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Cover Story
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What’s different this time
Two powerful lawyers linked to Access
By David Crowder
In a scene that has become familiar, well-known, high-powered officials, former officials and power brokers made their way into the FBI’s Westside headquarters Thursday morning, past a line of cameras.
The process was friendlier than in the past, said one.
“They took your picture, said put your fingers here and here, swabbed your cheek with a Q-Tip and said, ‘Thank you. That’s it. Have a nice day,’” said a defendant who asked not to be named.
Later, the defendants arrived on their own at the new federal courthouse for their 2:30 court appearances. No handcuffs or jail jumpsuits and no public “perp walk” from the county jail as before.
But there was nothing nice or polite about the charges laid out in a 27-page indictment accusing the 11 defendants of multiple frauds and conspiracies, most involving alleged bribes that were either paid or agreed on.
And, for the first time in the six-year probe of public corruption, federal investigators linked two politically active and controversial lawyers to the now-defunct Access HealthSource, a network that once served 65,000 public employees and their families.
The charges arising from the Access-centered investigation, “Operation Poisoned Pawns,” also broke an 11-month drought since the last new case that has tested the community’s patience and confidence.
The seven-count indictment announced Thursday by U.S. Attorney John Murphy accuses the 11 of giving and taking bribes for votes on multi-million-dollar contracts with Access. Nine are accused of participating in a racketeering conspiracy.
In addition to those charges, lawyers Luther Jones and David Escobar stand accused of paying bribes to members of the Ysleta school board to hire an unnamed law firm and then taking kickbacks from that firm in return.
Two new guilty pleas on Friday mean 14 people have pleaded guilty, five others have trials scheduled and 11 now face new corruption charges. With the 11 new defendants, 28 have been charged in the investigation so far.
 Three years ago
It began in June 2007, when lawyer Travis Ketner, who was then chief of staff for County Judge Anthony Cobos, pleaded guilty to bribery and other charges.
Others named in the latest indictment are the former Access CEO Frank Apodaca and consultant Marc Schwartz, Socorro Mayor and former Socorro school trustee Guillermo “Willie” Gandara, former Socorro trustees Charlie Garcia and Ray Rodriguez, Ysleta school trustee Linda Chavez and former board president Mickey Duntley, and a former county commissioner, Larry Medina.
The charges against them include mail and wire fraud and deprivation of the public’s right to honest services – a broad charge that the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down in the case of private corporations but not public officials.
“The Supreme Court has held that the deprivation of honest services does apply to public officials accepting bribes, and that is specifically what we have charged,” Murphy said.
“We are here today,” he said, “because it is important to the citizens of El Paso to have the honest services of their public servants. When they cross the line and start looking for personal profit and personal gain, they are no longer serving the interests of the citizens they are elected to serve.”
Although El Paso City Hall contracted with Access for years, no current or former city official has been implicated for activities involving the city in the public corruption investigation.
Players
For years, the Jones-Escobar duo was known for behind-the-scenes political efforts to put their hand-picked candidates in public office at City Hall, the county courthouse and the major school districts.
But until the latest indictment, their activities had not been linked to Access, its former president and CEO, Robert E. “Bob” Jones and Access’ contracts with local governments.
From 1994 to 2006, Jones headed the non-profit National Center for Employment of the Disabled, now called ReadyOne Industries, which he used to build a wildly profitable but corrupt empire that included the Access HealthSource ventures started by Steve Young in the 1980s.
Jones, who was indicted with former NCED officials Ernie Lopez and Pat Woods on a long list of charges in 2008, pleaded guilty to four charges in July 2009 last year in a plea bargain arrangement that now has him coopering with the government.
On Friday, Woods pleaded guilty to conspiracy to embezzle or steal federal program funds by improperly having NCED buy two Westside properties in which he and Jones had direct personal interest.
Also Friday, Victor Martinez, 51, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, admitting that he conspired to offer two bribes totaling $20,000 to former El Paso school trustee Sal Mena in exchange for subcontracts at two schools.
 In e-mail
Sanchez said he was in shock after receiving a call late Wednesday night telling him to turn himself in to the FBI on Thursday morning and to appear in court that afternoon.
“I’m just dumbfounded, I really am,” he said. “How was I involved with Access? I think they give me far more credit than I deserve.”
What ties many of the charges and the accused individuals together in last week’s indictment are quotes from and references to e-mail messages to and from Luther Jones.
In September 2006, the FBI searched his home and personal office and left with a truckload including computers that may have held a gold mine for investigators.
