Wood: I just want an honest operation
December 17, 2009
District court began listening to testimony yesterday in a hearing to determine whether or not a Las Maravillas resident who’s been banned from Valencia County Commission meetings will be allowed to continue attending those meetings.
Mike Wood was issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction allowing him to attend meetings, pending a hearing and ruling from a judge.
The court could decide to allow the county’s ban on Wood to stand or allow him to continue attending meetings. A ruling will be made Tuesday morning.
Before opening statements, Steven Chavez, a Los Lunas attorney representing Wood, asked that the hearing focus on discovery — primarily commission meeting tapes, transcripts and minutes. He asked that the court not take testimony because Commissioner Ron Gentry, the only commissioner who has publicly questioned the ban, wasn’t present to testify.
“He would be a key witness. He is not here today,” Chavez said.
With the defense ready to proceed with testimony, Judge George Eichwald said the court would move forward with it. There remains a possibility Gentry could testify on Tuesday when the hearing resumes at the Valencia County 13th Judicial District Courthouse.
Chavez suggested Gentry might not be able to attend on Tuesday but said he would subpoena Gentry, even though the subpoena could be challenged by the defense for not having been issued 10 days prior to the testimony, the normal amount of time required.
Chavez then jumped into his opening statement.
He said he expected the evidence and testimony would show that Wood was banned by the chairman of the commission simply because he didn’t like the things Wood said. He said Wood followed public comment decorum and commission policy on September 16 and subsequent meetings, which is when the ban was put into effect and enforced.
“He has a constitutional right to question,” Chavez said.
Chavez explained the ban on Wood is “a blanket prior restraint,” meaning Wood was banned to halt speech that hadn’t been made.
“He was seized and removed from the meeting room,” Chavez said.
Chavez said Wood’s pamphleting at the October 7 commission meeting, when Wood distributed a letter and flier titled “Who Is the Real Commissioner Kirkham?,” was “lawful activity under the First Amendment.”
Kevin Brown, an Albuquerque attorney representing the board of county commissioners, used his opening statement to lay the groundwork to prove Wood has a history of disruption of meetings, violating decorum and commission policy, and refusing to work out a solution to his alleged disruptive behavior with the commission.
“We wanted to work with Mr. Wood,” Brown said. “We still want to work with Mr. Wood.”
He said the commission is willing to allow Wood to listen to meetings via a speaker in the county administration building’s lobby.
Brown didn’t specifically defend the ban, but made it clear Wood has had the “intent to disrupt meetings for more than two years.”
He said he expects Wood to be held to the same standard of behavior with commissioners at commission meetings that one would expect of a person in a courtroom.
Testimony begins
After opening statements, Chavez called two witnesses: John Moran, an involved citizen and self-described “buddy” of Wood, and Wood himself.
Much of the evidence and testimony concentrated on meetings in September and October, where Wood was repeatedly removed by deputies at the request of Commission Chairman Pedro Rael, with general consensus from other commissioners at least once.
Moran was mostly a character witness, asked questions describing Wood’s actions, general behaviors and character.
Moran was asked if Wood ever yells at commissioners, flails his arms, or pounds his fist when speaking.
“He never does,” Moran said.
Moran was then asked if Wood has ever resisted being removed by Valencia County deputies.
“He never does,” he said.
Under cross-examination, Moran said he would consider calling a commissioner a “liar” or a “thief” a personal attack, words Wood is said to have used in reference to Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham.
Moran also admitted Wood spoke up from the public gallery out of turn on occasion.
Wood takes the stand
Wood took the stand and spent the majority of his time explaining the details, as he recalled them, of each meeting since September 16, the meeting at which Rael declared the days of attacking commissioners was over and began seriously clamping down on Wood and others he thought were violating decorum and commission policy.
Wood, wearing a gray suit and glasses, described himself as “a 69-year-old man on a fixed income who wants a hospital.”
He described Rael’s action as little more than targeting citizens who criticize commissioners.
“Anytime they disagree with Rael, he has them removed,” Wood said, pointing out that other citizens, such as George Moscona, Dick Klapper and Alice Torwirt, have been chastised by the chairman and asked to leave meetings.
Wood said he isn’t disruptive.
“I’ve never disrupted the man,” he said of Rael, adding, “I just want an honest operation.”
He said he has always obeyed deputies’ requests to leave.
“They never needed to escort me out,” he said. “If they show up, I go out.”
Wood, at times, hasn’t immediately left the commission chambers after being asked to leave by the chairman or deputies, because he wanted clarification from the chairman about why he was being asked to leave.
Wood has never been charged with a crime for any of his words or actions at commission meetings.
Because the court hearing had already gone nearly 30 minutes longer than it was scheduled to last, Eichwald allowed the defense to delay Wood’s cross-examination and call a defense witness who would be unable to attend the second day of testimony on Tuesday.
An awkward direct examination
The defense called Lisa Chavez to the stand. Chavez, who lives in Los Chavez, is the vice president of the Los Chavez Community Association.
Chavez testified that Joe Rizzo, a member of the Valencia County Action Committee, or VCAC, to which Wood also belonged, came to an association meeting and spoke negatively about issues.
She said she spoke after Rizzo at the association meeting to say the association didn’t endorse his comments. She said she has never supported VCAC’s tactics in general, which have involved posting signs, passing out fliers and speaking publicly at meetings, all sometimes with heightened and controversial language.
Three times the line of questioning in the direct examination was objected to for being irrelevant, and the defense had trouble showing how its questions had anything to do with Wood and the ban against him. Almost every substantive question posed to Chavez was about Rizzo.
Eichwald eventually halted the questions and the defense gave up trying to do whatever it was trying to do. All Chavez’s testimony appeared to do was connect Wood and Rizzo through VCAC and show that Rizzo spoke negatively at one Los Chavez meeting.
The hearing will resume Tuesday at 9am at the Valencia County 13th Judicial District Courthouse in Los Lunas.
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