KOOP Trial Short-Circuits

KOOP 91.7FM founder Jim Ellinger traveled from Houston to the Travis Co. Courthouse this week, hoping to retrieve at least $4,000 in expenses he claims the radio station's current management has owed him since the late Nineties. He might have gotten his moment, if he hadn't been a friend of the presiding judge, Pct. 5 Justice of the Peace Herb Evans. Evans had previously alerted KOOP counsel Jerry Zunker that his friendship with Ellinger might pose a conflict of interest, but apparently Zunker didn't believe it would -- until trial had actually begun.

In the first (and only) minutes of the trial, Evans gave Zunker another opportunity to request a motion for the judge to recuse himself from the case. Zunker said yes, the judge obliged, and that was that. Zunker, who immediately left the courtroom, couldn't be reached for a post-trial comment.

Evans offered to find another judge to hear the case within a few days, but Ellinger's attorney -- his brother Rory -- had flown in from St. Louis and couldn't easily reschedule. A follow-up hearing likely won't occur for several months. Former KOOP treasurer and current City Council Member Raul Alvarez, whom Ellinger had subpoenaed as an informed witness of station goings-on at the time of Ellinger's dismissal, dutifully appeared in court, while other witnesses -- including former KOOP President Eduardo Vera and Treasurer Bob White -- did not. Subpoenas weren't issued until late last week, a spokeswoman for the constable's office said.

"What's really galling," Ellinger opines, "is you had all those people there, and just a few months ago, we had this motion for discovery and the judge said [to the KOOP side], 'I know the Ellingers.' But when the cards are really on the table and they're about to lose, [Zunker] postpones it. That's pretty chickenshit."