The same day, more than 50 federal agents searched NCED’s Eastside headquarters. Eight months later, the FBI sent two dozen agents to search the courthouse offices of Cobos and County Commissioners Luis Sarinana and Miguel Teran, none of whom has yet to be charged.
The narrative in the 27-page indictment doesn’t offer details of Sanchez’s alleged involvement with Access contracts, but it does tie him to Ysleta school district contract for legal services with an unnamed practice referred to as “The Firm.”
The indictment states that on July 23, 2005, Jones sent an e-mail to Sanchez requesting that he “convince his father (a former Ysleta trustee) to solicit other YISD trustees to vote for The Firm and to emphasize the importance of the request.”
The Firm
Elsewhere, the indictment states that Jones, on Dec. 12, 2005, e-mailed an unnamed lawyer asking him or her to persuade The Firm to give money to Gilbert.
“Remember, his father is responsible – solely responsible – for (The Firm) being selected to represent YISD. Gilbert needs to raise $10,000 and we really need help,” Jones’ email states, according to the indictment.
Sanchez, whose father, Jesus Sanchez, served on the Ysleta board, said he remembers no conversation about needing $10,000 and never received any contribution or gift close to that amount.
The minutes of a Nov. 8, 2005 Ysleta board meeting show that Jesus Sanchez seconded a motion to immediately move the district’s legal services to the firm of Delgado, Acosta, Braden and Jones, no relation to Luther Jones. The motion passed on a 4-3 vote.
While he expressed relief and gratitude that his father was not indicted, Gilbert said he himself has done nothing wrong and will not go down on a guilty plea.
“We’re going to trial,” he said.
Sanchez’s father voted at the same November 2005 school board meeting for a new contract with Access that is at the center of the charges against Ysleta’s Chavez and Duntley.
The Ysleta board had previously turned away from Access and awarded a new health benefits administration contract to Blue Cross Blue Shield. But Access sued, challenging a bid process that was found to be flawed.
The board called for new proposals and, in a highly controversial vote, awarded the district’s contract to Access on a 4-3 vote.
The indictment alleges that Access CEO Apodaca and NCED consultant Marc Schwartz were involved in bribing Duntley for his support and votes by providing jobs to his two sons at Access and NCED and reducing a large hospital bill.
In October 2005, Duntley told Schwartz, whose cell phone was tapped by the FBI, “I need jobs for both those little bastards,” according to the indictment.
Schwartz is quoted as replying that he will “get that taken care of.”
The indictment offers no specific details of Chavez’s alleged involvement.
 FBI interviews
Former YISD board president Wayne Belisle said FBI agents had been in the audience at board meetings and began conducting interviews with board members individually and in groups after the November vote.
“The FBI asked a ton of questions. I interviewed with them two or three times, two by myself,” said Belisle, a CPA who voted against the Access contract.
He said he had determined that in the first year, the Access contract would cost the district and employees nearly $3-million more than the Blue Cross proposal, and $12-million more over five years.
He said the final 4-3 vote surprised him and raised his suspicions.
Although there were no new indictments of El Paso school district officials involving Access, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof said, “We’ve already got guilty pleas. Specifically, Sal Mena plead guilty to receiving substantial bribes from Access so, of course, he wouldn’t be indicted in this case.”
Another former EPISD trustee, Carlos “Coach” Cordova pleaded guilty to fraud in 2007.
Kanof, who is in charge of the public corruption case prosecutions, and the FBI’s special agent-in-charge in El Paso, David Cuthbertson, were at Thursday’s press conference announcement along with Murphy.
Asked about the nearly year-long gap in new cases, they offered no specific explanation.
Kanof joked, “I’ve been very busy,” and Cuthbertson said, “There is a mountain of evidence in this case.”
The statute of limitations in most criminal cases is five years, and many of the events described in the Access case were approaching the five-year mark.
Among the matters still to come are a host of allegations implicating dozens of people from the 2007 guilty pleas of Travis Ketner and Betti Flores. She admitted taking bribes for her votes on Access, construction and land-sale contracts.
“We can’t address the status of any on-going investigation,” Cuthbertson said when asked what’s to come.
Asked what message the protracted investigation should send to the El Paso community, Cuthbertson said one is the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office “are watching.”
“We’re watching to ensure that … (tax) money is used honestly and that money obtains the best possible services from our public employees at the lowest possible price,” he said. “It also sends a message to legitimate vendors that we’re not to going to allow them to be disadvantaged by their honesty.”
David Crowder can be reached at (915) 587-6622 or at david_crowder@sbcglobal.net.
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