Attorney: Rael’s conduct is a concern

October 22, 2009

Los Lunas attorney Steven M. Chavez, who’s been retained by a citizen who was banned from all future Valencia County Commission meetings, said today he’s concerned about actions taken by the commission chairman.

“I’m really concerned with the conduct of the chairman, especially,” Chavez said about Chairman Pedro Rael, who, himself an attorney, has enforced the ban on Mike Wood with the aid of Valencia County Sheriff’s Department deputies.

Even though Wood was banned for being a disruption at meetings and for what two commissioners call slanderous speech, he’s continued to show up at meetings. That led to him being removed from three recent meetings, once forcibly, by deputies. Wood has been removed other times prior to the ban.

The county hasn’t presented Wood with sufficient notice of the ban, Chavez said. Rael has told Wood not to attend the meetings. Wood hasn’t been charged with any crimes.

While acknowledging he’s just begun to look into the details of the situation and “there’s always two sides to the story,” Chavez said the commission appears to have violated Wood’s rights to free speech, due process and attendance of public meetings.

He said his law office has requested audio tapes of commission meetings from the county. He’ll also take a look at meeting minutes.

“We’re looking at this very carefully. We’re scrutinizing what the county commission is doing,” he said.

Chavez said he’ll spend the next week looking over information and will decide whether or not to seek an emergency injunction allowing Wood to continue attending the meetings pending a full hearing of the case by a court.

If the issue gets a hearing, he said the court would review the commission’s actions based on established, strict legal standards for prohibiting free speech.

“I don’t know what their justifications are and if they can meet the standards for free speech prohibition. I suspect that they don’t,” he said.

Chavez said the “very significant’ burden is on the commission to prove it was right to ban Wood, noting the county will have to show the governmental interest in prohibiting disruptive behavior substantially overrides Wood’s rights.

“Just concluding that the conduct was disruptive doesn’t meet the standard,” he said, explaining that disruption can mean one thing to one person and something entirely different to another.

He said “blurting out” comments during a commission meeting isn’t disruptive in a legal sense because the commission meetings are “traditional public forums.”

“As an attorney who’s been a participant in many meetings for many, many years, I can honestly say that I’ve seen situations at every meeting where someone jumps up and makes a comment. But they’re not asked to leave. They’re not forcibly removed,” he said.

While commissioners “have a right to control their meeting so they can do the public’s business,” he doesn’t think they can permanently ban an outspoken citizen from attending meetings.

Chavez said he’s going to work to ensure all of the details of the case come out.

“We’re going to pursue it with a heavy hand,” he said.

Posted in: Reform