As you meander around the city on nice sunny days you probably don't think about how corrupt the operation of the city and county governments are. One might say 'morally corrupt' when authority of office is violated for private gain. Illinois doesn't have anything on Las Cruces and Dona Ana County. The moral corruption here extends from the very top to the very bottom.
Some citizens who keep up with the shenanigans probably wonder why federal District Court Judge Robert Brack and his minion, federal Magistrate Judge Lourdes Martinez, have not resigned from their appointed (not anointed) positions. Their joint activities in the two federal civil rights cases have case an ugly shadow on the courts - a morally corrupt shadow.
The former mayor Mattiace in all his prejudice thought Judge Brack's ruling against the First Amendment was a great Christmas present for the city. Well, Mattiace is gone, and a really great present for any season would be for the above judges to vacate their positions and let someone who believes in the law and citizens rights fumigate the courthouse.
15 December 2008
14 December 2008
"In the Shadow of the Crosses."
Students in the New Mexico State University's (NMSU) Creative Media Institute that is associated with the history and journalism departments produced four short documentaries about local area subjects. The time constraints and experiences did not hamper the quality of the four films. They were shown on 8 December 2008 at the NMSU's Media Center to a packed crowd and likewise on 12 December 2008 at the local historic Fountain Theater in Mesilla.
The particular film I am addressing here was titled "In the Shadow of the Crosses" and was about the Latin crosses of the City of Las Cruces and the civil rights lawsuit against the city. Stevan Vann and his classmate.........produced a very balanced film depicting the plaintiffs, Jewish and Catholic leaders, retired persons, and people on the street.
The only flaw in the movie was a segment where a history professor Jon Hunner read in the background a portion of his version of the source of the crosses and the city's name. This professor is the one cited previously who is an outright fraud with his fakelore, is on the City's payroll as a history consultant, promotes the fictitious history of the city, took $2,500 from the plaintiffs' by way of a court order for his sham expertise, and read in the movie, "the crosses history leads to a historical event." There is absolutely no truth to this statement. All the massacre stories with crosses over the graves are bogus.
In the Las Cruces City Hall reception area across from a picture of God is a plaque that reads, "Here they saw a cross for which Las Cruces was named." If you go to the official U. S. Army's website for the nearby White Sands Missile Range, then look under local Dona Ana County history, you can read another laughable 'miracle' story about "the first European was walking along the trail and found three graves marked with three crosses.........." History records that the first Europeans came from Spain.
In Carroll's exceptional book, "Constantine's Sword," he cites the importance of miracles produced by the Catholic Church in times of need.
The particular film I am addressing here was titled "In the Shadow of the Crosses" and was about the Latin crosses of the City of Las Cruces and the civil rights lawsuit against the city. Stevan Vann and his classmate.........produced a very balanced film depicting the plaintiffs, Jewish and Catholic leaders, retired persons, and people on the street.
The only flaw in the movie was a segment where a history professor Jon Hunner read in the background a portion of his version of the source of the crosses and the city's name. This professor is the one cited previously who is an outright fraud with his fakelore, is on the City's payroll as a history consultant, promotes the fictitious history of the city, took $2,500 from the plaintiffs' by way of a court order for his sham expertise, and read in the movie, "the crosses history leads to a historical event." There is absolutely no truth to this statement. All the massacre stories with crosses over the graves are bogus.
In the Las Cruces City Hall reception area across from a picture of God is a plaque that reads, "Here they saw a cross for which Las Cruces was named." If you go to the official U. S. Army's website for the nearby White Sands Missile Range, then look under local Dona Ana County history, you can read another laughable 'miracle' story about "the first European was walking along the trail and found three graves marked with three crosses.........." History records that the first Europeans came from Spain.
In Carroll's exceptional book, "Constantine's Sword," he cites the importance of miracles produced by the Catholic Church in times of need.
02 December 2008
Letter to Las Cruces Sun-News Editor
On 12 November 2008 I emailed a letter to the local Sun-News that has not been published, about the local Bishop holding the annual Mariachi Fiesta mass, of which I have no gripe. The large front-page color picture of the Bishop in his Church regalia resplendent with all the Latin crosses is an eye-catcher, because of the similarity of those symbols and those used by the City and its employees. Then there is that federal Court ruling that three Latin crosses are not religious in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
There is only one weekly newspaper and during the week the Sun-News only allows 2-3 letters if they fit the small section allowed on the 'Opinion' page. The Sunday edition sometimes has 8-10 letters. One of the problems is the amount of time that passes before the letter with its subject appear which makes some subjects moot, because people can't remember the original article.
