Defense Hammers Ex-Commissioner Betti Flores Over Testimony, Plea Deal

Years ago, Betti Flores, Gilbert Sanchez and Luther Jones would go out for drinks and dinners, with Flores even saying she considered Sanchez a good friend.

Times have changed, and this week, Flores, a former El Paso county commissioner, has taken the stand in federal court, testifying for the prosecution that all three of them were corrupt. Both Sanchez and Jones were calm throughout the day’s proceedings with Jones at one point turning to smile at his family and gesturing to his daughters to smile.

Sanchez, the former district clerk, is accused of conspiring with attorney and former County Judge Jones to steer a private company’s contract in late 2003 through 2004. Sanchez and Jones are being tried in federal court on two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and deprivation of honest services.

On Tuesday, defense attorneys questioned Flores about her plea agreement and what she claimed she understood Jones wanted her to do when certain votes came up before El Paso County commissioners court.

Flores testified that Jones had given her a $2,500 campaign donation in exchange for her vote to settle a county lawsuit and sell 300 acres of land on the East Side, commonly known as the Catalina Land Deal, to a company he was affiliated with.(Editor’s Note: Read more about the Catalina Land Deal at bottom of story.)

Flores also said Jones asked her to vote “yes” on a contract with Altep, a data-entry company that had hired Jones in 2004 to help secure contracts with the county. Flores said Jones offered campaign donations if she voted “yes” on a multimillion-dollar contract with Altep. Altep wanted a contract to digitize the paper records in the district clerk’s office.

Prosecutors showed emails between Jones and Flores in which Jones presses Flores on the two matters, but the emails never state Jones explicitly said she’d get money in return for how she voted.

The Altep-related email was sent one month after El Paso county commissioners unanimously rejected a bid from Altep and all other bids in June 2004.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Stephen Peters talked to Flores about her plea deal — a deal that Flores initially denied.

“You’ve not served in jail, but you do know eventually you’ll be sentenced. The judge will decide your punishment and then … he may choose to be influenced by prosecutors’ recommendation,” Peters told Flores.

Flores responded, “I have no agreement with anyone, sir.”

“You have no agreement with the prosecutors?” Peters asked.

“No sir, we’re not in any kind of agreement,” Flores said.

The defense then brought into evidence her plea deal agreement, and it states she’ll cooperate and assist prosecutors.

“This agreement was agreed to by you and your attorney. Your attorney spent weeks on this plea agreement, right?” Peters asked Flores.

“Yes,” Flores said.

“You agreed to provide them with substantial assistance,” Peters said.

“By telling the truth,” Flores responded.

Peters later said, “There is nothing specifically in your plea agreement that says you have to tell the truth when you testify, right?”

Flores responded that she believed, “The word ‘truth’ is in there several times.”

Judge Frank Montalvo then interrupted and said, “This is getting argumentative.”

Peters then changed his line of questioning and asked Flores how many times she had met with the FBI and U.S. attorneys in the past month.

“Numerous times,” Flores said.

Peters then asked if Flores refused to meet with the defense, and she replied that was true.

“That’s right,” Flores said. “I just refuse to talk to you, not because it was going to help me or not help me.”

Peters and Flores continued to spar over what kind of evidence she was giving to the prosecutors.

“You had a very good reason to give them every piece of incriminating evidence on Mr. Jones,” Peters said.

Flores responded with, “To give them the truth.”

Peters disputed that Jones’ campaign contribution to Flores was in exchange for any favors.

“He (Jones) never said anything that communicated to you that his check was in exchange for your votes,” Peters told Flores.

“No sir. It was understood,” Flores said.

“It was understood by you,” Peters countered.

Peters then said Flores’ guilty plea and money in exchanges for votes were not a part of this case, but “the reason you (pleaded) guilty in this case is because they caught you red-handed in other real conspiracy crimes where you exchanged your vote for money,” Peters said.

Flores replied with, “No, sir.”

Flores also said Altep’s Roger Miller had left a $1,000 check for her in Gilbert Sanchez’s office in March of 2004 for her upcoming vote on the contract. Defense lawyers said Miller had said he had given her the check at a Landry’s Restaurant over lunch, not clandestinely left in with Sanchez.

She also testified Miller and Altep’s then attorney Martie Jobe had taken part, in some form, in the conspiracy to steer the contract.

The defense heavily attacked Flores’ prior statements to U.S. prosecutors and the FBI. They showed her documents that showed she had once told the FBI that part of the digitization contract had gone to Altep, which never happened. She said that at the time of that statement, in 2007, that’s how she remembered the events, but was mistaken.

Tuesday afternoon, businessman Robert Munoz, with a company that also wanted a contract to digitize the county records, said Sanchez specifically asked for campaign donations from his company, Pensar, and asked for a trip to San Diego. Sanchez took the trip, allegedly in exchange for allowing the company to help write the requirements for a potential contract, which is illegal. He said Sanchez had been the only government official, in his experience, who had accepted a courtesy invitation to dinner. He said Sanchez chose Cafe Central and ordered expensive wine, and Pensar picked up the tab, which Munoz said was between $400 and $500.

Munoz said that during the meeting, Sanchez specifically asked for campaign donations and the out of town trip. Still, Pensar continued to pursue the contract, though Munoz said he ‘felt uncomfortable’ with Sanchez’s demands.

Also on the stand Tuesday was Lee Shapleigh, the legal advisor to County Commissioners. She testified that the way Sanchez brought the Altep proposal to commissioners was highly unusual, because it is the Purchasing Department who handles all bids and proposals. She said the day of the June 7, 2004 county commissioner meeting, she saw Martie Jobe, an attorney affiliated with Altep, in possession of a county document that showed how much each of the eight companies competing for the contract that Altep was pursuing had proposed to the county. Under state law, no competing vendor can have access to that information during the proposal process and each vendor must be provided with the same information all at once. It is unclear who gave Jobe to county document, though in court, Prosecutors’ line of questioning implied it was Sanchez.

Shapleigh has been working as a legal advisor to the commissioners since the early 80s, when Luther Jones, who was the County Judge at the time, hired her.

Betti Flores Bio: Flores was county commissioner from January 2003 to December 2006. She pleaded guilty in July 2007 to exchanging money for votes on these issues:

-$120 million bond initiative for Thomason Hospital. -Catalina Land Lawsuit settlement and sale. -“15-minute” lawsuit settlement (overtime for El Paso County sheriff’s deputies). -Parking garage annex contract. -Data-entry contract for district clerk’s office. -County employees’ health care administrator contract. -Faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the counts.

She faces up to 20 years in prison on each of the counts.

The Catalina Land Deal: The U.S. government’s July 6, 2007 “information” court document accusing Flores of crimes while in office states that “others known and unknown offered to pay and paid the defendant (Flores) money and other benefits in exchange for her vote, in her official capacity as an El Paso County Commissioner, to settle a lawsuit against the County of El Paso over a tract of land owned by the County of El Paso and to sell the land to clients of another… .” On July 7, 2007, Flores pleaded guilty to her part in the Catalina Land Deal and other crimes. Click here to read the crimes Flores was accused of doing while in office which she pleaded guilty to.

Related Link:Link: Corruption Trial Day 2: Former County Commissioner Betti Flores Testifies Luther Jones Offered Cash for Votes