Co-op to drop lawsuit against reform leader
Socorro Electric Cooperative will have one less lawsuit to worry about.
The co-op’s board of trustees voted at its regular meeting on Monday to drop the case against member-owner Charlene West, a leader in the movement to reform the private, non-profit corporation.
The co-op filed a restraining order against West in 2008 after members of the board claimed that she made threatening advances toward them while leaving a meeting in her car in July of that year. Originally, 7th Judicial District Court Judge Matt Reynolds allowed West to continue attending board meetings but ordered her to refrain from speaking or harassing board members during or after meetings and restricted her from parking her car in the parking lot.
A year later, Reynolds banned West from attending board meetings altogether after the infamous “sour grapes” incident when West dropped a bunch of grapes in front of former trustee Juan Gonzales prior to a meeting. West’s action came in response to a guest editorial by Gonzales, who had just lost re-election to reform candidate Prescilla Mauldin, that was published in El Defensor Chieftain that same day.
West, of Lemitar, is chairwoman of the Socorro Electric Cooperative Reform Committee, a group formed in 2008 after it came to light that the co-op’s 11-member board incurred expenses significantly higher than any of the other 16 rural electric cooperatives that operate in New Mexico.
Last year, when Socorro Electric filed a lawsuit against all of its “unnamed member-owners” challenging three reform measures passed by members at the annual meeting, West was the only individual named in the suit.
On Aug. 16 West’s attorneys at the Deschamps & Kortemeier law office in Socorro filed a request for hearing in the 13th Judicial District Court, where the case had been moved.
After an executive session on Monday, trustee Donald Wolberg made the motion that the co-op “not oppose” West’s motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction.
Asked by trustee Charlie Wagner what that actually meant, co-op attorney Dennis Francish said, “In other words, we’re going to drop the case.”
Francish said that would mean that West would again be allowed to attend board meetings.
The motion passed 7-2, with trustees Leroy Anaya and Milton Ulibarri voting against.
Contact T.S. Last