May
10, 2006
“Nimby News, Meet Franz Kafka”
By
Jack D. McNamara
I got up at 5 a.m.
yesterday to drive to the 8th Court of Appeals in El Paso for the
hearings in 83d District Attorney Frank Brown’s appeal to overturn the
absurd 2/05 indictments of Alpine’s Katie Elms-Lawrence and Avinash
Rangra.
County Attorney Steve Houston (formerly city attorney for Rangra and
Elms) represented DA Brown very ably before the Court. His argument had
the mark of extensive research associated with Brown’s legal reputation.
There were a lot of cases titled, “In re …”
But … I cannot accurately report the context of the case. The court
files are closed, secret, that is. The file is closed because the trial
judges (Judge Peter Peca and Judge Kenneth DeHart) expunged the
indictments. This means the court record of this bullshit prosecution
were disappeared from public view —
Except that DA Brown is appealing the decisions of the judges. And
yesterday I was able to hear publicly what I am prohibited from reading
in my presumably open American Courts.
It was illuminating.
Remember what I said previously. After more than 30 years’ study of
these Open Government issues, I conclude that what happened here is
absurd and I will continue to write about it.
As I said, Houston
did well though I completely disagree with him. The three justices who
heard him seemed appreciative of his arguments.
What he said was that according to the law, Rangra’s and Elms’s
indictments cannot be expunged for two years (until October 2006) which
is the statute of limitations for a misdemeanor.
Houston said further that the DA might re-indict the desperate
criminals Rangra and Elms during the period. The indictments were
dismissed at DA brown’s initiative. Rangra and Elms demanded a trial
but were denied by the same judges because it is DA Brown’s
“prosecutorial discretion” both to dismiss the indictments of February
2005 and then attempt to re-indict whenever he chooses.
In other words, both Rangra and Elms must serve two years of a sort of
probation at the “discretion” of Frank Brown — who has just contributed
$100 to an Alpine city council candidate.
Watch your step is the message to Rangra and Elms. Both of them have
been sturdy defenders of the right of Alpine citizens, particularly
those on the south side, to decent water distribution. Those who oppose
the free lunch developers were first smeared for the 2005 election and
now the judicial system is co-opted into manipulation of the 2006
election.
This is indeed the meaning of the word “Kafkaesque.” Or, if you don’t
like that, think of Southern justice after Reconstruction. Or if you
don’t like that, think that Brewsterland’s movers and shakers will do
anything to get water for their developments along the probable avenue
of La Entrada to the north and west of Alpine. •
(Alpine Online, May 10,
2006.)
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