I Team Report; Campaign Controversy

ByAshlie Hardway

Was an El Paso teacher accused of molesting a six-year-old let off the hook? That explosive claim is taking center stage in an already heated race for El Paso district attorney.

ABC 7 has learned attorney Theresa Caballero, who’s running for the position, sent out a campaign flyer, alleging a pedophile is teaching in the Socorro school system.

The accused was Alberto Ocegueda, and he was never tried and the case never went before a grand jury.

In 2006, Ocegueda, a Socorro ISDelementary school teacher and coach, was arrested on charges he sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl. In April, 2007, a special prosecutor decided not to take the case before a grand jury which would have decided whether to indict him.

“Just based on all the information I had, I just felt like I wasn’t doing justice to Mr. Ocegueda or to that child by taking that case to a grand jury,” said Chris Bradley, an independent criminal defense attorney, who served as the special prosecutor.

The case doesn’t seem unusual, except for one matter: Ocegueda is the brother of District Attorney Jaime Esparza’s executive assistant.

“I think this case perfectly illustrates the two El Pasos my opponent has set up,” Caballero said. “One, where the rules are different if you are part of a select, elite group of people, there just never seems to be enough evidence to go before the grand jury or to prosecute.”

Esparza says he didn’t prosecute the case through his office because of his relationship with the accused. “Mr. Ocegueda is a friend of mine,” Esparza said. “As a result, there’s a special prosecutor. It wouldn’t be proper for me to review a case where I know the person so well.”

Theresa Caballero, inher flyer distributed to voters, questions Esparza’s handling of the case, and the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Three days after Ocegueda’s arrest in November of 2006, Esparza recommended Bradley as a special prosecutor to the case.

Bradley worked for the district attorney’s office for 15 years, but quit several years before she was assigned the Ocegueda case. She said to prevent the appearance of favoritism, she hired a private investigator with no current affiliation to any city or county entity.

ABC 7 spoke with Curtis Flynn, who investigated the case from January to April, 2007. “I interviewed virtually everyone who came into contact with this little girl,” Flynn said. “it was an investigation at least the caliber of a murder investigation.”

Flynn said the records did not show any signs of sexual abuse.

In April 2007, with the findings of Flynn’s investigation, Bradley decided she wouldn’t pursue the case. “I never believed when I worked under either gentlemen, Mr. Simmons or Mr. Esparza, that it was the grand jury’s job to do my dirty work. That was my call and I made it. It had no influence from Mr. Esparza,” Bradley said.

The Socorro Independent School District conducted its own investigation, and about 20 Elfida Chavez Elementary students were interviewed. District officials said they found no evidence of wrongdoing and after the case was dropped by the special prosecutor, the district reinstated Ocegueda as aP.E. teacher in April of 2007. He is now at Hambric Middle School.

“Had they had some doubts about Mr. Ocegueda’s behavior, I don’t think he would be in the classroom,” Esparza said.

After Ocegueda returned to teaching, his attorney requested all of the charges be expunged from his record, and those charges were removed. There is now no official record that he was ever accused of molesting a child.

Caballero said that doesn’t remove all reasonable doubt of culpability in this case. “Not enough evidence to prosecute over here; more than enough evidence to prosecute the average citizen,” she said.

“I don’t think Mr. Ocegueda’s case was handled any differently other than the selection of the special prosecutor,” Esparza said.

To make her point, Caballero included Ocegueda’s booking document on the flyer, and thousands of potential voters have seen it.

Ocegueda’s attorney has toldABC 7 he’s ready to file charges against Theresa Caballero for slander, libel, fraud, and defamation of character.

“He was very upset this was found in the mailers,” said Jeff Ray about his client.

Caballero said she never intimated Ocegueda was guilty, but that she brought up allegations about him. These are allegations.”

Ocegueda’s home address, social security, home phone and driver’s license numbers are all printed on the flyers that were mailed to voter’s homes, and that data is currently onCaballero’s Web site.

Caballero maintains she obtained Ocegueda’s booking docket more than four months before the records were wiped from the system. In a voice message, her colleague, Sam Snoddy, said he personally requested them.

But sheriff’s office spokesman Rick Glancey told ABC-7 in a written statement, “The sheriff’s office’s legal section and identification records section have no written request for the document in question.”

TheABC 7I-Team has learned no county office could legally release the booking docket in the first place. Last year, a print reporter requested Ocegueda’s records. The Texas Attorney General’s Office said his booking record was not to be released.

“The Attorney General ruled that because it related to a child sexual assault case, that it was protected under the family code and I could not release the document,” said Holly Lytle, from the El Paso County Attorney’s Office.

Even if the AG’s office could have turned over the booking record, by law, certain information would have to deleted, including the invididual’s social security number, Lytle said.

The I-Team found Caballero could be prosecuted for publishing the expunged document. The Texas Code of Criminal Procedure states a person commits an offense if he knowingly releases, disseminates or otherwise usessuch records or files.

Further, “a person who knowingly fails to return or to obliterate identifying portions of a record or file ordered expunged under this chapter commits an offense,” the state document reads.

Despite what the law says, attorneys for Ocegueda said his main concern is the release of his personal information to thousands of people.