Cops called to Co-op meeting . . . again

For the third time in three months — and the fourth in the last 16 — police were called in to keep the peace at a regular meeting of the Socorro Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees.

On Monday, Nov. 9, the Socorro Police Department responded to a 911 call from Charlene Wagner, wife of District 5 trustee Charlie Wagner, who has often been at odds with his fellow trustees over reforming the structure of the member-owned co-op.

 

 

Charlene Wagner said she interrupted an executive session — a portion of the meeting that is closed to the public and press — after hearing shouting coming from the board room and the voice of her husband demanding that someone get their hands off him.

According to a police report, Wagner claimed that District 4 trustee David Wade, who sits next to him at the table, grabbed his leg and threatened to beat him up.

Wade’s account is that he only touched Wagner after Wagner turned his chair around and their legs made contact. Wade told a police officer that he then told Wagner to turn his chair around and to stop kicking him.

The police report indicated that witnesses corroborated Wade’s statement.

Wagner declined to discuss the details of what took place in executive session during a phone interview on Thursday.

Calls to Wade’s home on Thursday and Friday went unanswered.

The Rev. Doug May attended Monday’s meeting and was among members of the public who were asked to step outside when Co-op attorney JoAnna Aguilar called for the board to go into executive session.

“Most people there got in their cars and took off,” he said. “It was kind of cold, so some of us went into the anteroom. From there, we could hear loud yelling and someone said, “Take your hands off me!”

That’s when Charlene Wagner opened the door to the board room and then called 911, May said.

Meanwhile, May rushed outside to see if he could catch a sheriff’s deputy who had been there minutes earlier. Although he failed to locate the deputy, two Socorro police officers arrived a short time later and began questioning the parties involved.

According to those who were present on the scene, the sheriff’s deputy showed up at Monday’s meeting and said he had official business involving trustee Juan Gonzales and co-op member Charlene West, a leader behind the reform efforts to realign co-op districts and reduce the number of trustees from 11 to five.

The deputy left after learning that Gonzales was in executive session and West wasn’t at the meeting.

West and Gonzales were involved in an incident in which West allegedly dropped grapes on a table in front of Gonzales before an Oct. 28 Co-op meeting and Gonzales threw them back. West’s gesture apparently was in response to a guest editorial by Gonzales that appeared in that day’s edition of El Defensor Chieftain.

West had a temporary restraining order filed against her by nine of the 11 trustees — Leroy Anaya, Harold Baca, Paul Bustamante, Leo Cordova, Juan Gonzales, Manuel Martinez, Herman Romero, Milton Ulibarri and Wade — in September 2008. Wagner and fellow District 5 trustee Jack Bruton were the only trustees not listed.

The complaint, filed through Co-op attorney JoAnna Aguilar, stated that the restraining order was for “threatening” and “intimidating” members of the board during meetings last year.

Seventh Judicial District Court Judge Matt Reynolds ruled in October 2008, that West could continue to attend meetings, but she was prohibited from approaching or talking to members of the board.

The judge also prohibited West from using the parking lot of the building where meetings are held.

According to the affidavits filed by the nine trustees named in the restraining order, West, while behind the wheel of a car, made threatening advances toward board members and physically opened the door of another trustee’s car following a meeting in July 2008.

At Monday’s meeting, Ulibarri made a motion, seconded by Marquez, to bar West from meetings altogether.

Given Reynold’s ruling, trustee Romero questioned whether it was legal for the board to pass the motion. But the motion passed after attorney Aguilar assured the board it could take such action.

A hearing in the case against West is scheduled to be held before Judge Reynolds on Thursday, Dec. 3, at 1:15 p.m.

The next meeting of the Co-op’s board of trustees is set for Monday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m., in the SEC board room located at the southeast corner of Fifth Street and Abeyta Avenue.