Caller Times Publishes Article That Should Have Been Published 18 Years Ago! You Heard it from El Defenzor Magazine Y lOS KENEDENOS first in progress

First Reported By El Defenzor Defenzor Magazine Y lOS KENEDENOS (Kenedeno Media) and the digital community of information and engagement of reasonableinformation verification

anyway Homero has been very diligent and even to a point of appearing fanatical and crazy but you guys know what we have known for quite sometime now. I have had a dream about myself and this Judge and I remember we were on a country road in .... well at an intersection and we rode to the house an old country house like for ranch hands or a farm with many workers and this was the place for all of the Jeffes but there were no Jeffes and this was before we coined Shamsie as "The Boss of Bosses" (that story another day). Well we (the Judge and I) we came to an intersection and our direction of travel alligned as we rode a basic bicycle each of us the same neither of us were advantaged and we entered into the House of the Jeffes and we went to the kitchen as I discuss the wrongs he could have corrected, the injustice he ignored and now I know why he was washing his hands and telling me everything is gonna be alright but I kept on watching him wash his hands as if they will never become clean and my hands were perfectly clean and to wash them in that sink would make them uncleanable or not the kind of clean we expect.

No more!
The craps rolls out your mouth again
Haven't changed, your brain is still gelatin
Little whispers circle around your head
Why don't you worry about yourself instead

Who are you? where ya been? where ya from?
Gossip is burning on the tip of your tongue
You lie so much you believe yourself
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself

Holier than thou
You are
Holier than thou
You are

You know not

Before you judge me take a look at you
Can't you find something better to do
Point the finger, slow to understand
Arrogance and ignorance go hand in hand

It's not who you are it's who you know
Others lives are the basis of your own
Burn your bridges build them back with wealth
Judge not lest ye be judged yourself

Holier than thou
You are
Holier than thou
You are

You know not

Metallica

Bañales struck man in 1990 accident

By Jaime Powell (Contact)
Originally published 04:21 a.m., June 13, 2008
Updated 04:41 a.m., June 13, 2008

Eighteen years ago, a gold Chrysler Fifth Avenue driven by District Judge J. Manuel Bañales struck a Robstown man with mental disabilities who was crossing the street near Corpus Christi City Hall.

Bañales was not ticketed for the incident and the pedestrian, Francisco "Frank" Peña, then 31, was found at fault. He was taken to Memorial Medical Center with cuts, scrapes and a broken leg.

Bañales and his lawyer, Ron Barroso, did not return phone calls Thursday.

The Caller-Times filed a public records request with the Corpus Christi Police Department on June 9 seeking a police accident report and other documents related to the incident. The police department wasn't able to fill the request because, under department guidelines, traffic accident reports are purged after two years, according to police.

An Aug. 20, 1990, police report obtained by the Caller-Times through other means Thursday afternoon and verified by Mayor Henry Garrett, who was police chief at the time, shows that Bañales was traveling west on Leopard Street at 7:20 p.m. when Peña crossed the street, without the benefit of a crosswalk. The report says Bañales braked and swerved.

"This is an accident report that we generated at the police department at the time," Garrett said. "It's the real thing. It looks like the pedestrian was crossing at the middle of the block. To look at this diagram, I wouldn't see that a ticket would have been issued. By the diagram and what's in the report, the violation was the pedestrian."

Peña's father, Ramon Peña, 74, gave a different version of events Thursday morning. He was not there to witness the collision but talked to witnesses shortly after.

Frank Peña was waiting for a bus at the corner of Leopard and Staples when he decided to cross the street to a convenience store to get a soda, his father said.

"He looked both ways and here came the judge," Ramon Pena said.

City Councilman Mike Hummell, an attorney, who was serving as the assigned prosecutor in Bañales' court at the time of the accident, went to the scene shortly after it happened.

He could not remember if Bañales had called him or if he happened upon the accident on his way home.

"The only thing I recall is the guy had a Big Red," Hummell said. "When I got there, there was Big Red all over the car and at first glance it was a scary thing. Looking closer it was just a soft drink."

Ramon Peña said he had difficulty finding a lawyer to take his son's case. "I saw a lawyer every day on TV, Mike Butler. At first he refused to take the case but then he decided to."

Mike Butler, who now practices in San Antonio, did not return repeated phone calls this week.

But Jeffrey DeVillez, who was an investigator and insurance negotiator for Butler's law practice at the time, remembered the 1990 accident.

"They were accusing the kid and the kid's family was accusing Bañales, saying that he was not watching," DeVillez said. "He was a judge and the kid was (disabled). They couldn't put the kid on trial. They wanted to avoid that at all costs. So we asked for the total amount of the policy and said let's move on."

Ramon Peña said Bañales had a $100,000 insurance policy. Lawyer's fees and hospital bills carved Frank Peña's share down to a little more than $47,000, Ramon Peña said.

"Frank, he's still limping today and he got a rod in his leg," Ramon Peña said.

Contact Jaime Powell at 886-3716 or powellj@caller.com