FBI Wiretapped Conversations Played In Public Corruption Trial

The public corruption trial of Ernesto “Ernie” Lopez, the former chief operating offercer for NCED, continued on Friday with an FBI agent testifying about wiretapped conversations.

FBI agent James Griego Jr. took the stand and discussed the conversations they collected from tapping Marc Schwartz’s phone. Schwartz was the former NCED spokesman. Five taped conversations were played in court Friday.

In those conversations dated Nov. 2005, Schwartz is concerned about then El Paso Times reporter David Crowder writing a story on NCED allegedly outsourcing of manufactured boxes from a San Antonio company that was government contract. Lopez reassured Schwartz that they just had an audit and that everything turned out OK, and that (NCED CEO) Bob Jones was able to handle it.

Also in those conversations, Lopez and Schwartz talked about the ratio of disabled employees compared to what was required for contracts.

“I tried to keep the whole 75 percent thing out of the public arena… It just makes it that much more difficult,” Lopez told Schwartz. “I worked three years to not let that be at the forefront, and shoot, I’ve done a pretty good job.”

Schwartz said to Lopez, “There are enough people who quit or were fired from NCED to fill a book… If we dodge this one, there are still plenty more bullets in the gun.”

Lopez replied with, “All they need to do is come here and interview 20 people!”