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Editor:
It was heart-warming to see on the front page of the Monday, 10 November 2008, Sun-News our local Bishop Ramirez leading citizens and visitors in a religious service at the Pan-American Center. It was especially thoughtful to include the accompanying pictures of the two young girls.
The poignancy of these pictures is that the religious leader, the citizens and visitors from far and wide, and their children in attendance, were enjoying their full measure of uninterrupted religious benefits guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution.
While right here in Las Cruces, minorities of different religions and those citizens with no religion are excluded from their full measure of their right to choose to be free from religion by the local governments and courts, rights that are guaranteed by the same U. S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution.
The unabated, continued actions of the City of Las Cruces and the Doña Ana County governments of their proselytizing, supported by self-serving interpretations of the truth by those charged to provide justice, is pure mockery of “We, the People.”
There are many good citizens in Las Cruces who respect their neighbors, and thereby, are good neighbors themselves. I have spoken with many of all faiths and none about the untenable daily situation we all endure at the whim of the City Council, the County Council, and their faithful supporters. The good citizens know what the truth is, what the intent is of the City and Doña Ana County, and blindness to the truth is a fool’s folly.
There is only one weekly newspaper and during the week the Sun-News only allows 2-3 letters if they fit the small section allowed on the 'Opinion' page. The Sunday edition sometimes has 8-10 letters. One of the problems is the amount of time that passes before the letter with its subject appear which makes some subjects moot, because people can't remember the original article.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Editor:
It was heart-warming to see on the front page of the Monday, 10 November 2008, Sun-News our local Bishop Ramirez leading citizens and visitors in a religious service at the Pan-American Center. It was especially thoughtful to include the accompanying pictures of the two young girls.
The poignancy of these pictures is that the religious leader, the citizens and visitors from far and wide, and their children in attendance, were enjoying their full measure of uninterrupted religious benefits guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution.
While right here in Las Cruces, minorities of different religions and those citizens with no religion are excluded from their full measure of their right to choose to be free from religion by the local governments and courts, rights that are guaranteed by the same U. S. Constitution and the New Mexico Constitution.
The unabated, continued actions of the City of Las Cruces and the Doña Ana County governments of their proselytizing, supported by self-serving interpretations of the truth by those charged to provide justice, is pure mockery of “We, the People.”
There are many good citizens in Las Cruces who respect their neighbors, and thereby, are good neighbors themselves. I have spoken with many of all faiths and none about the untenable daily situation we all endure at the whim of the City Council, the County Council, and their faithful supporters. The good citizens know what the truth is, what the intent is of the City and Doña Ana County, and blindness to the truth is a fool’s folly.
Now you know....
SHORT VERSION: An outside-the-court, neo-con evangelical agency wrote the 12 September 2008 Weinbaum/Boyd v. City of Las Cruces trois singes ruling by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. There was no way the court was going to allow a Jew and an Athetist defeat the status quo and the rulings by the federal District Court of Las Cruces and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals proves it.
LONG VERSION:
As I have sadly written previously about the 12 September 2008 insultingly sophomoric trois singes decision (Three Latin crosses used by government entities are not religious!) by the three-judge panel (Ebel, Lucero, and Hodges) of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Something unbelievable has emerged about the ruling on the two civil rights cases of Weinbaum v. Las Cruces, New Mexico, Public Schools (LCPS) and Weinbaum/Boyd v. City of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the hooded-judges rejection (no judge’s signatures) of the en banc (all judges) review request.
In spite of the Bush Administration’s denigration of the Constitution there are citizens who know what is right-and-wrong and still believe in the civil rights of the citizens.
I was contacted by someone I can only correctly describe as an informer. Since the 9-12-08 ruling I have had many people from across the United States contact me to express their concern about this unbelievable miscarriage of justice by the tandem efforts of the federal District Court of Las Cruces and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The ruling by the above panel is so sophomoric that it is not only disgusting to legal professionals, it is insulting to the ordinary citizen who previously had faith in the fairness of the legal system.
