In 1999 my wife was beaten and bloodied in front of her three children (2,7, 10 yrs.) by two Salinas Police Officers who filed charges against her for assault of P.O.; that they later withdrew when other complaint of abuse by these officers were presented in Superior Court of Monterey County. We won the case in Court and we filed a Federal Lawsuit in the San Jose Division of Northern California on August 1, against the City and Police Department of Salinas and the Salinas Unified naming my wife and three children and myself as plaintiffs.
In 2001 the case had still not gone to court and my wife had to leave to Mexico and remain because of a family emergency. The following year the judge ordered me to get am attorney and I hired Mr. Buzo who that same presented himself by phone to the defendant's attorneys and also wrote a letter to my wife identifying himself as the Acosta family attorney. The first thing he did was take me and two of my children off the complaint, forcing the need for the only plaintiffs left were the ones that were in Mexico.
My wife and children were, undersgoing phychological terapy and remained in Mexico where she reagined her previous employment as a pre-school teacher. Later she had surgery, that was in part, necessary because of the beating by the Salinas police officers. The judge set a date for her to present herself in court or show proof of why she couldn't, allowing an opening, an opportunity to present the evidence and have a change of venue, if the court deemed it necessary. The final date was set for December 15.
We sent Mr. Buzo many letters by special delivery from Mexico of the Drs. That had operated and were treating my wife and also letters from the psychologist treating the children. He never presented them to the court, even theletter that my wife wrote and addressed directly for the judge. Since my wife is a Mexican citizen he failed to use the office of the Mexican Consulate adequately, while receiving money from them.
On the day of the court Mr. Buzo did not show up and sent another imcompetent attorney. I was there waiting for him for about an hour until the court proceedings began. And well into the proceedings the representative of the Mexican Consulate came up to inform me that Mr. Buzo is not coming and has sent someone in his place, and that the attorney was already in the courtroom. I went and introduced myself and said I needed to talk to him to make sure he had all the information correct and the copies of the letters to present. He told me to be quiet that we could not talk in there.
At that point our case was called and this "lawyer" tells me not to come up and he presents himself as our representative. The judge asks him if he was certified to plead in federal court and he said that he was not and asked the judge to waive that rule. The judge allowed to represent the case. And he immediately said that the plaintiff could not enter into the country legally, and he wanted more time prepare.
The other attorneys objected between their "smirks" and "giggles", the judge agreed with them and dismissed the case. "Our attorney", of whom I did not even know his name, nor did he know anything about our case, just stood there with h— fi - up his a—.
I immediately jumped up and the Mexican Consul representeative told me to sit down, but I went forward before the judge. This is where I should have been in the first place because I was named as the minor plaintiff's representative. I told the judge that he should allow my wife the opportunity to stand before him, like she asked him in his letter, once she recovered from her operation.
The judge was in awe, appeared shock, and told me that he did not know about any letter nor any documents from the Drs. And hospital verifying my wifes ill health and condition.
The Honorable Judge James Ware then said that he was going to leave his ruling stand, however, he added, he was going to allow my attorney to present all of these documents and letters and in writing and request a re=hearing of the case. "Our attorney" acknoledge what he had to do and we left. Outside the courtroom this attorney thank me for standing up and said that I had save the last opportunity for this case.
I asked the Mexican Consulate representative how long it would take to get my wife here with a humanitarian visa and she said "about three days". The dhe told this attorney to have Mr. Buzo come on over and pick up his check.
Mr. Buzo not only fail to adegquately represent us and submit all the documentation we had provide to him he fail to submit the request and the evidence the judge had odered, as well. I met with him later and he said he was going to get the court record to review what the judge had ordered, and promised me he was going to do everything in his power to turn this around, though he saw it real tough. He never did anything and I kept calling and writing him through e-mail.
In February of last year I talked to him by phone and he told me that he did not have those letters translated nor bought the court record yet, and I told him I could get them translated and would over night them to him when I got it done.in April I had the Drs. Letters and hospital documents translated in Albuquerque, New Mexico and sent to him by special delivery, over night, and followed up with a phone call. I also let him know how to get a hold of me and my wife, and requested that he not keep us on the back burner.
Many phone calls have all gone unanswered.
Mr. Buzo did a terrible disservice, not only to my wife and kids, but to all victims of police abuse because this is one case that could have made a difference in the way monolingual english speaking police officers respond to monolingual spanish speaking citizens, which might prevent such further abuse.
I want Mr. Buzo to fulfill the order of the court or pay damages, that his actions magnified to the Acosta family.
Thank you.
Guadalupe
fresno, California
U.S.A.
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