Villarreal Treviño in 2017 was charged in Webb County Texas with several frivolous felony charges for asking a Laredo police officer questions for information.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
January 24, 2023
New Orleans, Louisiana - On Wednesday, the 16-judge panel for the U.S. 5th District Court Of Appeals in Louisiana will hear arguments in the Priscilla Villarreal Treviño, 37, aka, "La Gordiloca" (The Crazy Fat Lady) case No. 20-40359 (5th Cir. 2022), which she was frivolously charged with several felony counts for asking a Laredo, Texas police officer (public official) questions for information.
Villarreal Treviño, a Facebook (FB) blogger reports alternative news in her Gordiloca News Laredo Tx FB page before the local mainstream media.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) who represents Villarreal Treviño will be arguing on Wednesday in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth District that the Laredo Police Department (LPD) and the Webb County District Attorney's Office violated Villarreal Treviño's First and Fourt Amendment rights for asking public officials (police officer) questions and pulishing the truth.
In 2017, Villarreal Treviño reported the suicide of Julio Guillermo Vila, 59, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture supervisory program manager who jumped to his death from the flyover at loop 20 and Interstate 35 in Laredo and named him. She also cited a source and a Laredo police officer confirmed the information.
In April 2017, Villarreal Treviño published a story about Vila who committed suicide. The story identified him by name and revealed that he was an agent with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Villarreal Treviño first uncovered this information from talking to a janitor who worked near the scene of the suicide. She then contacted LPD Officer Barbara J. Goodwin, who confirmed the man's identity.
The following month, Villarreal Treviño published the last name of a family involved in a fatal car accident in Laredo. She first learned the family's identity from a relative of the family who saw a video that Villarreal Treviño had posted. Again, Villarreal Treviño contacted Officer Goodwin, and again, the officer verified this information.
Goodwin was stripped of her badge and weapon, while an LPD internal investigation was pending. Villarreal Treviño repeatedly denied on her FB page that Goodwin had provided any information and was innocent of the alleged accusations by the LPD.
Six months later, the Laredo police issued two arrest warrants for Villarreal Treviño for violating Texas Penal Code §39.06(c). The police admitted that local officials had never brought a prosecution under § 39.06(c) in the nearlythree-decade history of that provision.
Villarreal Treviño turned herself in to police on December 13, 2017 after several warrants for her arrest were issued and charges were filed, she was released on bond after she was charged with two felony counts for misuse of official information, a 3rd-degree felony, if convicted she could face up to 10 years in prison for each count and $10,000 in fines.
In March 2018, the felony charges were later dropped by the Webb County 111th District Court Judge Monica Zapata Notzon who ruled that Villarreal Treviño's due process was denied and the charges were unconstitutional, but Villarreal Treviño filed a federal lawsuit claiming her First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the LPD and the Webb County District Attorney's Office.
According to the Laredo Police Department (LPD) complaint, Villarreal Treviño allegedly used official information not yet released to report on her Facebook news page called La Gordiloca News Laredo TX and profited from it affecting such investigations.
Federal lawsuit: Villarreal v. City of Laredo
Villarreal v. City of Laredo, No. 20-40359 (5th Cir. 2022), 50 pages of the federal Appeals Court case filing at following link: https://bit.ly/3XXvR5K
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