Nick Jimenez

Sunday, February 6, 2000

CCISD inquiry should be open to community

The old courthouse is moldering away day by day, many of its windows standing open to the winter winds and nothing but the ghosts of past trials filling its now-empty courtrooms.
   In the days before television, those courtrooms would have been full of spectators for trials of high interest. The people who built the generation of courthouses before the mass media knew that public trials meant that you had to build in plenty of seating space for the public.
   The old Nueces County Courthouse had a court complete with balcony seating just for that purpose.
   When a big trial was being conducted, it was the biggest show in town. In the movie based on the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," a courtroom, complete with second-floor gallery, is packed with townsfolk.
   A trial for high stakes with high public interest ought to be as public as possible. Not only are the defendants on trial, but so is the legal system. And the finding of guilt or innocence is not only a finding of the judge or jury, but also must be supported by the community. Or at least the public must affirm that the verdict was arrived at fairly. Holding that proceeding in as public a manner supports that affirmation.
   The public affirmation of the proceedings of a court is why I think that the court of inquiry surrounding allegations against the trustees of the Corpus Christi Independent School District ought to be televised.
   The ideal would be to have gavel-to-gavel coverage of the proceedings into the local public access cable channels.
   The troubles of the Corpus Christi school board have been playing themselves out in the public square for the better part of the year. A disagreement on the superintendent's salary eventually blossomed into outright acrimony and division. As distasteful as the exposed bitterness was, it was only the beginning of the implosion of the board.
   Then followed accusations of abuse of credit cards, travel and meal expenses, charges at topless bars, possible open meetings violations and generally handling the school's finances with an attitude of entitlement.
   District Attorney Carlos Valdez has chosen to call for a court of inquiry as the prelude to the possible pursuance of criminal charges. That legal proceeding would be separate from the investigation already being done by the Texas Education Agency.
   These are gravely serious matters. Any alleged misuse of public funds by high public officials would be grave. But the principals in this case are officials, the board members, elected to direct public policy on education, and an appointed executive, the superintendent, whose job is to carry out that policy. We're talking education, kids, the future.
   The public, I think, has the right to view first-hand the investigatory nature of the case. And the public officials, if they are to clear their names, ought to get a chance to do it in the most public forum possible.
   T
   he present courthouse has tiny courtooms; no more than about 60 seats in each venue.
   The likelihood is that the court of inquiry, to be presided over by Judge Emil Karl Prohl of Kerrville, will be held in a slightly larger courtroom once used as the central jury room. That will offer a few more seats for spectators than the standard-size courtroom, but not by much.
   Valdez said the court of inquiry, a seldom used legal tool, ought to remove any conspiratorial theories about what went on behind the doors of the grand jury room, the normal channel for indictments.
   If we follow that same line of thought, then a televised trial, put on before the court of public opinion, would affirm the proceedings of the justice system.
   Let the public see and hear the more than 20 witnesses testify first hand. Give the board members and superintendent a chance to clear their names not only before the judge, but before the public as well.
  

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