FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ken Boehm, Chairman
July 27, 1998 Dan Rene, Communications Director
(703) 847-3088
Legal Services of N.C. Under Investigation for Mexican Trip;
Watchdog Group Calls for Full Disclosure
Legal Services of North Carolina, a group receiving state and federal funds to assist
the poor with legal problems, is under investigation for a Mexican trip taken by
the staff of its sub-unit, Farmworkers Legal Services of North Carolina, in January
of this year.
Questions regarding the legality of the trip first arose at a February 25, 1998 hearing
before a U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee considering funding for the Legal
Services Corporation, a federal program which provides the North Carolina group
with most of its funds. Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.-11) questioned LSC President John
McKay as to why legal services lawyers from North Carolina were taking a mid-winter
trip to Mexico with tax dollars if the legal needs of the poor were as unmet as were
being portrayed. The Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY-5) directed
LSC to investigate the Mexican trip and report back.
Federal law and Legal Services Corporation regulations forbid legal services lawyers
from providing legal assistance to aliens not present in the United States.
The controversy over the trip surfaced again on July 24 when North Carolina Growers
Association Executive Director Stan Eury sent a letter to LSC President McKay complaining
that Farmworkers Legal Services of N.C. was representing Mexican citizens residing in Mexico in three legal actions against North Carolina farmers. In one lawsuit,
Farmworkers Legal Services lawyer Alicia Tejada, who was photographed smiling on
the Mexican trip in a FLSNC publication, was representing a client residing in Hidalgo,
Mexico, one of the stops on the Mexican trip. Mr. Eury cited both federal appropriations
law and LSC regulations as clearly forbidding representation of aliens not present
in the U.S.
The National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics group which serves as a watchdog group
for abuses in the legal services program, has been investigating the trip and has
provided LSC investigators with letters to Mexican citizens from FLSNC promoting
the trip as well as a videotape shot in Mexico showing legal services staff providing legal
advice to Mexican citizens. NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm stated:
"Legal services lawyers spent thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money
to give themselves a nice winter trip to Mexico. Since it's illegal for
them to provide legal assistance to aliens not present in the U.S., it's
hard to see what the purpose of the trip was supposed to be. On its
face, it looks like they took funds supposed to help poor North Carolinians
and used it to find Mexican citizens looking to sue North Carolina farmers."
Boehm previously had served as Counsel to the LSC board of directors and has testified
numerous times before Congress on abuses in the legal services program.
On July 23, NLPC sent a certified letter to Legal Services of North Carolina Executive
Director Deborah Weissman , calling on her to disclose the full cost of the trip.
NLPC Chairman Boehm criticized the legal services program for failing to disclose
that it was under a Congressionally ordered investigation while recently seeking funds
from the North Carolina General Assembly. The letter stated:
"The fact that Legal Services of North Carolina and Farmworkers
Legal Services of North Carolina are under investigation by the
Legal Services Corporation at the direction of Congress in a case
involving the possible misuse of funds, i.e., taking a foreign trip
with funds intended for helping the poor, is a serious matter. Since
the state of North Carolina is the second largest funder of LSNC and
appropriations for LSNC are currently under consideration, I would
have expected that LSNC would have voluntarily taken steps to
explain its side of the story about the Mexican trip."
In a recent document given to members of the North Carolina General Assembly, Legal
Services of North Carolina stated:
"LSNC has never had sufficient funds to provide for the legal
needs of the state's eligible clients."
In addition to the costs of sending lawyers and staff to Mexico, the legal services
program promoted the trip with direct mail and radio. Mexican citizens interested
in the presentations were urged to call the North Carolina program collect. And
the legal services program later printed a publication with photos of the trip. NLPC is calling
on legal services to publicly disclose the full cost of the controversial trip.
NLPC Chairman Boehm concluded:
"How can LSNC complain that it lacks sufficient funds to provide
for the legal needs of the state's eligible clients when it's spending
thousands of dollars to take foreign trips to round up aliens to illegally
sue farmers?"
Copies of the Stan Eury letter, the NLPC letter, and the FLSNC letter (with translation)
are available by fax from NLPC.
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