By Juan Montoya
Does he ever know when to quit?
Two days after the start of early voting – and 13 days before Nov. 6 election day – former BISD trustee Rick Zayas has filed yet another lawsuit which seeks to discredit incumbent Catalina Presas-Garcia.
This time, Zayas is representing the seller of a property where the sale fell through when the title company found that he could not sell the property because he did not have the approval of his divorced spouse or protected the rights of his minor daughter.
The last lawsuit Zayas filed was in late August ostensibly against Danny Defenbaugh and Associates of Dallas where he represents former BISD Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez and Rivera coach Tom Chavez for allegedly defaming them with the release of a wide-ranging forensic audit.
And even though most legal observers say that a court will probably order that Zayas remove himself from the lawsuit because he was a BISD trustee at some time during the course of the events in the lawsuit, the public impact of the lawsuit before the election was the main objective of it being filed.
For example, even though the lawsuit ostensibly names Defenbaugh as the defendant, the "facts" of the case are built entirely around the alleged illegal relationship between trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia and the forensic investigators and her attorney John Barr – and even more far-reaching – with HealthSmart, the former third-party administrator for the BISD.The new legal gambit was filed today – Oct. 24 – and was served upon Presas-Garcia just minutes later after it was filed the same day. THat same day, a courthouse source said that the Brownsville Herald was tipped off to the case and that their reporter had already asked for a copy. As late as 9 p.m. Wednesday, no one from the newspaper had called her for a comment.
This latest case by Zayas also, is even more sinister, alleging that even though the sale did not go through and the buyer got all their money back, Presas-Garcia violated Texas real estate law by not depositing the money with the title company within a given period of time (two days).
However, the lawsuit does not explain that the title company in question – Sierra Title – would not receive the funds to process the sale because the rights of the seller's spouse and her minor daughter were not taken into account. As a result, the money stayed with the broker and was returned to him when the deal didn't go through. Neither the buyer nor the seller lost anything in the deal.
The filing of the lawsuit led Presas-Garcia to file a harassment complaint against Zayas Wednesday, charging that the local attorney and former trustee who was defeated in 2010 by trustee Lucy Longoria, has become obsessed with her both personally and politically. But even though she waited for them, the officers didn't show before she had to enter the meeting.
She said that the plot is even thicker, with the seller staging a meeting where he offered her money to vote on behalf of Peña and Associates, a delinquent tax-collection firm, or else the lawsuit alleging the real estate law violations would be filed.
According to Presas-Garcia, the man offered her a manila envelope with money. She said she immediately went to BISD attorney Arturo Michel and they both went to the Cameron County District Attorneys' Office where they filed a report on the attempted extortion.
To date, even though the DA's office has had the report, there has been no action taken in the case, she said.
A majority of the board, including Presas-Garcia, voted to award the contract to Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP instead.
"I've just about had enough of this man," said Presas-Garcia of Zayas. "He is obsessed with me and blames me for having lost his election for the BISD. Does anybody really believe that the filing of these lawsuits is a coincidence? They are going to make this available immediately to their reporter Gary Long at the Brownsville Herald so it can affect the election. I already know how they work."
Presas-Garcia said she was not ruling out filing of a counter suit against both Zayas and his client.
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