Modrall on the hook in APS litigation

APS School Board Member and Defendant Marty Esquivel is losing in federal court.  Despite the cost is no object litigation in defense of his ego, Esquivel is losing.  He has no evidence in support of his defense; he has no reliable testimony to support it.

All Esquivel has is; all the lawyers, guns and money he wants, to use to forestall his eventual conviction for as long as the law will allow.

A large part of Esquivel's defense is his contention that he relied upon the advice of his lawyer when he penned what amounted to a lifetime ban on my participation in public meetings of the APS school board.

That would be Esquivel's friend and Modrall lawyer Art Melendres.



Melendres has been APS' lawyer for as long as I can remember.

The APS Modrall relationship has been a long and profitable arrangement for Melendres and Modrall.  To say they are close doesn't begin to cover what, at one time, for a long time, included the Presidents of Modrall and the APS School Board being married to each other.

Modrall has made so much money off taxpayers and APS, that you can't find out how much they have actually made.

In any case, Esquivel was given bad legal advice, and when Esquivel loses, Modrall loses.

The quality of the work Melendres and Modrall is manifest in the Public Participation in Public Meetings Policy and Procedural Directive.  The NM FOG weighed in on its flaws; link.

In any case, one might expect to Melendres advise his friends on the school board and in the senior administration, to continue to spend as much money as it takes to keep their communal fat out of the fire.

The dollars they're spending are dollars which if they weren't being squandered in litigation against student interests, would be being actually spent in student best interests.


It's all a big secret from
interest and stakeholders
because the establishment
media, including former
APS school board heavy
hitter, Modrall wife, and
head of the NM
Broadcasters Assoc
Paula Maes' friends in
the broadcast media, and
everybody's friend in

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and the Journal, steadfastly refuse to investigate and report upon the squandering of the public trust and treasure, even in the face of school board elections and the appointment of the next superintendent.




photos Mark Bralley