Raymond R. Telles, the son of the late former county commissioner and school trustee Richard "Richie" Telles, earned what most of that large family never did: a college degree.
Then he went to law school and after passing the state bar exam just four years ago, this man in his early 40s with a wife and children was on his way … until he was caught up in El Paso’s public corruption investigation.
Telles pleaded guilty to two charges in February at a closed hearing where, according to a recently released and redacted transcript of that hearing, it was unclear if he will lose his freedom, but very clear that he will give up his cherished law license.
Telles was named after his uncle, Raymond L. Telles, who became El Paso’s first Hispanic mayor in 1957. His middle initial, “R,” stands for Rutherford and is probably after Sam Rutherford, the late Northeast El Paso civic leader.
Telles went back to college after his lack of a degree became a big issue in his bid for mayor in 1997. He took that degree at UTEP and then was accepted at the U.T. School of Law, one of the 10 best in the nation.
He failed his first year, but he started over, and three years later, he graduated. That was just four years ago.
At Telles’ guilty plea hearing, one of the eight that have been closed to the public, Federal District Judge Frank Montalvo didn’t say Telles would go to prison when he is sentenced for illegal conduct the government says began in 2002 – two years before he graduated from law school.
Telles was the seventh to plead guilty to public corruption charges in a series of closed hearings last year and this year that led Newspaper Tree and its parent, El Paso Media Group, to file a lawsuit to intervene in an effort to halt the closed hearings and to have certain documents unsealed and future court dockets opened to the public.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy – one involving Socorro school district trustees, the other involving El Paso County Commissioners Court members – each punishable by a 20-year sentences and a $250,000 fine.
Regarding the Socorro school district, Telles pleaded guilty to agreeing to pay cash to elected trustees who agreed to accept it in exchange for their support on matters involving vendors seeking business with the district.
In the second count, Telles pleaded guilty to conspiring to pay bribes to members of El Paso County Commissioners Court who agreed to take the money in exchange for their support and votes.
The information document that spells out the charges does not say what business or what contracts were involved in the bribery schemes. It does refer to Telles' “co-conspirators” and to large sums of money involved.
Just exactly what prison time he may serve and fines he may be ordered to pay will depend on Telles’ compliance with the government’s conditions, including his absolute cooperation with the ongoing investigation. That isn’t directly stated in the unredacted – or edited – portion of the hearing transcript, but it is strongly implied.
Telles' hearing was a courtroom a scene that Montalvo had repeated again and again in dealing with the seven previous defendants who had confessed to bribery, deprivation of honest services or conspiracy to commit those or other offenses.
“The responsibility to determine what a fair sentence is in your case is mine and mine alone,” said Montalvo, who had the script for these hearings down pat by last February.
“I am going to consider your compliance with the terms of the plea agreement, in essence (here, 58 large Xs show a section that had been excerpted ). … Because in a very real sense, the only thing that gets you out of where you are right now is the truth, simple as that.”
As he has in the previous hearings, Montalvo went on to tell Telles that he was in the process of turning his life around and that can get his life back, if he tells the truth.
"You have a better than average chance to live the remainder of your life with dignity, to be able to to say, ‘Yes, I made a mistake, I got caught, but I did what I could to remedy it, and it was recognized by the judge at the time of my sentencing,’ " Montalvo said. “Because, when everything is said and done, that’s what you want to happen here.”
Generally, any felony conviction will cost a lawyer his law license, but after advising Telles and his lawyer, Richard Jewkes, that he needed to know about all of Telles' assets and any out-of-the-ordinary transactions, Montalvo said, “And, I understand that he is going to surrender his law license.”
“Your Honor, we haven’t discussed that yet specifically as far as a specific surrender date,” Jewkes said. “He knows it’s coming.”
No date was set for Telles' sentencing.
***
To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com
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nojustice
November 10, 2008
Dignity? Are you kiddin Judge? The guy helped ripoff a community that has a myriad of poverty problems. Problems that may have been helped with money that this jerk helped divert from we the people.
Carl Starr
November 10, 2008
Buffalo Law Review Winter, 1999 47 Buffalo L. Rev. 563 Once a judge finds a ground for departing downward from the guidelines, the magnitude of the departure is in his or her discretion. See, e.g., United States v. Robinson, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 3641, at *3-4 (6th Cir. Feb. 24, 1997) (explaining that the magnitude of departure is in judge's discretion). Judges may impose non-incarceratory sentences in most cases, despite the provisions of 18 U.S.C. 3561(a) (1), which forbids probation to anyone convicted of a crime carrying a statutory maximum of 25 years or more. See United States v. Elliott, 971 F.2d 620 (10th Cir. 1992) (holding that a sentence of no jail is not a probationary sentence and is permitted despite 18 U.S.C. 3561(a) (1)). But see United States v. Greene, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 19056, at *1 (4th Cir. June 18, 1996) (finding no difference between a sentence of probation and no imprisonment but noting that cooperators, but not other relevant departure recipients, may receive non-incarceratory sentences).
SAD for el paso
November 10, 2008
how sad to have smirched a legacy .........
Joe Olvera
November 10, 2008
I've always admired Richie Telles despite the media accusing him of being a "slumlord" - as if he was the only one. Richie's defense against that charge was that if he fixed his buildings, poor people wouldn't be able to afford the rent and he didn't want to cause them additional hardship. I believed him, because I witnessed it.
