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| THE BELOVED DIST. JUDGE TOM GREEWELL |
NUECES COUNTY, TX – District Judge
Tom Greenwell was one of the most respected professionals during his career. He
was the first Republican in Nueces County to win for a countywide position –
which he did as a District Judge. He had a “happy go lucky” attitude. How he could take a gun inside the chambers
of his courtroom and commit self-murder on July 15th caught those that thought
they knew him well off guard.
The traditional media and top law
enforcement investigators went off on an unorthodox tangent. After all, it had occurred inside the
courthouse. During the course of the
investigation theories were expounded based on rumor and innuendo that
transcended the orbit of his life, a life of a simple man who orbited the
ritual corridors and habitual floors and conversational circles of the
courthouse for thirty-some years on a daily basis.
It cannot be denied that his
stunning timing to self-destruct via suicide left a void of information (mostly
of hovering clouds charged with questions). And when such a void exits,
rumor-mongering arises as a social phenomenon to fill the void. And thus it was in the nature of many intransigents
to expound fictions and fantasies to fill the void of the collective
imagination – to inject a sense of completion mostly to satisfy the palate of
those in the audience who have socio-psychological proclivities to appeal to
the exotic and/or vicarious gratification. Drop by drop the void was being
jam-packed with imaginative scenarios.
Yet Judge Greenwell’s life and contributions
-- after the obsessed exploration into his personal life by some uncaring --
was treated as secondary. Delving into
his personal life became priority. His
professional normative status that Judge Greenwell projected on the stage of
his career was not media viral. The
camera was pointed at the shadows in the background: in the back region of the public
facade. They tried to penetrate the
veneer of his daily impressions and dig deep into his cloudy chest to try and
arrive at something really meaningful or controversial or oppressive. They discovered in the end that his life
resemble that of most of us: “We choose our path and our friends and our
entrusted partners and one should not complain about that in the end.” As Judge
Greenwall had one cited a proverb to a friend: “One should not complain about
the horse if it loses a race; afterall, one chose to bet on it.”
But despite the facts before them
– i.e., the investigative journalists and researchers probing into the case. The
private life of one of the most respected professionals could not be cloistered
anymore – some in the public demanded it.
Many cheered on for someone to identify a target and demonized it for
having allegedly rattled his mind and thus broken the fragile glass of
Greenwell’s sanity. The target became
Albert Fuentes. The 36-year old man that
lived with Judge Greenwell and whom he referred to as “his son”.
The flippant and finger-pointing
inhumanity grew into a frenzy. Albert
Fuentes – this was the person that was highlighted in bold headlines; this was the
“person of interest” accused both implicitly and explicitly of being a
blackmailer, a con, a deviant. Words like “extortion” and “squeezing” and
“pressure” were tossed around during the investigation by a few representatives
investigators of public and private entities. Yet if one had kept up with Greenwell’s own
sincere statements, one open-minded enough would have arrived at a different
conclusion. He had stated in years pass in front of a camera that he had put
all his love and compassion and affection in Fuentes to attempt to change the murky
course of his life. Fuentes had worked
for Greenwell in the past – during his private practice days. After that chapter, Greenwell took him in and
provided shelter for him at his residence in Flour Bluff.
Still, forces of discontent
pressed on. “How could a conservative Republican such a
precarious path?” –there were contradictions that needed to be spinned by
politicos also. Eventually the sacred
curtain of Judge Greenwell’s private life was lifted and others joined in the
mob to vent cobwebs of misguided moral judgments. It seemed like secondary excitement (what
social scientists call “vicarious gratification”) to many watching TV or
reading the output of spins on the press.
Even an echo of a prying bible trumping charlatan pointed to variables
too standoffish to sincerely have relevance to the clang that influenced the
decisive tenebrific flash, the flash that ignited the courthouse for a few
milliseconds and then brought death in a tightfisted micron. It was as if a light bulb had been switched
on and off nippily. In the last breaths
of Judge Greenwell’s existence, in the
last mental images, in the last scribbled notes (a personal will) cited his
concern for Albert Fuentes, and thus so left all his possessions to him. The non-traditional arrangement between
Greenwell and Fuentes was not received well by especially by those who like to
cast moral stones.
“What was so wrong with the above?”
– the varying viewpoints of spectators were also critical. Judge Greenwell had no relatives in the area;
no family to call his own in the purest sense of the societal norms of the
day. One could ask now, in retrospect:
“Does it logically follow that he would leave everything on his last testament/will
to those closest to him?”. The answer of course is a “no-brainer”.
