Biography

Name: Theresa Caballero

Age: 41

Occupation: Former Assistant District Attorney/Prosecutor and now Attorney Engaged in the Private Practice of Law

Website: www.tc4da.com: email: thcaballero@hotmail.com

Residence: Central El Paso

Relevant Experience: I am a former El Paso County Assistant District Attorney/Prosecutor of three years experience. I presented cases to the Grand Jury, screened cases, and successfully prosecuted many misdemeanor and felony cases in front of trial juries. I was also the Asset Forfeiture Attorney and I was assigned to the Drug Impact Court ofEl Paso County, Texas.

I have been an attorney engaged in the private practice of law since 1998. I specialize in criminal law. I try cases before Municipal Court, County Court, juvenile court, State District Court, Federal District Court, Indian Tribal Court, the Federal Court of Appeals and Military Tribunals as well as other jurisdictions. I have an excellent trial success record, and have prevailed against my opponent's office in all jury trials with the exception of one. I have also appeared before city council, commissioner's court, the Public Service Board, (the water utility) and before at least two state bodies including the Texas Task Force on Appraisal Reform where I argued for taxpayer relief and reform of the property tax system. I have been part of the national congressional legislative process. I worked as a congressional staffer on Capital Hill for democrats.

I served on the El Paso County Ethics Commission and helped draft the Ethics Code for EI Paso County.

Issues:

1. How would you describe the job of District Attorney? The primary job of the District Attorney is to seek Justice. It is to work within the confines of the financial allocations that have been given to the office and to see that the job is done and done right. That job includes investigating and prosecuting misdemeanors and felonies in El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties. The job is to oversee, manage and administer an office of prosecutors, investigators and other support staff. The job is to follow the law and see that the law enforcement agencies that present cases to the office have also followed the law.

2. Describe the most important issue facing the office. The most important issue facing the office is my opponent's failure to investigate and prosecute local corruption and the over the years slow erosion of the legal protections that the U.S. Constitution provides that my opponent has engineered. My opponent uses his office to shield his friends and employees' relatives from criminal prosecution. This must stop. There are examples such as the Joe Wardy gun at the airport case which Esparza declined; the David Crowder DWI case which Esparza declined; and the Adrian Ocegueda child molestation case (Esparza's personal secretary Amy Lujan Ocegueda's brother) which he refused to prosecute and others too numerous to list. There is selective and vindictive prosecution by my opponent. That must be stopped as well. He has used his office to create two EI Pasos: one for the haves (the connected who don't get prosecuted) and one for the have-nots who do get prosecuted. This must stop as it creates a clear and present danger to the community.

3. What role should the District Attorney play in addressing allegations of corruption by elected officials and government employees? The role of the District Attorney is to listen to the public when its members complain of corruption, investigate it and prosecute it to high heaven. This District Attorney refuses complaints of corruption or he prosecutes the member of the public who makes the complaint. In terms of the current FBI investigation my opponent received complaints years ago regarding Access One and Bob Jones and did nothing. He should have been the one investigating and prosecuting the local corruption being prosecuted by the Feds now. Some of this corruption occurred one floor up from my opponent at the courthouse. Because he didn't, the FBI had to come in and clean up this mess. My opponent does not investigate or prosecute corruption. Some examples show what the problem is: 1. When two top El Paso Police Officers came forward with allegations of possible drug cartel infiltration of the El Paso Police Department and corruption, my opponent did not investigate the allegations of corruption. Instead he had the police officers (the whistle blowers, i.e George DeAngelis) who reported it arrested, indicted and prosecuted. 2. When a young girl alleged that two El Paso Police officers sexually assaulted her and the father of one of these officers worked (and still works) for my opponent as an investigator, my opponent did not prosecute the two officers. Instead, he had the young girl arrested and thrown in jail and he prosecuted her for reporting the rape. This is intolerable and will not happen under my administration.

