Maverick County Judge David R. Saucedo’s Response to County Attorney Ricardo Ramos’ Counter-Lawsuit

Dear Editor:

There have been allegations by the County Attorney that the Maverick County Judge did not provide notice to him of a lawsuit that was filed against the County. As a result a Federal District Court granted a Default Judgment.  If you review the record the County Attorney does not make any allegations against the County Judge or point blame on the County Judge.  The Federal District Judge in her Order points the blame directly at the attorney representing the County.  I have attached the Affidavit of the Attorney for the Plaintiff and it states “On or about March 3, 2012, shortly after I had mailed the Order Granting the Entry of Default against the Defendants, I received a telephone call from RICARDO RAMOS, THE COUNTY ATTORNEY FOR MAVERICK COUNTY. During that telephone conversation, Mr. Ramos informed me that he would be moving soon to set aside the entry of default.”

The Court within it’s Order states the following:  “According to the Plaintiff’s, the attorney for the county called the Plainitiff’s counsel at the beginning of March and stated that the Defendants would be moving to set aside the entry of default.  More than FIVE months later, the Plaintiff’s filed a motion for default judgment.  Three weeks after the filing of the Motion for Default Judgment, the Defendant’s filed the motion to vacate currently before the Court.  In total the Defendants waited over six months after learning of the entry of default before taking any corrective action.”

The argument made by RICARDO RAMOS  was the failure to answer the complaint amounted to excusable neglect because of the confusion surrounding insurance coverage not because the County Judge failed to inform him for one month.  The County Attorney failed to respond as stated within Maverick County’s Lawsuit against him.

Respectfully,

David R. Saucedo
Maverick County Judge