Death of a Lawyer

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110th Anniversary May/2008 EL PASO’S LEGAL HISTORY REVEALED DEATHEATH OFOF A LAWYERAWYER Page 8 MigratoryMigratory Fall’sFall’s PleaPlea EEll Paso’sPaso’s GreatestGreatest StreamsStreams fforor PardonPardon LeaderLeader PartPart IIII Page 6 Page 15 Page 18

May 2008 EL PASO B AR BULLETIN W. Reed Leverton, P.C. Attorney at Law • Mediator • Arbitrator Alternative Dispute Resolution Services

   

Experience: Commitment to A.D.R. Processes:  Commitment to Professionalism: 

Your mediation referrals are always appreciated.

LET’S TALK

online calendaring HardieMediation.com 845-6400 / 845-5099 fax

May 2008 3

THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE

State Bar of Texas Award of Merit The Next Generation    Star of Achievement  State Bar of Texas  Best Overall Newsletter – 2003, 2007  Publication Achievement Award 2003 – 2005 – 2006 – 2007  NABE – LexisNexis Community & Educational Outreach Award 2007   JUDGE ROBERT ANCHONDO,   CORI HARBOUR,   CARLOS CARDENAS, CHANTEL CREWS,   JUDGE DICK ALCALA,  JUSTICE ANN MCCLURE,   2007-2010 BOARD MEMBERS                        

EX-OFFICIO  ELIZABETH ROGERS,    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR   [email protected] 

STEPHANIE TOWNSEND ALLALA,  JUDGE OSCAR GABALDON,   CLINTON CROSS,   NANCY GALLEGO,   “The El Paso Bar Journal is a bi-monthly publication of  the El Paso Bar Association. Articles, notices, suggestions and/or comments should be sent to the attention of Nancy  Gallego. All submissions mus be received by the Bar offi ce on or before the 10th day of the month preceding  publication. Calendar listings, classifi ed ads, display ads, and feature articles should not be considered an  endorsement of any service, product, program, seminar  or event. Please contact the Bar offi ce for ad rates. Ar- ticles published in the Bar Journal do not necessarily  refl ect the opinions of the El Paso Bar Association, its Offi cers, or the Board of directors. The El Paso  Bar Association does not endorse candidates for political offi ce. An article in the Bar Journal is not and should never be construed to be, an endorsement Continued on page 4 of a person for political offi ce.” May 2008 4

 May Bar Luncheon 

  Surprise Guest Speaker TBA

Please make your reservations by Monday, May 12, 2008 at noon by calling Nancy at 532-7052 or via email at

Continued from page 3                  JUDGE ROBERT ANCHONDO,   

Articles published in the Bar Journal do not necessarily refl ect the opinions of the El Paso Bar Association, its Offi cers, or the Board of directors. The El Paso Bar Association does not endorse candidates for political offi ce. An article in the Bar Journal is not and should never be construed to be, an endorsement of a person for political offi ce.

The El Paso Bar Association’s Bar Bulletin is proudly designed and published by DEL PUEBLO PRESS, INC. We are located on 203 Mills in the historic Cortez Building in Downtown El Paso. Contact us at (915) 545-1598 or [email protected]. May 2008 5  CALENDAR OF EVENTS May 2008

Thursday, May 1 Tuesday, May 13 EPWBA Meeting EPBA Monthly Luncheon Friday, May 2 Thursday, May 15 Coffee & Donuts in Bar Ofﬁ ce EPPA General Meeting Friday, May 2 Thursday, May 15 MABA General Meeting FBA Brown Bag Seminar Monday, May 5 Friday, May 16 & Tuesday, May 6 Coffee & Donuts in Bar Ofﬁ ce El Paso Indigent Defense Monday, May 26 Seminar Memorial Day, EPBA Tuesday, May 6 & County Courthouse Closed EPBA Board Meeting Saturday, May 31 Saturday, May 10 EPWBA 2008 Charity Bash May the Music Live On!

PLEASE NOTE: Please check the Bulletin for all the details regarding all above listed events. If your club, organization, section or committee would like to put a notice or an announcement in the Bar Bulletin for your upcoming event or function for the month of June, 2008, please have the information to the Bar Association ofﬁ ce by Thursday, May 9, 2008. In order to publish your information we must have it in writing. WE WILL MAKE NO EXCEPTIONS. We also reserve the right to make any editorial changes as we deem necessary. Please note that there is no charge for this service: (915) 532-7052; (915) 532-7067-fax; [email protected] email. If we do not receive your information by the speciﬁ ed date please note that we may try to remind you, but putting this bulletin together every month is a very big task and we may not have the time to remind you. So please don’t miss out on the opportunity to have your event announced.