As the informer laid out the series of events the ‘how’ of the outcome was readily apparent; the ‘why’ was already understood. Some digression is needed here for an understanding of prior events that lead to the ruling, so please bear with me. Las Cruces is the only city you will find that repeatedly advertises itself as “Las Cruces – The Crosses” and puts the three crosses on every imaginable piece of public property. No other city with a Spanish name translates the name at the same time when citing the name and there are no official documents that verify when this became the actual name of the city.
For over a year prior to the filing of the first lawsuit in 2003, attempts were made to discuss the illegalities of the use of three crosses on public property with the Las Cruces Public Schools and the City of Las Cruces by myself and others.
From the beginning of the filing of the federal civil rights case against the LCPS, the newly appointed Las Cruces, New Mexico, federal District Court Magistrate (FM) Judge Lourdes Martinez, who took orders from the also newly appointed federal District Court (FDC) Judge Robert (“I am a Christian.” - from his reply that justified his refusal to recuse himself.) Brack, FM Martinez was a puppet using everything in her power to harangue the two pro se plaintiffs. (Martinez was a ‘had to’ appointment since two openings in the Albuquerque federal District Court were filled by men.) Among FM Martinez’s culturally deficient repertoire, one of her infamous comments was influenced by the “mental reservation” doctrine of her religion when she looked at the City symbol and said she couldn’t see the third cross.
A query by me, during the heated confrontation with defense attorneys before a deposition scheduled by the plaintiffs with the Court’s “expert” witness, directed to City defense attorney Matthew Holt, watched and heard by seven witnesses, about the location of the rules Judge Martinez was using which always favored the defense, produced: “They aren’t written down.” Oh, gee, it must be the same “judge’s discretion” that the above panel limply used to allow and cover the filed reports of irregularities by the judges in these two cases. I do give Holt credit for his honesty at that moment. Holt’s revelation certainly solidified what the plaintiffs knew all along as readings of the law produced no similarities to what FM Judge Martinez recited. At one point Judge Martinez was asked about her reference and she said: “Read further!”
FM Judge Martinez’s intent was to get the two plaintiffs to quit and the plaintiffs’ refusal only increased the harassment. One of FM Judge Martinez’s orchestrated tricks with LCPS defense attorney Babington was to withhold documents like the ever-important Pre-trial Order which delayed the case for over two years. This drove up personal costs for the plaintiffs and profits for the defense. After denying a plaintiff’s motion for a speedy trial, FM Judge Martinez blamed the delay on the plaintiff who personally hand-carried the document to the Court Clerk. The old Pre-trial Order magically reappeared when FDC Judge Brack’s Clerk-of-the-Court Bernadette Howell retired. Eventually one of the two plaintiffs withdrew from the case.
FDC Judge Robert Brack operated like an evangelical preacher, circuit-riding around the eastern portion of New Mexico while he served as a New Mexico state judge, before he was appointed by the Bush administration to the newly created federal District Court of Las Cruces to handle the ‘invasion’ cases from Mexico. FDC Brack’s vitae provided to the U. S. Senate confirmation hearings reads likes a man hell-bent to get the Gospel out to the un-saved and un-washed. FDC Brack’s courtroom biblical preaching to shackled prisoners before he sentenced them is well-known and well-recorded, besides his required prayer-meetings by staff in chambers.
The untenable trial delay of the Weinbaum v. Las Cruces Public Schools caused the filing of a similar federal civil rights case against the City of Las Cruces in 2005. One of the steps that led to the filing of the lawsuit against the City in federal court was not only the refusal to discuss the situation, but the refusal to provide public documents. A visit to the local 3rd Judicial District Court’s District Attorney Susana Martinez’s office to complain brought the response of “Go tell the newspaper [local Sun-News].” Once the case against the City had been filed, a city-wide campaign was directed against the plaintiffs from the federal District Court, City Hall of the Chamber of Commerce, two local radio stations, and sundry of evangelical citizens with hateful phone calls and mailings.
FDC Judge Brack pulled a trick that even the defense attorney Babington was mystified about as he told me he had never heard of a Rule 706 Expert Witness for local history being ordered for a civil rights case. Attorney Babington said that the Rule 706 Expert was usually only appointed for divorces and child-custody cases, not history cases. FDC Judge Brack decided to use the ‘holey’ report for both cases.
