Rodriguez wins round against BISD Trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia

Attorneys for BISD Athletic Director Joe Rodriguez on Thursday won the authority to depose trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia concerning two reports containing allegations of wrongdoing against Rodriguez that were made public and which the school district had sought to keep confidential.

After arguments in the state’s 444th District Court, Judge David Sanchez granted Rodriguez’s attorneys authority to take Presas-Garcia’s deposition concerning documents she provided to Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos on Oct. 15. Attorneys scheduled the deposition for Dec. 7.

"It’s a shame," Presas-Garcia said after the hearing. "They have the documents at the DA’s office and the Rodriguezes know what’s in the documents. This is not new for them."

The order also directs Presas-Garcia to produce at the deposition any documents she provided to Carlos Quintanilla of the Hispanic action group Accion America and "any documents in her custody or control that were ever removed or taken from (Rodriguez’s) office or files without his consent; and, any documents relating to (Rodriguez) obtained from the Brownsville Independent School District."

Presas-Garcia on Oct. 15 hand delivered two leaked BISD reports about Rodriguez to the district attorney’s office. At a news conference afterward, she said she was fulfilling her fiduciary duty as a trustee to take the reports to the DA. The reports are the subject of a public information request by The Brownsville Herald, but BISD has not officially released them.

Rodriguez’s attorneys sought Presas-Garcia’s deposition under a provision in the Texas Code of Civil Procedure that allows for depositions to investigate potential claims when the benefit of the procedure outweighs the expense.

"A simple deposition before a suit is far less expensive" than the alternative of actually filing a suit, attorney Tony Rodriguez told Sanchez during the hearing. Tony Rodriguez is Joe Rodriguez’s son and is handling legal matters for his father involving the two leaked reports.

When asked whether Joe Rodriguez intends to file a claim, Tony Rodriguez said the reason for taking Presas-Garcia’s deposition is to get to the bottom of the situation now that the reports have been released outside of official channels.

"I don’t know the answers to the questions I’m going to be asking her," Tony Rodriguez said. "That’s why I’m going to be asking them. I don’t want to haul off and do something that isn’t called for."

Quintanilla and Accion America released the two reports at a news conference on Oct. 7. BISD said at the time it could not verify the authenticity of the documents. Joe Rodriguez also would not vouch for the documents, although he was familiar with the allegations in them. He said the reports Accion America released did not contain his rebuttal to the allegations and were therefore not complete.

The two reports have since been posted to the Internet. They involve allegations of improprieties relating to a scholarship golf tournament run by Joe Rodriguez.

During the hearing, Tony Rodriguez said he also wants to get pre-lawsuit depositions from Quintanilla and Juan Montoya, a Brownsville blogger. Quintanilla, who attended the hearing, said he would be happy to provide his deposition.

"I think Joe Rodriguez should resign," Quintanilla said after the hearing. "The reports speak for themselves. The attorney general has stated that they should and must be released."

After Presas-Garcia took the reports to the district attorney, BISD issued a statement saying she was not acting in any official capacity.

Presas-Garcia said she took the two reports to the DA’s office at the direction of Ron Rowell, director of the Texas Education Agency’s governance division. She said if there is a criminal act, it amounts to obstruction of justice not to do something about it.

However, Villalobos said the proper procedure is to take such matters to law enforcement authorities and let them go to the district attorney if they think they have a case.

The Brownsville Herald is seeking the two reports through an open records request filed Jan. 27. The Attorney General’s office later granted the request and ordered BISD to release the reports. BISD then filed a lawsuit in Travis County seeking to force the AG’s office to keep the documents confidential. The lawsuit remains pending.