Save the Date! EL PASO COUNTY DISPUTE RESOLUTION CENTER MEDIATION:  Please join us in honoring the  2008 Winner of the Trailblazer Award  Judge Kathleen Olivares       Tickets: $100.00    

May 2008 6

Ambrosio Larrazolo Elfego Baca Josiah Crosby Migratory Streams

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You can’t choose your relatives. Nor your   culture. As children, we absorb the world that   surrounds us without screening our family’s   cultural values. As a result, we are refl ections of   our larger culture, and refl ections from the smaller   sub-cultural groups and the individuals (ethnic,   religious, national) that are part of our world. As   William Faulkner once said, “The past is not dead   and buried; indeed, it is not even past.”   This series of articles will explore the origins of   lawyers who grew up as members of identifi able  Las Siete Partidas sub-cultural groups. It is not the “whole story,”   but it is part of our story.                              Murder and Justice   in Frontier New Mexico 1821-1846                  May 2008 7

de facto ad hoc       Cobb, El Paso County and the State of Texas              Baca is perhaps best remembered for his confrontation in 1884   with dozens (he claimed 80) drunken cowboys who fi red hundreds  (Baca claimed 4,000) shots at an adobe house where Baca was   holed up. After many hours (Baca claimed 36) the still somewhat   intoxicated cowboys ran out of bullets, got tired, and rode away           Id.                          Elfego Baca In Life and Legend             supra               supra   Next month: the first Jewish lawyer; the   fi rst woman lawyer (if we can fi gure it out); the   fi rst Black lawyer (if we can fi gure it out); and   the fi rst lawyers of Arabic, Chinese, Korean,   Bangladeshian and Albanian descent. May 2008 8

The Terminal Building at El Paso International Airport in the 1950s Six Days Before the Music Died The Assassination of Ted Andress

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       Times              El No Country for Old Paso TimesHerald Post  Men,      No Country                      Theodore Andress, for whom Andress   High School is named, in 1941 Herald Post   Staff photo       cumThe El   Paso Times   May 2008 9

                                                             Andress’ Jaycee Award was front page news in WW II-torn 1942                                              The El Paso Times      Ben Hur           El Paso   Herald Post                 May 2008 10

                                                             

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                                                             The El Paso Times                               Andress editorial          The El Paso Times        El Paso Herald Post                          May 2008 12

           Times    ‘50s Courthouse: remodeling of the 1917 Courthouse, at left, began in 1955 and continued through  1959, at right, but parts of the building were still not completed by 1963 acording to an August 11,  1963 El Paso Times article on the history of El Paso’s courthouses             

This article was written in appreciation of the request of El Paso Bar President, the Hon. Robert Anchondo, to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Bar Association with assistance and encouragement from Clinton Cross and Stephanie Townsend Allala for which the author is very grateful. The following resources have been used: David Halberstam, The Fifties (Villard Books, New York – 1993); David Kushner, Cormac McCarthy’s Apocalypse, Rolling Stone Magazine Dec. 27, 2007; the Paul Freund Collection, Harvard Law School Library; The El Paso Times and The El Paso Herald Post at the archives of the El Paso Public Library; personal interviews. EPIA photos courtesy of the Ofﬁ ce of EPIA Administration, Pat Abeln, Director of Aviation. This presentation includes the creative work of others. This property is being used by permission or under a claim of “fair use” pursuant to 17 U.S.C. §107, and was created pursuant to fair use guidelines and further use is prohibited.

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May 2008 13



Judge George Rodriguez, Sr. and George Rodriguez Jr. “Swearing in” ceremony, Dec. 16, 1965 GEORGE RODRIGUEZ 

CROSS: Tell me about your parents;  This month, I interviewed your childhood.  RODRIGUEZ:   George Rodriguez. George     presently practices law with     Delgado, Acosta, Spencer,     Linebarger & Perez.     George is a ﬁ fth generation     lawyer. His life is part of     our history.     May 2008 14

 The Commissioner’s Court appointed me County Attorney in   1971. I think Travis had something to do with that too. I was  elected County Attorney in 1972. I resigned in 1982 to work   for Governor Mark White, in the Governor’s Ofﬁ ce of Border   Affairs. In 1991, Attorney General Dan Morales hired me as   an Assistant Attorney General and assigned me to the El Paso  Regional Ofﬁ ce. I worked for Attorney Generals Morales,   Cornyn, and Abbott.    RODRIGUEZ:                   CROSS:    CROSS: Where did you go to school?  RODRIGUEZ:  RODRIGUEZ:         CROSS:       RODRIGUEZ:            CROSS:    RODRIGUEZ:       CROSS:    RODRIGUEZ:              CROSS:   CROSS:  RODRIGUEZ:     

Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and MEXICAN LAW EXPERT The El Paso County Public Defender present: For U.S. lawsuits involving Mexican law issues The El Paso Indigent Defense Seminar Mexican claims and defenses, personal injury, moral damages, forum non conveniens Law At The Pass: A Hands-on Trial Skills Course Texas attorney and former law professor May 6 & 7, 2008, Camino Real Hotel Co-author of leading treatise in ﬁ eld COST: $25.00 with CD only and $50.00 with book Over 10 years of expert experience Call Bruce Ponder at 546-8185 to register. David Lopez (210) 222-9494 [email protected]

