One update swept aside in late October by the flood of Clinton Corruption news was the latest from Rio Grande Valley’s Donna ISD.
You may or may not remember from back in July when I reported that former Donna ISD employees were sentenced to prison for extortion.
There was a lawsuit filed over their replacements:
A lawsuit filed by two school district trustees claiming the board illegally appointed two replacement board members in February was partially dismissed last week, but plaintiffs who argue the judge wasted precious time on this case have already filed an appeal.
Leslie McCollom, representing plaintiffs and board members Efren Ceniceros and Ernesto Lugo, filed an appeal Monday to state District Judge Luis Singletarry’s ruling on Oct. 20 which allowed the two appointed board members to continue serving until Election Day and all the actions they voted on to stand.
The 92nd District Court judge had already dismissed an emergency temporary restraining order against the board on Feb. 25, but a hearing for both parties to argue their case had been rescheduled or canceled several times since. A final ruling on court and attorney fees is still pending.
“It has been extraordinarily difficult to get what is basically a simple issue of law from the court,” McCollom said Wednesday. “It was unusual that he refused to set a hearing on a temporary injunction.”
Ceniceros and Lugo filed the lawsuit on Feb. 12 after two school board trustees and former members of Team November, Eloy Infante and Elpidio Yanez, were replaced after they both plead guilty to extortion charges.
The duo is currently serving time in federal prison for requesting monetary and gift bribes from an insurer hired while they were on the board.
Since then an entire new board of trustees has been elected. “Out of the six seats available on the board, three were filled by Valentin Guerrero, John Billman, and Dr. Donna Mery from the United for Change slate. Eloy Avila, Alicia Reyna, and Eva Watts from the Restoring Trust slate took the other three.” (I’ll go ahead and tag those names, just in case I need them for the next Donna ISD update…)
Other Donna ISD legal news:
I’ll let you draw your own conclusions over whether Soto’s force was excessive or not.