Letters to the Editor
casual_observer
Published Letters: 1249 Editor's Choice: 1
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The Midnight Run of Bernardo Eureste
[Read the article: Tucker Carlson, stalwart defender of sexual privacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]GG's account of Tucker Carlson's brave defense of the private sex lives of our dignified elected officials immediately reminded me of San Antonio City Councilman Bernardo Eureste, and his desparate midnight race through Brackenridge Park. This all happend decades ago, but it's a good story.
Benny's late-night running was brought on when a San Antonio police officer saw two people seated in a darkened, parked car pulled to the side of the road. Pulling over to investigate or lend assistance, the officer approached the vehicle and illuminated it. Hurried movements ensued in the vehicle, and suddenly, a man emerged from it and commenced to running away from the officer. His progress, however, was greatly hindered by his trousers, which were not buckled and/or zipped, but rather had pooled around his ankles. He managed a short and awkward distance, then tripped. The other occupant of the car remained relatively calm, and it was later determined that she was an independent business person who took on very short-term contracts in the sexual-services sector.
Eureste was quickly captured (on account of his pants were around his ankles) and booked (on account of consorting in public with a sexual services contractor).
Needless to say, the city was delighted to read all about this in the newspapers on the following morning. The thought of a city councilman, desparately running through the inky darkness of Brackenridge Park with his pants down around his shoes captured the city's imagination. In fact, so much so that for many years following Eureste's arrest, a race was held in his honor at the same park, on the anniversary of his unsuccessful dash for freedom.
The contestants would line up, drop their pants, and do the "Eureste Run". Much fun had by all.
Needless to say, Eureste lost his seat on the city council at the voter's earliest convenience, and he dropped out of sight for years.
But then, just like a bad habit, he rose to public attention again, this time in Houston:
Former San Antonio Councilman Disbarred for Fraud
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July 23, 2003—The Texas State Bar has permanently disbarred Bernardo Eureste, a Houston attorney and former San Antonio city councilman. Eureste has not practiced law since June 2002, when he was sentenced to three years’ probation for workers’ compensation fraud-related charges.
Eureste’s legal problems began when Texas Mutual Insurance Company (then called the Texas Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fund) uncovered billing irregularities by Eureste’s law firm. The investigators shared their findings with the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission (TWCC) and the FBI.
The investigation revealed that Eureste had devised a scheme to defraud his clients by submitting false claims and often billing identical hours on different clients without any variation.
“Eureste used a computer software program to fly under the radar, so to speak, and bill for an average of 90 hours per day, seven days per week, including weekends and holidays,” explained Elliott Flood, vice president of Special Investigations for Texas Mutual Insurance Company. The scheme allowed Eureste to receive up to 25 percent of his clients’ temporary income benefits (TIBs) after TWCC approved his bills for file reviews.
At last week’s hearing, Assistant Disciplinary Counsel Michael E. McClendon said Eureste had stolen from his clients, many of whom were poorly educated, lower income injured workers. McClendon used Flood’s testimony to support his call for disbarment. Responding to McClendon’s questions, Flood estimated that Eureste had over-billed his clients by as much as $1.4 million in a one-year period.
“This case was unique in my experience,” said Flood, after the hearing. “As a carrier, we were not damaged by Eureste’s actions, but some of our policyholders’ injured workers were. We pay the same amount of TIBs regardless of whether the injured worker retains an attorney. The attorney’s fee is deducted from the injured employee’s TIBs check. So really, Eureste wasn’t bilking Texas Mutual; he was cheating his own clients, injured workers who could least afford it.”
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Variable Speed
[Read the article: Little outbursts of journalism -- what causes them?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Defeatism can lead one to believe that there is no progress at all and that progress is impossible. Impatience can lead one to conclude that the progress is too slow and incremental to matter. But slow and incremental progress of this sort is the only kind that is viable, and ultimately, the only kind that really matters.
I wonder if it is also true that change has many speeds. Unexpected and unusual events, or changing circumstances, can catalyze and accelerate change. What may be frustratingly slow at one point may become blazingly fast at another. Many natural processes, like evolution, have highly variable rates of change, and the same seems likely for the human realm as well.