May 2008 15 Secretary Albert Bacon Fall: Plea for Pardon 

                  

I. Background                                   May 2008 16

  Fall, who had no means of raising any money, lost his   ranch valued at $750,000 due to his inability to repay the   $100,000 loan the government considered a bribe! In   1929, Doheny foreclosed on Fall’s ranch at Three Rivers   at a sheriff’s sale for $168,250. A few months later, to add   insult to injury, Secretary Fall was found guilty of accepting   a bribe that Doheny was later acquitted of giving.                                                   III. History Reveals Truth II. Teapot Dome                                                                           May 2008 17

      “The most compelling example I can think   of in bolstering the plea [for pardon] comes   from a brief conversation I had a few years ago   with Stewart Udall, who served as secretary   of the interior under Presidents Kennedy and   Johnson. Prior to Udall’s tenure in the cabinet,   Fall’s portrait had not been displayed among the   other secretaries of the interior in that imposing   federal ofﬁ ce building. Instead it had been   relegated to an obscure storage area where it   became dirty and blemished. Udall ordered the     restoration of the portrait, and that it should   be displayed among the other secretaries. I   asked Udall why he had done so. He replied   that it had been an obvious decision. Fall had   taken on the burdens of serving as interior   secretary, had paid his debt to society in prison,   and therefore his portrait should be restored to   its rightful place among the others. In other   words, Udall seemed to say that as far as he was  concerned the record on Fall was cleared.” IV. Plea for Pardon 1 The government successfully recovered $47 million   from the oil the Mammoth Oil Company drilled from   Teapot Dome. Where Do You Stand On Pro Se? 

                                                       May 2008 18 R.E. Thomason El Paso’s Greatest Leader. Part II 

                              the El Paso Public Library with permission from This photo is reprinted                     “The district court called a case against Ras   Adam, a well known Negro charged with burglary.   Ras had no lawyer and no money, but the Judge told  him that there were three young lawyers in town: Bill “Well, it must be Judge Thomason. I worked  Midkiff, Charlie Pearman and Ewing Thomason, for Judge Boynton for twenty two years and hardly  and that he could take his choice. The Judge then a day would pass that I would not take him a stack  asked the three of us to stand up; Midkiff and I did of law books and he would pour over them. I  so, but Pearman was not in the court room. The have been working for Judge Thomason for ﬁ ve  Judge told Ras he could have any one of the three. years now and he hasn’t needed a law book yet!”  Ras looked at Bill and at me and said, “Judge, if  it is the same with you, I’ll take the one not here.” Next Month, as the Saga of Era concludes April 2008 19 Our Reputation Precedes Us 

Memoirs and Essays                          Reputation is the overall quality or character as seen or judged   by people in general. It concerns the recognition by other   people of some characteristic or ability, such as being clever,  clumsy, honest or dishonest. Reputation concerns a place in   public esteem, i.e. how a person is regarded                                                May 2008 20

                   (Footnotes)   1 Reputation Essays. http://www.ssqq.com/stories/advent51.   htm.   2 Quote from Nathaniel Branden.  

     STEVEN C. JAMES       RESOLVING DISPUTES THROUGH  MEDIATION OR ARBITRATION                    

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   

May 2008 21 

 [email protected]                                                                              A New Member Beneﬁ t from the El Paso Bar Association!            

Law Office of David Wilton       Course Materials for sale   Your local of-counsel throughout California  Licensed in California and Texas 

May 2008 22

ASSOCIATION NEWS El Paso Women’s Bar Association I                

El Paso Paralegal Association I   

Federal Bar Association I   I  

El Paso Criminal Defense Lawyers Association I  

CLASSIFIEDS

Central Offi ce Space for Lease: Offi ce space available, receptionist, runner, conference rooms, parking, etc. Call Bob Earp or Larry Schwartz at 542-1533. Downtown Offi ce Space Available for Lease: Central area, within 1 or 2 blocks walking distance to all courts, receptionist, runner, conference rooms, parking, etc. Call Adriana at 792-9401.

May 2008 23



May 31, 2008, Wyndham El Paso Airport Hotel 2027 Airway Blvd. El Paso, TX 79925 Tickets $100.00 per person

Proceeds to beneﬁ t the newly created EPWBA Foundation

  

For more information, please contact Alex Kellner-Zant at [email protected] or Diana Valdez at [email protected].

May 2008 May the Music Live on!    Saturday, May 10, 2008, “May the Music Live On! Celebrating the life of John Denis May, Sr.,  

   All proceeds will go to The El Paso Summer Music Festival.

 

EL PASO BAR ASSOCIATION PRESORTED  STANDARD  U. S. POSTAGE  PAID (Address Service Requested) EL PASO, TEXAS PERMIT NO. 2516

May 2008