The local online publication El Paso Matters and several of its officials were recently put on notice about potential lawsuits from an editorial published on September 6, 2025. The editorial was written by Nicole Alderete-Ferrini, a former city employee and candidate for city manager, who left the city after questions were raised about her academic credentials by Max Grossman.
Grossman was arrested on family violence charges on September 5, 2025. His case was dismissed three months later, on December 3, 2025. The Saturday after Grossman’s arrest, El Paso Matters published an editorial by Alderete-Ferrini without providing background information about Grossman’s arrest nor informing readers about Alderete-Ferrini’s inherent bias against Grossman.
In 2024, Grossman exposed serious misrepresentation made by Alderete-Ferrini about her professional credentials that led to her appointment as the city’s Climate Chief, including misrepresenting that she was an architect when she was not. In Texas, a person using the word architect must be licensed to represent themselves professionally as an architect.
After not being selected as the city’s next city manager in 2024, Alderete-Ferrini resigned from the city as questions about her credentials continued to be raised.
In her opinion piece on El Paso Matters excoriating Grossman, she labeling him a violent man towards women, adding that “this arrest is not an isolated case.” Grossman does not have a criminal record. His family violence case was dismissed.
The liability that El Paso Matters now faces is allowing the editorial to be published without disclosing the bias behind the editorial and without providing the context behind the arrest as well as the libelous context in the editorial.
Dear reader, I hope you appreciate this article. Before reading more, I ask that you consider my work and make a small donation to help keep this publication open for everyone. El Paso lacks news diversity. I offer 20+ years of historical knowledge about El Paso’s politics and public policy. Media diversity matters. Make a small donation today to help keep my work going for another 20+ years. Thank you.
El Paso lawyer, Steve Fisher, a former El Paso Herald Post and Texas Tribune columnist said that El Paso Matters showed “poor journalism” in publishing the editorial that “lacked common ethics and decency on many levels.” Fisher added that he attempted to rebut the editorial with one of his own, and that Bob Moore rejected it with “an angry ‘I’ll pass’,” response to his submission.
A court filing in an unrelated court case revealed for the first time that Max Grossman is pursuing litigation against El Paso Matters and others over the editorial.
El Paso Matters, Bob Moore and Others Face Libel and Defamation Lawsuits
In a criminal case filing on Monday, it was revealed for the first time that Grossman is in pre-suit litigation against Alderete-Ferrini over her editorial.
Pre-suit litigation under Texas rules allows plaintiffs to investigate and gather evidence and, in many cases, start demanding documents and begin taking depositions before filing a civil lawsuit.
El Paso News spoke to Grossman yesterday afternoon via telephone. Grossman confirmed that he has initiated pre-suit litigation against Alderete-Ferrini as well as against Bob Moore, El Paso Matters and Cindy Ramirez, the publication’s editor. Grossman told us that the basis for the potential lawsuits are “libel and defamation” on “various grounds.”
Except for Alderete-Ferrini and El Paso Matters, as of yesterday the other potential defendants have not responded to Grossman’s court filings, he told us.
El Paso News requested comment from Alderete-Ferrini and Bob Moore on Monday for this story. As of this morning, neither have responded to our request for comment.
Last month, Moore responded to our request for comment with several emails for our report on who controls El Paso Matters as questions about his journalistic ethics continue to be raised.
To this day, other than adding that the criminal case against Grossman was dismissed, El Paso Matters has yet to add context to the editorial or disclose the bias behind Alderete-Ferrini’s editorial.
Cover image credit: Screen capture of El Paso Matters Bob Moore profile page, March 18, 2026, Martín Paredes/El Paso News