Even some time before Judge
Greenwell has been advised by one his campaign consultants to disassociate
himself from Albert Fuentes as much as possible. Judge Greenwell’s answer (at least uttered to
this heartfelt effect): “Would you abandon your son during trying times?” A
“mentor” and a “father image” to Fuentes was the way he equated the
association.
Judge Greenwell had grew up in the
Northeastern part of the U.S. After high
school he attended Georgetown University earning a bachelor’s (with a double
major: political science and journalism).
After that he attended University of Texas Law School where he graduated
with honors in 1981. That same year he
started a job as a legal researcher with the 13th Court of
Appeals. A few years later he became the
head of the legal staff. In the later
90s he went into private practice -- where he contemplated to run for office
and where he met Albert Fuentes (whom he hired as a clerk).
He ran as a Republican for a
District Judge position and lost the first time around by about a margin of a
thousand votes. After that Greenwell
regrouped and courted various others groups with a bi-partisan leaning. The base of this new support came from the
nifty courting of the courthouse culture – the “courthouse family” as he called
it. He had worked both extensively and
diligently for the 13th Court of Appeals and had develop lasting
friendship with many a staff member who worked there. Keep in mind that back then, there was not
much of a Republican Party in the expanse. The skeleton of the party was composed
of a few who worked tirelessly to make inroads in this traditionally Democratic
region.
He alloyed and mobilized his base
– also, some doctors had organized politically to defend their interests: how
many were the new factors that contributed to the edge he needed to win for
office. Additionally, his research
showed that residents who had Democratic leanings under 30 were more likely to
cross party lines, and he did capitalize on it.
Greenwell ran again for a district
Judge post and won by defeating Martha “Marty” Huerta in 2001, a post he held
until the end. This victory raised the
psychology of the regional Republican Party – activist such as Joe Jouell,
Lance Bruun, Judge Robert Pate and a few others. It seemed that overnight the GOP here had
grown by leaps and bounds. Various schools of thought joined. For the first time Republicans began to
recruit and assign a demonstrative cluster of precinct chairs.
Judge Greenwell had been the
“dove” of the party. He had been like a
meteorite that had lid up the sky for a while in the region. He seemed to have used the electrifying
principles of Tesla to garner bipartisan support. As a judge he was described as balanced and
fair: he could be as soft as a misty cloud in dealing with some who had
committed infractions for the first time and as hard as steel with other who
had done terrible things.
He did run for a 13th
Court of Appeals post last November, but failed in his bout against Nora
Longoria from the Valley. He was devastated
by the loss. There was no tsunami of
Republican votes who ran to the polls to vent their frustration with Democrats
– this key variable was not there. It
was somewhat noticeable that Judge Greenwell’s voice seemed to reveal a higher
level of anxiety at times. His finances
were in turmoil. After taking his life,
many suggested that hefty payouts to Albert Fuentes and another individuals
might be indicators of some sort of extortion.
The matter was delved into by law enforcement – but in the end, when all
was said and done, Sheriff Jim Kaelin and his key investigators concluded that
the most likely factor that might have pushed him over the edge was enormous
debt.
Texas Governor Rick Perry mandated
the flags be flown at half-staff in government entities. Many spoke well of him during his memorial
service; others threw parties commemorating his death at local cantinas to try
to capitalize on his following now adrift.
Some democrats also voiced the sentiment: “We lost ‘OUR’
Republican”.
“Why did he take his life in his
own chambers?” – this was a reoccurring question of discussion among many a
group. “Was his death symbolic?” – this
is another. Judge Tom Greenwell had spent
most of his life at the courthouse and he considered many there as the closest
substitution for a family. This place
was the closest thing to a sense of security.
Here he scribbled his last few thoughts on paper; here he made a summary
of a summary of how his possessions and properties and other arrangements would
be handled. Here, where he stood in the
summit of his career, raised a gun to his head and pulled the trigger exhaling
his last breath, a prayer to Albert Fuentes and an adios to his friends. Here the dove flew to the sky and caressed the
face of God with the palm of his hand – ready to face judgment as a humbled
would as if it being a mere grain of sand on the beach.
Yet questions linger: “Was there
closure to his death?”; “Who will be the new ‘dove’ of the party to keep the
bipartisan support?”. These and other
questions linger among activists and think-tanks and amidst the burg. But it is clear that he left a symbolic message in this manner of suicide: self-murder in the courthouse, the ultimate symbolic institution and orbit of societal judgement Society had question his private arrangements; he shattered the symbolic figure of the norm: he himself.
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