Former City Rep files ethics complaint; accuses Mayor of misusing power and police resources

Former City Rep. Ann Morgan Lilly spoke only with ABC-7 on Friday about an ethics complaint she filed against El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser on Thursday.

“I am formally filing a complaint under the city code against Mayor Oscar Leeser for abuse of office and power and misuse of public police resources,” Ann Morgan Lilly states in the complaint.

On Tuesday, December 20, 2016, Lilly and her husband, Rutledge Lilly, were having dinner at Thyme Matters on North Mesa. Lilly said the mayor and his wife approached her table to ask her how she felt about the decision to take the historic Duranguito Neighborhood off the list of possible sites for the Downtown arena.

According to the ethics complaint, Lilly said she was surprised the mayor approached her because “he seldom spoke to me in public forums while I was in office.”

Lilly further stated the mayor “didn’t like the answer I gave him and became agitated. He said I didn’t understand poor people because I was rich. He then said to my husband, ‘it must be nice to be a rich boy and it must be nice to take people’s homes.'”

As the Lillys were leaving, Leeser allegedly pointed his cell phone at the couple. Rutledge Lilly walked up to him and told him, “you’re a wimp,” the complaint states. Lilly goes on to state, “Leeser got up and his wife then stood up between them.”

Lilly said she and her husband walked away and left the restaurant. “The police came to our house about 30 or 40 minutes later and asked what had happened.”

Lilly says she believes El Paso police have enough to do and there was no reason for police to have been called. “When I was in office, I got calls that the police didn’t get to places on time for real crimes and then the police would say we don’t have enough officers,” Lilly said. “That was a back and forth for 10 years and then for the police to be called on this little thing and to have it called an assault is beyond my comprehension.”

Mayor Leeser told ABC-7 Rutledge Lilly pushed his wife. A police report filed by Leesa Leeser states she was not in pain, but the contact was “offensive.” Leeser was not available for comment on Lilly’s ethics complaint.