizen corruption? Those are all debatable thoughts.
What is not debatable is a bright line that is crossed when an elected official directs campaign contributions, employment, or other payback -- including an envelope of cash -- in direct exchange for a favorable vote.
In the early years of NPT, Anthony Martinez courageously put his name behind many articles and writers who sought to shine light on the political process gumming up any opportunity for true policy debate. In some way, those early articles may have been a part of a picture drawn by the community that either spurred the FBI to action, or helped investigators find their way.
David Crowder, then with the Times and now with NPT, also likely played a role, with his reporting into NCED and its non-compliance with federal contracts. In some way, that investigation is connected with the broader public corruption investigation, although the exact dimensions and connections still have not been revealed.
In addition to early work by Martinez and Crowder, NPT has a tradition of using open records laws to shed light. Vanessa Johnson, the publisher after Martinez, made heavy use of "sunshine" statutes to tell stories about the workings of City Hall.
In that tradition, we are simply following NPT history, providing an independent, local voice to report and analyze events and issues, to tell the story of how our community works. As the FBI investigates, the U.S. Attorney prosecutes, and the courts judge the workings of our community, the time has come for greater transparency.
***
Keith Mahar is publisher of Newspaper Tree
