Marlene Gonzalez, the Democratic challenger for an El Paso district court, wants to depose incumbent Judge Laura Strathmann to investigate a potential libel and defamation claim against the judge.

Gonzalez and Strathmann are competing in the Democratic primary runoff in July. Whoever wins the runoff will win the seat since there's no Republican candidate running in November.

The crux of the dispute is who created and authored content on a Facebook page and website that opposes Strathmann's reelection campaign.

While Strathmann alleges that Gonzalez is behind it, Gonzalez denies that allegation. Her attorney told Texas Lawyer that "a disgruntled litigant" from Strathmann's court is the author.

Texas Lawyer's investigation linked the website to that man, not the judge's political opponent.

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Petition filed

In the new petition, Gonzalez is asking an El Paso district court to grant a pre-lawsuit deposition of Strathmann regarding a May 12 email that accuses Gonzalez of engaging in improper campaign conduct in her race to unseat Strathmann from the 388th Family District Court.

The petition said that Strathmann's email accused Gonzalez of assuming Strathmann's identity — creating and owning a "dummy/fake" Facebook page called Judge Laura Strathmann, and website 388thjudicialdistrictcourt.com — and then spreading defamatory information about Strathmann.

According to the petition, Strathmann's email said Gonzalez's conduct was demeaning to Strathmann and women, and constituted a malicious personal attack. It also claimed the message "erodes confidence in fair and honest campaign practices" and "sets a new low for a judicial election."

"Petitioner has denied she created these social media platforms, or the content contained on them," said the petition.

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'Army of opponents'

Gonzalez said in an interview that she is not the one creating the anti-Strathmann content. She said that Strathmann on the bench has created an "army of opponents" who want to unseat her in the election. Now the judge's opponents are using their First Amendment rights to express their views, she said.

"She is disparaging my person, my campaign. She has called me vulgar. She has called me low and unprofessional," said Gonzalez. "I've been bullied. I cannot run a fair and honest campaign because this incumbent has disparaged my image."

The Facebook page contains video and photos of protesters holding anti-Strathmann signs and interviews with litigants who explain rulings that Strathmann made that they disagree with.

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'Smoke and mirrors'

But Strathmann said as a family district judge, one side of the case will always be unhappy with her rulings.

"It's to be expected," she said. "As far as my ethics, my integrity, I do not believe I've ever compromised either. I love my job. It means everything to me, and I do the best job I can every single day with every single case I hear."

She said she does think Gonzalez is behind the content on the Facebook page because the wording of one post sounds like Gonzalez's "unique way of speaking" and another used an unusual word, "legion," that also appeared in a letter by Gonzalez.

"This is all smoke and mirrors, and what she is trying to do is deny, deny, deny. She's moved the target from the true issue about the post that is so derogatory to me," she said, referring to one Facebook post that alleged she "sleeps around with all family bar attorneys."

"I can't let that go unanswered," Strathmann said. "Lawyers are specifically prohibited from speaking about the court that way. She erodes the integrity of the court with those types of attacks."

She said she's reported Gonzalez to the State Bar of Texas, Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Texas Ranger Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

"They can track exactly who wrote that post. They can get the IP address of the computer that wrote that post," Strathmann said.

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'Disgruntled litigant'

But El Paso solo practitioner Troy Brown, who represents Gonzalez in the case, said that candidate didn't write any of the content. He said that Dennis Anthony Lee, a "disgruntled litigant" from Strathmann's court is the author.

"Strathmann either did no investigation or she ignored her investigation she did because it would reveal the true creator of this website and Facebook page. She conveniently used this to smear Marlene Gonzalez," Brown said. "If she had done a minimum of investigation she would have seen who is responsible for the content."

He added that Gonzalez has filed grievances against Strathmann with the state bar and the judicial conduct commission.

Brown sent Texas Lawyer links to a YouTube channel by Lee, who did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

"What I have done: I have put together this website—a simple little website—that you are on right now," Lee said in one of the videos, as the image on screen scrolls down the site at 388thjudicialdistrictcourt.com.

Lee said in his YouTube videos that he and his ex-wife were divorced in 2008 and he was named the sole managing conservator of their son. Thirteen years later, the ex-wife filed a child custody case in Strathmann's court and Lee contested the court's jurisdiction over him because he and the child had lived in Wyoming for 13 years. In one video, Lee showed court documents from the case that contained his email address, and he stated that it was his address.

Texas Lawyer researched the Internet domain registration for the site, 388thjudicialdistrictcourt.com. It doesn't list Lee's name. It does say the registration goes to a Wyoming address and it listed the same email address for Lee that had appeared in the video.

The Facebook page does not contain Lee's name either. But on the "about" section for the page, the contact information that is listed points back to the 388thjudicialdistrictcourt.com. No one immediately responded to a Facebook message sent to the page.

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Blogger also named

Gonzalez also seeks a pre-suit deposition against another person, Jaime Abeytia. She wants to ask him about the same email, Facebook page and website, as well as a blog post, "Playing Dirty: The Marlene Gonzalez Story." The petition alleged that the blog post stated that Gonzalez was behind the Facebook page and website.

Abeytia said that he has authored the blog about El Paso politics for 15 years. He wrote articles that criticized Gonzalez for using the term "illegal alien" in a court proceeding and for utilizing campaign workers who appeared connected with a religiously oriented nonprofit organization, Abeytia said. He also believed the Facebook page and website were affiliated with Gonzalez, because they bore her photo, campaign graphics and links to her campaign website, he said.

"I wrote about two really questionable activities that occurred during her campaign, and since then, I think this is a reaction to that. This is a very thinly veiled way to try to silence me," Abeytia said. "If she thinks she is going to be able to intimidate me with that kind of tactic, she kind of misjudged me—no pun intended."

Brown denied that Gonzalez's petition is an effort to silence Abeytia.

"The only thing that is 'thinly veiled' here is both Abeytia and Strathmann's wholesale failure to do even a minimum of investigation—or to ignore an investigation they may have done—because it was convenient," he said. "The petition speaks directly to the things he said in his blog."

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