By ARABELLA SERRATA
Special to the NEWS
The San Benito Economic Development Corporation [EDC] has filed a lawsuit against local resident Julian Rios and attorney Mark E. Sossi, alleging they unlawfully obtained confidential and privileged communications belonging to the organization.
According to the legal filing, the EDC claims that Rios and Sossi “took possession of confidential and privileged communications” without authorization, asserting that no permissions were granted and no attorney-client privileges were waived.
Court filings provided some background on Rios and Sossi, explaining that Rios served as the President of the San Benito EDC’s board of directors in August 2021. During that time, Sossi was retained to “provide legal counsel and representation” to the San Benito EDC, according to court records.
The suit adds that Rios and Sossi were to ensure that the EDC board of directors “considered items of interest to the SBEDC per the Texas Open Meetings Act [TOMA], to preserve confidential communications, and to preserve attorney-client communications.” In June 2024, the petition alleges that Rios and Sossi took possession of the aforementioned communications from the San Benito EDC.
The suit alleges that the alleged actions were neither “authorized by the SBEDC’s governing body nor in furtherance of the performance of a governmental function.”
The suit also adds that “the actions and omissions of each Defendant were negligent in that they knew or should have known that SBEDC would suffer harm from the breach of the duties that were owed to SBEDC.”
The suit stated that the resulting harm to the EDC was “foreseeable” by Rios and Sossi. The suit alleges that the two were in breach of “fiduciary duties” towards the EDC and that the EDC is suing for relief and to “recover all of its actual and resulting damages.” The document also states that the EDC is seeking monetary relief exceeding $1,000,000, as well as other forms of relief.
Rios offered the following statement on the issue, “I’m currently in the process of addressing the matter through the legal system… I will say that I believe the suit is politically motivated and an attempt to retaliate against me for raising concerns about the EDC’s use of public resources,” said Rios. The NEWS attempted to contact Sossi and the City for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
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