Ethics watcher draws spotlight
Ex-felon’s complaints against council member not political, he says.
Over the summer, Mark Walters walked into City Hall and filed two separate ethics complaints against City Council Member Don Zimmerman. Right away, these complaints heaped media attention on not just Zimmerman, but also on Walters, a previously unknown Austin resident who works as a freelance law clerk.
Walters, 44, found himself in the position of granting on-camera TV interviews and preparing legal arguments on campaign
finance law for the city’s Ethics Review Commission that would be live-tweeted online.
So who is this guy who has managed to get Zimmerman in to some legal hot water? Is he motivated by politics? Does he
aspire to higher office?
“It’s not personal, and it’s not political,” said Walters, who may be motivated more than anything by a desire to change the trajectory of his life. Walters is a convicted felon and has spent five years in state prison.
He landed in prison in 2009 after violating a 10-year probation sentence related to a 2005 crime involving taking a woman’s camera and then threatening to share nude photos stored on it.
He was convicted of “obstruction or retaliation,” a third-degree felony.
Like many ex-felons, Walters struggles to get steady employment. He survives mostly on occasional contract paralegal work from law firms.
He says his employers are aware of his background.
But he’s also found a way to work for himself. Starting in 2012, when he was still in prison, Walters, a former personal trainer, has filed at least eight lawsuits.
He’s not an attorney, but like many prisoners before him, he read law books to amuse and educate himself when he was in prison.
“I learned law the oldschool way,” Walters said, noting that he relied on outdated law books because prisoners don’t have access to computers. Walters said being incarcerated opened his eyes to injustices and “abuse of power and authority” in the prison system.
Walters, who is originally from upstate New York, says his first legal filings were grievances against prison guards for alleged illegal behavior, such as bringing in contraband.
That led to him being moved, he said, from a minimum-security prison to eventually a maximum-security one.
His first lawsuit, filed in February 2012, was written in neat block handwriting and was filed against an attorney who represented him. Walters claimed the attorney promised that if he signed a plea deal for five years in prison he would only
He’s found a way to work for himself. Starting in 2012, when he was still in prison, Walters, a former personal trainer, has filed at least eight lawsuits.
serve 18 to 20 months. Walters later dropped the suit.
When he got out of prison in 2014, Walters committed himself to testifying at the Texas Legislature on prison reform bills. But he also continued filing lawsuits.
For instance, in September, Walters sued Central Health, Travis County’s health care district, for failing to provide adequate medical care.
(Walters is enrolled in the Central Health-run Medical Access Program, which is for low-income Travis County residents.)
And, ironically, he has something in common with Zimmerman: Both have filed lawsuits against the city of Austin.
Earlier this month, Walters sued the city of Austin and CH2M Hill Engineers, an engineering firm working on the MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) project.
Walters says he broke his ankle while running across the Steck bridge over MoPac in February and claims both the firm and the city are negligent for not providing adequate lighting.
Walters says the lawsuits are a last resort and that he tries to resolve things administratively first.
For instance, with the Zimmerman complaint, Walters said he contacted Zimmerman and his attorney first to point out that he hadn’t filed the necessary campaign finance paperwork.
“I don’t go around looking to sue people,” he said.
But he acknowledged that there are some other motivations at play, such as showcasing his talent for legal work, and the possibility that he could win one of these suits and receive a settlement. (Walters said he has settled one case so far but would not say for how much.)
On Tuesday evening, Walters will get the chance to play attorney when the Ethics Review Commission takes up the Zimmerman hearing.
Walters has accused Zimmerman of failing to file two required campaign finance documents.
The hearing is not unlike a courtroom, in which each side can present evidence and argue its case.
Walters said he isn’t intimidated by sparring with licensed attorneys.
“You just explain the facts,” Walters said. “I’ve had days where I’ve argued in court in front of the attorney general’s office and I beat them.”