Hurlston wrongfully accuses Espinoza's lawyer of lying to hearing examiner

Dr. Glen Hurlston, the Louisiana anesthesiologist implicated in the legal case of former Kyle Police officer Jesse Espinoza, is claiming Espinoza’s attorney lied when he told a federal examiner hearing Espinoza’s appeal that a gag order prevented Espinoza from getting a fair hearing.

Attorney Grant Goodwin sought and won a continuance in Espinoza’s hearing earlier this month by convincing hearing examiner Dr. Paula Ann Hughes that a gag order issued in connection with a lawsuit Hurlston has filed against the City of Kyle, Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett and others prevented Goodwin from eliciting the testimony he needed from Barnett.

"Let me enlighten you their (sic) is no gag order because it was issued by a lower court which dismissed the case so it no longer is in effect," Hurlston, using his favorite alias "Law Abiding Citizen," said Saturday in an e-mail. "The case is in a higher court so Barnett Attorney (sic) are hiding behind a gag order they know isn't inforceable (sic) or even applicable anymore."

However, an independent verification I conducted today with legal officials involved in the suit argues that Hurlston’s claims are simply not true. It is true the gag order was issued in a lower court case which was decided then appealed to a higher court. However, the legal sources in Fort Worth and Dallas I talked to today said the gag order accompanied that appeal and, thus, is still in effect.

It’s also strange that Hurlston would, in effect, call the attorney of someone representing the person alleged to be his co-conspirator in a plot to discredit Barnett a liar. However, in all fairness, I must add that Hurlston added language in his e-mail to suggest he was actually calling me a liar for writing a story suggesting Hurlston was defying the gag order by threatening to sue the City of Kyle until "I will bankrupt them into submission." The last sentence of Hurlston’s e-mail to me, in response to that story, said "So everything you said is just simply a lie an (sic) I am a Law Abiding Citizen and a (sic) stand by everything I said with proof unlike the author of this post who made many misleading statements."

Regardless of his motivations, his apparent misstatement that "their (sic) is no gag order" directly contradicts what Goodwin told Dr. Hughes and others at the opening day of the re-hearing on the appeal of Espinoza’s indefinite suspension and later dismissal from the Kyle Police force on grounds of insubordination. And one of the attorneys I spoke with today told me I was absolutely correct to interpret Hurlston's comments as ones calling Goodwin a liar. One of the allegations against Espinoza is that he accepted cash and family vacations among other things from Hurlston in return for providing the doctor inside information that could be damaging to Barnett in the lawsuit Hurlston filed against Barnett, Kyle and others.