City Rep Quintana: A ‘Right’ To Discounted Tickets

EL PASO — The particulars of the case against her have made headlines for a month. City Rep. Rachel Quintana has been charged with forgery and now faces up to a year in jail, a fine, and the possibility of being removed from office.

The charges stem from Quintana’s alleged forgery of a signature of her former boss at FedEx, used to verify her employment so that she could secure a discounted airline ticket on Southwest Airlines back in October.

Now, the public will get tohear her side of the story.

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Quintanareferred all comments on the charge to her attorney Luis Aguilar. Aguilar said Quintana purchased a ticket from Southwest Airlines, at a discount available to FedEx employees while she was still working for the company.

For the first time, with the help of her attorney, ABC-7 hascalculated how much Quintana stood to save on the tickets. Aguilar said the tickets for Quintana and her daughter were $88each, meaning she paid $176total. The full price for the two tickets to California was about $550, meaning she saved about $400 before she was asked by airline employees to pay the full amount.

Aguilar said his client was under the impression that she could still use the tickets, regardless of whether she still worked at FedEx.”That ticket is only good for 90 days. No one will disputeMs. Quintana purchased this non-revenue ticket when she was an employee of FedEx. So the question is, once you leave the office or FedEx, are you not still allowed to use that ticket that she paid for?” Aguilar said.

ABC-7asked Aguilar about the letter and whether Quintana admitted to signing it. “I hope in the near future,I can answer these questions: Where did it come from, how did she get it and who signed it. Unfortunately, the charges were just filed yesterday andI just don’t know the answers to those questions,” he said.