Well, attorney Babington wasn’t mystified long. After the short list of local history ‘experts’ was narrowed to one local university professor, Dr. Jon Hunner, who was agreed upon by both parties, Babington then offered, “You know he’s our man?” FDC Judge Brack didn’t see anything wrong with Professor Hunner being on the City’s fakelore history projects payroll, selling picture books about Las Cruces his students compiled, and writing a City history report for the court at the same time. FDC Judge Brack rejected the plaintiffs’ three historical rebuttals to the report. The plaintiffs had only the truth to present versus what the City and School District presented and FDC Brack got to decide what the truth was.
Anyway, FDC puppeteer Judge Brack and his puppet, FM Judge Martinez, divided and nitpicked the Public Schools case to death. FDC Brack divided the Schools case into parts so damaging evidence would be excluded, such as the 60-page report submitted to the NM Attorney General of illegal actions. With the damaging evidence and the plaintiff’s one witness excluded, FDC Judge Brack decided that three Latin crosses used on public school property are not religious. Then likewise in the City case. I would like to see the verse and chapter in Brack’s courtroom Bible that guided him in his disdain for the law.
The plaintiffs appealed both cases to the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The oral arguments took place before the three-judge panel described above. The Schools Case could not be presented by a pro se plaintiff, only submitted for a reading review by the trois singes panel. Initially there was some belief that justice would prevail as two of the judges had previously been part of rulings against government entities that promoted religion. Panel Judge Hodges didn’t have a clue what the cases were about or what the Constitutional problem was as civil rights was not his area. Of course, the judges are randomly selected.
One of the peculiar parting comments of the City’s folksy ploy was to say, “They [Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.] found a cross [on the trail].”
This peculiar story is similar to the one on the government’s official U. S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range’s website about a “first European” finding three graves with three crosses” in the land of “heathens.” The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, with the obediently tagalong City, cannot decide which fakelore story is best for tourists and believing citizens alike, either the ‘massacre’ crosses or the ‘found’ crosses. (One influence is the Catholic v. Protestant conflict of control of space here.) The new copycat Hispanic Chamber of Commerce adopted three Latin crosses for its logo to match that of the City’s Chamber of Commerce logo.
Getting back to the informant’s report. The particular panel of judges above were acting as a front for a large evangelical group headquartered in Colorado. The ‘ruling’ of the panel closely followed what FDC Judge Robert Brack, a friend of the Denver court, had written in his rulings and dismissals of the plaintiffs’ motions in both cases. An examination of the Appeals Court’s panel findings reveal some very peculiar comments that follow what the informant revealed.
Namely, that an outside organization wrote the ruling for the Panel. Peculiar comments in the ruling are so unusual that it reads like the writers were personally attacking the plaintiffs Weinbaum, a Jew, and Martin Boyd, an Atheist, both who dared to challenge the neo-con evangelical status quo. A reading of the ruling looks like a special attack on the plaintiff Weinbaum. There was no way the neo-con evangelicals could allow Weinbaum/Boyd to succeed in their quest for Constitutional justice. That would have been a precedent against the controlling religious forces in the whole of New Mexico and elsewhere who claim they are going to “retake America.”
Someone, or a group of lawyers belonging to one of the national evangelical law firms, went through all the many dozens of documents in both cases and extracted every derogatory comment by the defense and both judges that could be used against the plaintiffs. A casual reader of the ruling would be hard pressed to believe the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals would waste their legal clerks’ time. In this strange and unusual situation the Court would not want their own clerks involved. The adage “Loose lips sink ships.” would be more meaningful and an additional danger as the truth would eventually spread throughout the Free World. Then, once the ruling was known, but not published and released, other readers who should have injected their judicial power were embarrassed by the trickery their cohorts had done. Those influential jurists were more concerned with how the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc would look, so they turned their backs. A truly miscarriage of justice.
One can only guess what the payout must have been to the good jurists. In Las Cruces the law firm that defended both the City and the School District was selected Business-of-the-Month along with other additional and continued contracts with the city; longtime resident and attorney Babington retired to Montana leaving attorney Holt in charge of the business; the City Attorney Rubio was promoted in the New Mexico National Guard; the now ex-mayor Mattiace was hired by the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, which has strong ties to Dobson’s Focus on the Family, to be the commercial liaison officer, additionally the ex-mayor’s family travel business is doing extra well; trial defense witness Charles Davis is still on the School Board; trial defense witness John Schutz is now on the Board of Directors of the LCPS Foundation where he is using his mystical powers of recalling complete conversations held during his absence; the extra culturally deficient defense witness Elizabeth Marrufo is LCPS Director of Elementary Instruction; the darling-of-the-court expert history witness Professor Jon “He’s our man.” Hunner is still on the City’s payroll and promoting the City as “City of the Crosses” while teaching at NMSU; the (“I just know I can do it.) ‘artist’ of the LCPS stadium’s Calvary/Trinity crosses and defense witness, Ruth Hernandez Bird, mysteriously disappeared from the art world as mysteriously as she appeared.
