Public Pressure Forces City Attorney Mark Sossi, Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez to Finally Release Police Procedure Manual to Ralph Tipton

City Attorney Mark Sossi, the ill-advised hire during Pat Ahumada's last term as mayor, is the gift that keeps on taking, blocking governmental tranparency at every possible turn, resisting democratic principles as if they were carriers of the Zika virus.  Sossi has morphed into the city's enabler, including the unethical mayor, the weak-minded city commission and the challenged,but overpaid, city manager.


Sossi's resume' is littered with theft, malpractice and incompetence, including a $167,363 judgement for pocketing funds intended for his previous employer, the Willette & Guerra Law Firm, stealing another $20,711.66 from the Texas Workforce, intended for employee unemployment benefits, a $100,000 tax lien from the I.R.S. as well as two malpractice lawsuits from Brownsville residents who thought retaining the City Attorney in private practice might be a good idea.

Sossi's magnum opus, however, has to be his highschoolish power point, at Mayor Martinez behest, against the broadcast of the public comment of Brownsville taxpayers at City Commission meetings.  Sossi, perhaps possessed by some despot's demon, argued that blocking the broadcast of public comment would lead to a greater diversity of commenters.  Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler all applauded from their graves!

Ralph Tipton

Enter Ralph Tipton, the husband of hit-and-run victim, Mary Tipton, who likely knew little about Sossi's bio when he asked the city to view a copy of the Brownsville Police Department manual, outlining proper, acceptable police procedure.

Tipton, not a police officer, had legitimate questions about the way his wife's case had been handled.  Why did Detective Thomas Clipper not even interview the woman who killed his wife with her vehicle, but, instead, allow the woman's son, a Cameron County Deputy Sheriff, to speak for his mom?  Why did the BPD not search for a body, but instead, accept the deputy's theory that his mom had likely struck a skunk, when the damage to the vehicle included a busted windshield?  Why did the BPD reduce a security camera's tape of the entire incident to a mere 30 seconds, allowing a District Attorney flunky, Oscar Guzman, to decide there was "insufficient evidence" to prosecute? 

District Judge Arturo Cisneros Nelson

Eight months ago, after Brownsville Police Chief Orlando Rodriquez denied Tipton's request to peruse the police department manual, the matter came before District Judge Arturo Cisneros Nelson. Judge Nelson seemed mystified as to why the matter was before him, telling City Attorney Sossi and Tipton: "You two should be working together on this."  Sossi replied by saying that Police Chief Rodriguez did not want the document released to Tipton and that he agreed.  As Gomer Pyle used to say:  "Surprise! Surprise!"

What dangerous secrets did this police procedure manual hold that Police Chief Rodriguez and City Attorney Sossi so desperately want to hide from the taxpayers?  Did it authorize waterboarding, demonic chants or hexes?  

Sossi continued to stonewall until this past week when the publicity created on this blog and Ralph Tipton's incessant use of Facebook and every option he could muster to publicize the nature of his wife's death, that Sossi finally relented, telling Tipton that "his superiors had ordered him" to share the police manual.

We will reprint below, without commentary, copies of a Facebook discussion between Tipton and Sossi about the manual:

Sossi was offering the elusive manual to Ralph Tipton, if Tipton would meet him in Hidalgo. Ralph was being a bit coy, because, unbeknownst to Sossi, Tipton already had the manual.

Of course, all of this back and forth means nothing unless Mary Tipton gets justice, despite all facets of the local representation of the so-called justice system seriously underperforming.