Richie was the brains and the brawn behind his brother, Raymond L. Telles being elected El Paso's first Chicano Mayor in 1957. Remember, this was an era when Chicanos and Chicanas were considered of no account. While Ambassador Telles was the silk glove, meeting the powerful and the wealthy, Richie was the guy who bought beer for the guys in the alleys and byways of El Paso. He only asked them to support his brother. Because many Chicanos had never voted in their lives, and were somewhat afraid and cowed by the dang machines, Richie concocted a voting booth out of discarded refrigerator crates. He took the boxes to all the barrios in El Paso's southside and taught the people to not fear the inevitable.
When I ran his campaign for City Rep. against Susie Azar in 1987, I learned about the good heart which he had. He would virtually give you the shirt off his back. And, you know what? Richie respected people in ways which nobody understood. Yet, he kept it to himself because he was a tough, but quite vulnerable man. I hope that Judge Montalvo will take this into consideration when sentencing Richie's son, Raymond. He deserves another chance, your Honor.
Sin Fin
MR CK
November 10, 2008
Something postive will come out of this curruption scandal. Unfortunately, it involves admission of guilt and paying a price for a person's illegal activities. The Judge is correct. We, as a society, do forgive. Cooperate Mr. Telles, put this behind you. You were a role model to Hispanic kids. You need to speak regularly to these kids and urge them not to go in a crooked path. That is the most positive outcome of this scandal.
integrity
November 10, 2008
Let me get this straight....run for office by preening to be a leader..someone of integrity. Then violate that trust by stabbing little kids in the heart by ripping them off via fraud. The fair punishment is a guilty plea and the judge doing his best to make you feel better about yourself? Forgiveness? Another chance?
That is exactly why this community is in the mess that it is. Violation of the public trust is no big deal...routine...par for the course. Nobody here expects an honest government. Nobody here cares about ethics.
Look at recent history. Barbara Perez preened herself as a taxpayer advocate. As soon as she was out of office...A FOR SALE SIGN was printed across her forehead. She became a lobbyist for Big League Dreams. Let me ask you. Why did they hire her? Because she is so smart? Heck no, they hired her for her connections. Let me ask you this...do you think it is in the realm of possibility that elected officials take it easy on vendors knowing that they may be possible employers once their political career ends? What she did smacked of arrogance. Same for Pat Haggerty who everyone here seems to love. The guy loses his seat and BINGO time to become a lobbyist. Time to cash in on all those connections made while he was "serving the community". My question is...are any of these people really serving us...or just serving themselves?
I find it interesting that these "lawmakers" are the ones who make having 20 pounds of smack in your trunk while crossing the bridge a mandatory jail crime....while violating the public trust is no big deal. This is a complete joke.
I would love it if I had the time to visit the courthouse to see all the guilty plea crowd at their sentencing hearings. I'd spit on each one of them. They deserve our scorn and ridicule. Nobody forced them to run for public office or be in a position of public trust. They put themselves there by pretending to be something they are not....meaning honest...trustworthy and honorable. I don't feel sorry for their families either. They will be blubbering IF they get jail time. Of course it was all golden when everyone who wanted to do business with the taxpayer was kissing their asses. Kind of like the babe in the woods routine the wives of narcos like to do. I didn't know they howl. Yeah right!
I think that Judge Montalvo has been far too nice in his comments. These people do not deserve our sympathy or pity. Most..if not all...of them have been citizens of privilege who have abused the very public they professed to serve.
Carl Starr
November 11, 2008
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. STEPHEN REMY MUELLER, Defendant-Appellant. No. 05-10180 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT 463 F.3d 887; 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 22850 November 22, 2005, Argued and Submitted, Honolulu, Hawaii September 8, 2006. The current statute, § 3561(a), differs from its predecessor in that it does not give the sentencing court broad authority to "suspend the imposition or execution of sentence." 18 U.S.C. § 3651 (emphasis added). HN4Go to this Headnote in the case.Under the new statutory scheme, instead of representing a suspension of the execution of a sentence, probation constitutes a type of sentence in and of itself. See 18 U.S.C. § 3561(a) ("A defendant who has been found guilty of an offense may be sentenced to a term of probation".) (emphasis added); United States v. Granderson, 511 U.S. 39, 43 n.3, 114 S. Ct. 1259, 127 L. Ed. 2d 611 (1994) ("The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, for the first time, classified probation as a sentence."); S. Rep. 98-225, 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182 3271 (Aug. 4, 1983) ("Proposed 18 U.S.C. 3561, unlike current law, states that probation is a type of sentence rather than a suspension of the imposition or execution of a sentence"). This revision is significant because the status of probation as a suspension of sentence, rather than an independent sentence, was crucial to the Supreme Court's original holding that mandatory [**7] minimums did not bar probation under the old regime. See Rodriguez v. United States, 480 U.S. 522, 524, 107 S. Ct. 1391, 94 L. Ed. 2d 533 (1987) (finding no irreconcilable conflict between a minimum sentence and the "suspension authority" of section 3651).
Ken G
November 15, 2008
What did Judge Montalvo really say? I think it was, "come clean, name names and you may catch a break." Present and or former SISD Trustees, County Commissioners and crooked vendors will be joining the target list. The sooner the better.