The new insurance executive Mayor Kenneth Miyagishima is promoting religion in his fashion on the streets and in the public schools while wearing his three crosses pin. The picture of God is still on the wall in City Hall across from the plaque that reads: “Here they saw a cross for which Las Cruces was named.” The police are still wearing their references to the biblical Chapter 20 Revelations.
This whole episode of governmental promotion of religion from the beginning also involved Governor William Richardson of New Mexico who lied about ordering the highway department not to remove crosses they installed, various Department Secretary’s Richardson appointed like the NM Cultural Affairs Stuart Ashman whose office orchestrated the illegal, clandestine purchase of the Calvary/Trinity crosses artwork for the School District, NM Transportation’s Rhonda Faught who changed the logo to venerate the Trinity and is now retiring, NM Public Education Veronica Garcia who with Senator Nava (next) orchestrated the introduction of a Catholic Christmas miracle book into the public schools in 2007, and elected NM State Senator Cynthia Nava (also appointed as Superintendent of Gadsden ISD) who is Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, just to name a few. Then there is the logo on the NM Teachers Evaluation form that references the Gospel of John 3:16…
LONG VERSION:
As I have sadly written previously about the 12 September 2008 insultingly sophomoric trois singes decision (Three Latin crosses used by government entities are not religious!) by the three-judge panel (Ebel, Lucero, and Hodges) of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. Something unbelievable has emerged about the ruling on the two civil rights cases of Weinbaum v. Las Cruces, New Mexico, Public Schools (LCPS) and Weinbaum/Boyd v. City of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and the hooded-judges rejection (no judge’s signatures) of the en banc (all judges) review request.
In spite of the Bush Administration’s denigration of the Constitution there are citizens who know what is right-and-wrong and still believe in the civil rights of the citizens.
I was contacted by someone I can only correctly describe as an informer. Since the 9-12-08 ruling I have had many people from across the United States contact me to express their concern about this unbelievable miscarriage of justice by the tandem efforts of the federal District Court of Las Cruces and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The ruling by the above panel is so sophomoric that it is not only disgusting to legal professionals, it is insulting to the ordinary citizen who previously had faith in the fairness of the legal system.
As the informer laid out the series of events the ‘how’ of the outcome was readily apparent; the ‘why’ was already understood. Some digression is needed here for an understanding of prior events that lead to the ruling, so please bear with me. Las Cruces is the only city you will find that repeatedly advertises itself as “Las Cruces – The Crosses” and puts the three crosses on every imaginable piece of public property. No other city with a Spanish name translates the name at the same time when citing the name and there are no official documents that verify when this became the actual name of the city.
For over a year prior to the filing of the first lawsuit in 2003, attempts were made to discuss the illegalities of the use of three crosses on public property with the Las Cruces Public Schools and the City of Las Cruces by myself and others.
From the beginning of the filing of the federal civil rights case against the LCPS, the newly appointed Las Cruces, New Mexico, federal District Court Magistrate (FM) Judge Lourdes Martinez, who took orders from the also newly appointed federal District Court (FDC) Judge Robert (“I am a Christian.” - from his reply that justified his refusal to recuse himself.) Brack, FM Martinez was a puppet using everything in her power to harangue the two pro se plaintiffs. (Martinez was a ‘had to’ appointment since two openings in the Albuquerque federal District Court were filled by men.) Among FM Martinez’s culturally deficient repertoire, one of her infamous comments was influenced by the “mental reservation” doctrine of her religion when she looked at the City symbol and said she couldn’t see the third cross.
A query by me, during the heated confrontation with defense attorneys before a deposition scheduled by the plaintiffs with the Court’s “expert” witness, directed to City defense attorney Matthew Holt, watched and heard by seven witnesses, about the location of the rules Judge Martinez was using which always favored the defense, produced: “They aren’t written down.” Oh, gee, it must be the same “judge’s discretion” that the above panel limply used to allow and cover the filed reports of irregularities by the judges in these two cases. I do give Holt credit for his honesty at that moment. Holt’s revelation certainly solidified what the plaintiffs knew all along as readings of the law produced no similarities to what FM Judge Martinez recited. At one point Judge Martinez was asked about her reference and she said: “Read further!”
