Sunday, July 10, 1988Does KIDS Program Help It's Clients Or Abuse Them?KIDS deeply hurt by lawyer's allegations
As the father of three sons who have, during the period of the last 20 years, been victims of the illegal drug trafficking madness, I am appalled at what has happened in recent months to the very effective KIDS of El Paso family therapy program to correct drug abuse problems. Charges, allegations, and harassment, articulated primarily by an El Paso lawyer named ***, have been accepted and repeated ad nauseam by El Paso's two daily newspapers and three television news departments. There are valid grounds to question *** motivation for assisting in harboring runaway youths from KIDS and bringing allegations and charges against KIDS program and a number of the program's parent clients. These unsubstantiated charges by *** have also apparently been accepted as a basis for action by the staff of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the office of the attorney general of Texas. That *** is the primary and almost sole initial source of allegations is evidenced by a TCADA staff telephone call log, introduced as evidence in the recent Travis County court hearing. It reflected a continuous and extensive barrage of long distance telephone communications between *** and the TCADA staff between September 1987 and May 1988. With all evidence and witnesses on behalf of TCADA and KIDS presented in the Travis County court before a fair and impartial district judge, ***, *** ruled there was no basis for an injunction against the KIDS program. In my opinion, KIDS and its involved clients and their parents are due an apology for damages caused by these allegations, in terms of tens of thousands of dollars in defense costs and other very serious damage. These innocent parties have been working effectively and at great personal sacrifice to help save some of El Paso's most seriously drug afflicted adolescent youth. The money and talent expended in fighting off these vicious attacks would have been more constructively used to help more El Paso youth overcome their drug abuse problems.
As the father of three sons who have, during the period of the last 20 years, been victims of the illegal drug trafficking madness, I am appalled at what has happened in recent months to the very effective KIDS of El Paso family therapy program to correct drug abuse problems. Charges, allegations, and harassment, articulated primarily by an El Paso lawyer named ***, have been accepted and repeated ad nauseam by El Paso's two daily newspapers and three television news departments. There are valid grounds to question *** motivation for assisting in harboring runaway youths from KIDS and bringing allegations and charges against KIDS program and a number of the program's parent clients. These unsubstantiated charges by *** have also apparently been accepted as a basis for action by the staff of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and the office of the attorney general of Texas. That *** is the primary and almost sole initial source of allegations is evidenced by a TCADA staff telephone call log, introduced as evidence in the recent Travis County court hearing. It reflected a continuous and extensive barrage of long distance telephone communications between *** and the TCADA staff between September 1987 and May 1988. With all evidence and witnesses on behalf of TCADA and KIDS presented in the Travis County court before a fair and impartial district judge, ***, *** ruled there was no basis for an injunction against the KIDS program. In my opinion, KIDS and its involved clients and their parents are due an apology for damages caused by these allegations, in terms of tens of thousands of dollars in defense costs and other very serious damage. These innocent parties have been working effectively and at great personal sacrifice to help save some of El Paso's most seriously drug afflicted adolescent youth. The money and talent expended in fighting off these vicious attacks would have been more constructively used to help more El Paso youth overcome their drug abuse problems.