Articles show problems with Iglesias’ tenure, but leak of information might also be used against Domenici

Doña Ana County’s district attorney and Bernalillo County’s sheriff have jumped into the fight over whether former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias was competent.

Meanwhile, news also leaked this weekend that, sometime shortly after the November 2006 election, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., took his complaints about Iglesias directly to President Bush.

In a weekend article published in the Albuquerque Journal, District Attorney Susana Martinez and Sheriff Darren White said Iglesias’ office was unresponsive to their needs on specific cases.

The Journal reported that the sheriff wanted help from Iglesias’ office getting wiretaps for the probe into the murder of Deputy James McGrane in 2006, but received no help. Martinez said she had to threaten to go to Bush to get the federal office to take over a drug-related kidnapping and murder case that crossed state lines.

Martinez was speaking about the 2005 murder of 16-year-old Dana Grauke of San Antonio, Texas. Larry Lujan and two others are charged with kidnapping him in Texas and bringing him to Doña Ana County. Lopez is also charged with nearly beheading the teen and dumping his body in an irrigation ditch near Anthony.

Martinez has never revealed publicly before now that she had to push so hard to get Iglesias’ office to take the case. Her comments raise the question: If the feds wouldn’t take a murder case that involved drugs and crossed state lines, what violent-crime cases were they interested in taking?

Martinez said she took a list of complaints to Domenici. White took his complaints to Domenici and the Department of Justice.

The revelations were part of what was likely a planned leak of information to the Journal designed to counter the scandal that has engulfed Domenici. Iglesias alleges that he was fired because he refused to speed indictments in a public corruption probe in time to sway voters in the November 2006 election. He alleges that Domenici and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., pressured him to help Wilson in her re-election bid.

Martinez and White are both prominent Republicans and political. Though the release of information was likely politically motivated, the revelations shed light on a host of problems with Iglesias’ tenure not previously known publicly.

More complaints of mismanagement

In addition to complaining about law-enforcement issues, White also complained about Iglesias’ failure to prosecute voter fraud. This is a sore spot for Republicans from around the state who believe they handed Iglesias more than 100 verifiable instances of fraud following the 2004 election that he never prosecuted.

Iglesias says only one case even came close to meeting the standard for prosecution.

Martinez and White both say one of the problems was that Iglesias wasn’t aggressive enough.

“Everyone likes David personally, but it was getting to the point that every case had to be wrapped with a nice, pretty bow before his office would take it,” White told the Journal.

In addition to the Grauke case, Martinez told the Journal her office had problems getting help from the U.S. attorney’s office on immigration smuggling cases that were too small. She told the Journal the office was so unresponsive that it got to the point “where you don’t even make the call because you know they won’t respond.”

Martinez also alleged that about $8 million for New Mexico law enforcement agencies to combat drug trafficking has been frozen in part because Iglesias and his top deputies didn’t participate in the program that is supposed to oversee the funds.

Domenici makes the call

The release of information was likely designed to show that Domenici had reason to go directly to Bush after his meetings with Justice Department officials, which had taken place over the course of a couple of years, didn’t result in Iglesias’ ouster.

Domenici told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in the spring of 2006 that he wanted Iglesias out, the Journal reported in a second weekend article. Gonzales told Domenici he would fire Iglesias only if the president ordered it, the newspaper reported.

Domenici, the Journal reported, called Karl Rove sometime after the Nov. 6 election to say he wanted Iglesias out and wanted his request taken directly to the president. Domenici and Bush then spoke by phone about Iglesias.

On Nov. 15, Iglesias’ name appeared for the first time on the list of those who would be fired on Dec. 7.

So now we know how Iglesias’ name ended up on the list, or at least Domenici’s version of events. These are details Bush Administration officials have not revealed, even under oath. They have instead been vague about how Iglesias’ name made its way on to the list. Explanations for the larger firing of Iglesias and seven others have been contradictory and constantly changing.

And the Domenici version of events, though it might show evidence for Iglesias’ ouster, could also be interpreted to back up Iglesias’ claim that the Oct. 2006 phone call was political in nature and that his firing was politically motivated.

Domenici called Iglesias to inquire about indictments in the Bernalillo County Metro Courthouse scandal. Iglesias says Domenici pressured him; Domenici says he was only inquiring about the status.

There’s a lot of evidence that there were problems with Iglesias’ tenure. That’s not Domenici’s problem. His problem is timing: He made the call less than a month before the election in which his protégé Wilson was in the fight of her political life and, for the first time, behind in the polls. Then, days after Wilson won by 861 votes out of more than 211,000, Domenici called the president and was successful in getting Iglesias fired.

The indictments didn’t come before the election. Those who are out to get Domenici might argue that he called Bush in retaliation.

The release of all this information might make the case that Iglesias deserved to be fired, but it might also be used to argue that Domenici should be censured for playing politics with an important criminal investigation.

A prior version of this posting incorrectly identified Larry Lujan.