4. Are the office's operations accessible to the public? Describe why or why not, and what might be done differently. The current office's operations are not accessible to the public. When Open Records requests and Freedom ofInformation requests are filed, my opponent uses his staff to fight these requests including asking the State Attorney General's office to get involved by asking them to issue opinions saying they (the current DA's office) do not have to release the information. When Esparza or a member of his office is court ordered to come to court to answer for polices and decisions, Esparza uses his staff to fight these court orders. My office will be transparent and I will not use taxpayer resources to hide my decisions. I will be proud of my decisions and will answer for them.

Another example of how the current DA's office is not accessible to the public was when Brandon Moon tried to get DNA evidence testing while in prison for a rape he did not commit. My opponent fought him every step of the way and forced him to stay in prison for eight additional years until he was able to prove his innocence. My office will never fight a DNA request. A prosecutor should always be willing to reconsider a case and be open to new technology and evidence.

My opponent uses a County-paid public relations person who does not even speak Spanish to answer to the press on the hard cases. If elected, I will be doing away with that position thus saving the taxpayer money and speaking to the press and public myself. I won't need to hide behind a PR person.

5. Is there fair access to justice for everyone? How can the legal system be improved?

My campaign platform is based on the fact that there is absolutely not fair access to Justice for everyone. My opponent has spent 16 years and millions of dollars creating two separate but unequal EI Pasos. One for his friends and one for the rest of us. My opponent uses the power of his office to see to it that his supporters are not prosecuted. That's why he has created DIMS. Under DIMS, the police have to call Esparza for permission to arrest someone. He gets to say who is arrested and who is not. He is the gatekeeper of the jail. Under my administration, the police will have their full authority back and will take people to judges who will make that decision. See former Mayor Joe Wardy's gun at the airport case. My opponent routinely prosecutes many cases of gun possession at the airport. When Wardy got stopped with his loaded gun at the airport, Esparza, the police called Esparza and he told them to let him go. The police did let him go. Esparza then turned around and tricked the public by telling them that is was "federal." Esparza continues to this day to prosecute others for that very same crime hoping you don't notice the difference. The difference being that former Mayor Wardy voted to fund my opponent's illegal DIMS program. You, Joe Citizen, would be in cuffs and in jail so fast your head would be spinning by the felony charges Esparza would put on you. This is unfair. Under a Caballero administration, all people will be treated fairly and equally no matter who they are.

6. Describe your position on DIMS. I pledge that my first act in office, should I be elected as your next DA, on January 1, 2009 at 8 :00 a.m. will be to do away with the illegal DIMS program with the stroke of a pen. It has cost the City and County hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions of dollars that could better be spent on education, medicine and mandated services. Under DIMS arrested persons do not get to go in front of a judge as the law mandates. Under DIMS my opponent lets his friends go free because there is no judge to object. Under DIMS you go to jail without seeing ajudge. It is therefore illegal. My opponent will tell you that it is "efficient and cost saving." This is not true. Furthermore because people are jailed without ajudge's approval, many innocent people end up in jail and with an arrest record forever branded a criminal. They cannot get jobs, support their families and go on to be productive citizens. The human toll and cost to us as a society is s]aggering. Local politicians continue to fund DIMS and praise it because Esparza personally makes the arresting decision under the program and if they get arrested he will remember that they voted for his DIMS and he will let them go as he did with Wardy. Few people understand that Esparza has removed the judge and put himself in the judge's place in the arrest process. That, again, is totally unfair and contributes to the two EI Pasos that my opponent has created with his 16 years in office. If elected, I will restore the law and the judge in the arrest process and will obey and protect the rights afforded us under the U.S. Constitution. I have been fighting DIMS for years. I have successfully fought my opponent on DIMS when it comes to my clients but now I want to restore the law for everyone in El Paso. I want everyone to be treated the same and go before a neutral and detached judge if arrested. Voters should be very afraid of Jaime Esparza who claims to be board certified in criminal law but either does not know it or refuses to follow it. His false arguments that DIMS is "efficient and time tested" are insults to American legal principles and a system of over 250 years which the entire world envies, a system which honors judges and juries and CHECKS and BALANCES.

My opponent will claim that the courts have ruled DIMS to be constitutional. This is FALSE. The courts have issued no such ruling and in fact clearly stated that the matter of DIMS has not been properly raised before them and they are not going to rule either way.