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Abalos / Richard Abalos Case, Part Two

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Zapata: I believed we touched on a shoot out here in Odessa, can you touch on that a little bit? Abalos: Yes, there was a shootout in Odessa in this case it was actually Hispanics against Hispanics. It was out in the, it is called a ranchito area of town where there is nothing but Hispanics. In this case, again, the guy that Richard represented. There was another shoot out but I’ll tell you about that in a minute. The one at the ranchito, that shoot out, the one he represented he got probation. Ten years' probation. They went to trial and he was able to get him 10 years probation. He never got in trouble again. Then there was another shoot out, right down the street from – where I used to live on the street – called Autumn Street. The guy that got involved in the shootout was right there a couple of houses down from where I used to live. I was not there at the time, but it is where I grew up. When we first moved to that part of town, I told you it was an Anglo part of town, that is where we moved. But there was a shootout between, again it was Hispanics against Hispanics, but the reason that this one sticks out is because the judge in the case put metal detectors. Never had that been done for any case and there have been other serious cases and Odessa. This was Mexicans and he put up metal detectors. Richard tried to argue to against that but he did not win. People had to go through metal detectors to get in the court room-and searched. In our opinion, that was prejudicial because they were saying we have to check these people out before they come in. And in this case, I think, I do not remember if his client was found not guilty and the other one got probation – it was two brothers. Then there were the other side to you that got charged. But that shoot out was to me significant in the sense that the judge was very pro prosecution. Richard– I am pretty sure his client got found not guilty and the other one got 10 years' probation.

Interview Interview with Delma Abalos
Subjects Community Organizations › Community outreach
Race Relations › Anglo-Mexican Race Relations
Geography › Geographical Descriptions
Police and Law Enforcement › Community Relations and Law Enforcement
Historic Periods › 1980s
Chicano Power › Chicano Power and Community Organizing
Police and Law Enforcement › Probation
Tags Abalos, Richard
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Interview date 2016-07-14
Interview source CRBB Summer 2016
Interviewees Abalos, Delma
Interviewers Moye, Todd
Wisely, Karen
Zapata, Joel
Locations Odessa, TX
Duration 00:03:01
Citation "Richard Abalos Case, Part Two," from Delma Abalos oral history interview with Todd Moye, Karen Wisely, and Joel Zapata,  July 14, 2016, Odessa, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/2255/richard-abalos-cases-part-2, accessed April 25, 2024