Lawyers in Texas case not allowed to tweet deposition of ex-sheriff

by Unknown 03:36 0 comments

In a high-profile civil case involving a disgraced ex-Texas sheriff, a judge has prohibited the plaintiff's attorneys from tweeting the deposition of the defendant as it happens.

Earlier this summer, former Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño was sentenced to five years in prison for a money laundering scheme that involved taking campaign contributions from drug trafficker Tomas "El Gallo" Gonzalez. Treviño, however, is still facing several civil lawsuits, including one from a former contender for the sheriff's position, Republican candidate Robert Caples.
In a deposition on August 1, Caples' attorney, Javier Peña, questioned Treviño, and members of Peña's law firm tweeted Treviño's responses. Although the session was supposed to last six hours, Treviño's defense attorney, Preston Henrichson, shut down the session after a little more than four hours, objecting to the questioning and the tweeting. On Wednesday, Judge Rudy Delgado of the Texas State District Court said that the deposition would be allowed to continue on Friday for the one hour and 48 minutes left to Peña's firm, but that tweeting details would be out of the question.
During the deposition, Peña's firm asked Treviño about his ties to certain people and about the internal workings of the department he oversaw. One tweet read, “Did you ever instruct your deputies to alter crime statistics? (Instructed not to answer.) Who was in charge of stats? 'Cmdr. Montemayor.'”
Another read, “Would you be able to overrule the findings of an internal affairs investigation? 'Absolutely.' - LT #rgv.”
A transcript of the August 1 deposition was also leaked after the session ended, and on Wednesday the judge said Peña's firm would not be allowed to release a transcript of the remaining deposition time until the court permitted it.
Judge Delgado reportedly told the two sides, "Our technology is far outpacing [the] ability to formulate rules.”
According to the Monitor, the judge continued, “These tweets could have gone to China and back and likely the media already had the deposition and that it would be hard to put the horse back in the barn. Mr. Henrichson, you mentioned it was more akin to pigeons going out there and spraying on everybody. Well, it’s out.”