FM Judge Martinez’s intent was to get the two plaintiffs to quit and the plaintiffs’ refusal only increased the harassment. One of FM Judge Martinez’s orchestrated tricks with LCPS defense attorney Babington was to withhold documents like the ever-important Pre-trial Order which delayed the case for over two years. This drove up personal costs for the plaintiffs and profits for the defense. After denying a plaintiff’s motion for a speedy trial, FM Judge Martinez blamed the delay on the plaintiff who personally hand-carried the document to the Court Clerk. The old Pre-trial Order magically reappeared when FDC Judge Brack’s Clerk-of-the-Court Bernadette Howell retired. Eventually one of the two plaintiffs withdrew from the case.
FDC Judge Robert Brack operated like an evangelical preacher, circuit-riding around the eastern portion of New Mexico while he served as a New Mexico state judge, before he was appointed by the Bush administration to the newly created federal District Court of Las Cruces to handle the ‘invasion’ cases from Mexico. FDC Brack’s vitae provided to the U. S. Senate confirmation hearings reads likes a man hell-bent to get the Gospel out to the un-saved and un-washed. FDC Brack’s courtroom biblical preaching to shackled prisoners before he sentenced them is well-known and well-recorded, besides his required prayer-meetings by staff in chambers.
The untenable trial delay of the Weinbaum v. Las Cruces Public Schools caused the filing of a similar federal civil rights case against the City of Las Cruces in 2005. One of the steps that led to the filing of the lawsuit against the City in federal court was not only the refusal to discuss the situation, but the refusal to provide public documents. A visit to the local 3rd Judicial District Court’s District Attorney Susana Martinez’s office to complain brought the response of “Go tell the newspaper [local Sun-News].” Once the case against the City had been filed, a city-wide campaign was directed against the plaintiffs from the federal District Court, City Hall of the Chamber of Commerce, two local radio stations, and sundry of evangelical citizens with hateful phone calls and mailings.
FDC Judge Brack pulled a trick that even the defense attorney Babington was mystified about as he told me he had never heard of a Rule 706 Expert Witness for local history being ordered for a civil rights case. Attorney Babington said that the Rule 706 Expert was usually only appointed for divorces and child-custody cases, not history cases. FDC Judge Brack decided to use the ‘holey’ report for both cases.
Well, attorney Babington wasn’t mystified long. After the short list of local history ‘experts’ was narrowed to one local university professor, Dr. Jon Hunner, who was agreed upon by both parties, Babington then offered, “You know he’s our man?” FDC Judge Brack didn’t see anything wrong with Professor Hunner being on the City’s fakelore history projects payroll, selling picture books about Las Cruces his students compiled, and writing a City history report for the court at the same time. FDC Judge Brack rejected the plaintiffs’ three historical rebuttals to the report. The plaintiffs had only the truth to present versus what the City and School District presented and FDC Brack got to decide what the truth was.
Anyway, FDC puppeteer Judge Brack and his puppet, FM Judge Martinez, divided and nitpicked the Public Schools case to death. FDC Brack divided the Schools case into parts so damaging evidence would be excluded, such as the 60-page report submitted to the NM Attorney General of illegal actions. With the damaging evidence and the plaintiff’s one witness excluded, FDC Judge Brack decided that three Latin crosses used on public school property are not religious. Then likewise in the City case. I would like to see the verse and chapter in Brack’s courtroom Bible that guided him in his disdain for the law.
The plaintiffs appealed both cases to the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. The oral arguments took place before the three-judge panel described above. The Schools Case could not be presented by a pro se plaintiff, only submitted for a reading review by the trois singes panel. Initially there was some belief that justice would prevail as two of the judges had previously been part of rulings against government entities that promoted religion. Panel Judge Hodges didn’t have a clue what the cases were about or what the Constitutional problem was as civil rights was not his area. Of course, the judges are randomly selected.
One of the peculiar parting comments of the City’s folksy ploy was to say, “They [Spanish explorers in the early 1500s.] found a cross [on the trail].”
