Zavaletta, De Leon named in civil suit

A civil lawsuit has been filed against local lawyer Peter Zavaletta, former district attorney Yolanda De Leon and Freedom Communications Inc., stemming from campaign ads for Zavaletta, a former district attorney candidate.

The lawsuit claims Zavaletta and De Leon entered a "civil conspiracy" to publish confidential information and that Freedom, parent company of The Brownsville Herald and Valley Morning Star, printed the "false political advertisements" that accused plaintiffs Juan Antonio Coronado and Francisco Solis Ramirez of committing sexual acts against children.

The petition seeks unspecified damages for Coronado and Solis, who were among 103 named in the advertisement.

Zavaletta ran ads in The Herald and Star based upon contents of a report prepared by District Attorney Armando Villalobos' office. The report detailed how Villalobos handled complaints of misconduct.

The district attorney's office began an investigation into the source of the information used for the ad, focusing on Zavaletta's law office and the Cameron County Advocacy Centers, Monica's House and Maggie's House.

Villalobos explained that the information was confidential and the records compiled by his office for the advocacy centers are not for public viewing.

Neither Zavaletta, De Leon, nor the newspapers named in the defamation suit have been listed as subjects of the district attorney's criminal investigation.

De Leon is a CCAC board member but it was not clear at press time Wednesday if she was among those questioned by investigators.

Attorney Marc Rosenthal filed the complaint Tuesday, claiming De Leon obtained the records through her position on the CCAC board. He asserts that hers and Zavaletta's intentions were "for the purpose of misleading the public in order to cause the public perception that Armando Villalobos was not tough on child predators."

Zavaletta first explained that the records were left at his office doorstep anonymously, but later said he told investigators who left them.

Neither he nor De Leon was immediately available for comment Wednesday.

The 20-page petition alleges The Herald and Valley Morning Star did not verify the content of the ad and "were more interested in financial revenues."

The newspapers maintain the information published in the ads is similar to content taken from police and arrest reports and other government records. Previous court rulings have set precedents that have established absolute constitutional protection for newspapers and others when they publish information from government documents, such as the case in question.

"The First Amendment is designed to protect citizens and the press from being sued for disclosing even those records that the government would prefer to keep secret," said Freedom attorney John Bussian.