This peculiar story is similar to the one on the government’s official U. S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range’s website about a “first European” finding three graves with three crosses” in the land of “heathens.” The Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, with the obediently tagalong City, cannot decide which fakelore story is best for tourists and believing citizens alike, either the ‘massacre’ crosses or the ‘found’ crosses. (One influence is the Catholic v. Protestant conflict of control of space here.) The new copycat Hispanic Chamber of Commerce adopted three Latin crosses for its logo to match that of the City’s Chamber of Commerce logo.
Getting back to the informant’s report. The particular panel of judges above were acting as a front for a large evangelical group headquartered in Colorado. The ‘ruling’ of the panel closely followed what FDC Judge Robert Brack, a friend of the Denver court, had written in his rulings and dismissals of the plaintiffs’ motions in both cases. An examination of the Appeals Court’s panel findings reveal some very peculiar comments that follow what the informant revealed.
Namely, that an outside organization wrote the ruling for the Panel. Peculiar comments in the ruling are so unusual that it reads like the writers were personally attacking the plaintiffs Weinbaum, a Jew, and Martin Boyd, an Atheist, both who dared to challenge the neo-con evangelical status quo. A reading of the ruling looks like a special attack on the plaintiff Weinbaum. There was no way the neo-con evangelicals could allow Weinbaum/Boyd to succeed in their quest for Constitutional justice. That would have been a precedent against the controlling religious forces in the whole of New Mexico and elsewhere who claim they are going to “retake America.”
Someone, or a group of lawyers belonging to one of the national evangelical law firms, went through all the many dozens of documents in both cases and extracted every derogatory comment by the defense and both judges that could be used against the plaintiffs. A casual reader of the ruling would be hard pressed to believe the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals would waste their legal clerks’ time. In this strange and unusual situation the Court would not want their own clerks involved. The adage “Loose lips sink ships.” would be more meaningful and an additional danger as the truth would eventually spread throughout the Free World. Then, once the ruling was known, but not published and released, other readers who should have injected their judicial power were embarrassed by the trickery their cohorts had done. Those influential jurists were more concerned with how the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals en banc would look, so they turned their backs. A truly miscarriage of justice.
One can only guess what the payout must have been to the good jurists. In Las Cruces the law firm that defended both the City and the School District was selected Business-of-the-Month along with other additional and continued contracts with the city; longtime resident and attorney Babington retired to Montana leaving attorney Holt in charge of the business; the City Attorney Rubio was promoted in the New Mexico National Guard; the now ex-mayor Mattiace was hired by the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, which has strong ties to Dobson’s Focus on the Family, to be the commercial liaison officer, additionally the ex-mayor’s family travel business is doing extra well; trial defense witness Charles Davis is still on the School Board; trial defense witness John Schutz is now on the Board of Directors of the LCPS Foundation where he is using his mystical powers of recalling complete conversations held during his absence; the extra culturally deficient defense witness Elizabeth Marrufo is LCPS Director of Elementary Instruction; the darling-of-the-court expert history witness Professor Jon “He’s our man.” Hunner is still on the City’s payroll and promoting the City as “City of the Crosses” while teaching at NMSU; the (“I just know I can do it.) ‘artist’ of the LCPS stadium’s Calvary/Trinity crosses and defense witness, Ruth Hernandez Bird, mysteriously disappeared from the art world as mysteriously as she appeared.
The new insurance executive Mayor Kenneth Miyagishima is promoting religion in his fashion on the streets and in the public schools while wearing his three crosses pin. The picture of God is still on the wall in City Hall across from the plaque that reads: “Here they saw a cross for which Las Cruces was named.” The police are still wearing their references to the biblical Chapter 20 Revelations.
This whole episode of governmental promotion of religion from the beginning also involved Governor William Richardson of New Mexico who lied about ordering the highway department not to remove crosses they installed, various Department Secretary’s Richardson appointed like the NM Cultural Affairs Stuart Ashman whose office orchestrated the illegal, clandestine purchase of the Calvary/Trinity crosses artwork for the School District, NM Transportation’s Rhonda Faught who changed the logo to venerate the Trinity and is now retiring, NM Public Education Veronica Garcia who with Senator Nava (next) orchestrated the introduction of a Catholic Christmas miracle book into the public schools in 2007, and elected NM State Senator Cynthia Nava (also appointed as Superintendent of Gadsden ISD) who is Chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, just to name a few. Then there is the logo on the NM Teachers Evaluation form that references the Gospel of John 3:16…
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