Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
Once again it’s Thanksgiving, and from my view as the state’s attorney general, there is much to be thankful for in New Mexico. Although all of us in the King family are deeply saddened by the loss of my father, Bruce King, we know he would be the first to encourage us to get back to work, especially if our jobs involved helping our neighbors. He would have wanted me to carry on with the business and duties of the office entrusted to me by the citizens of New Mexico.
One of those duties is to report to you from time to time about the things we have been doing in the Attorney General’s Office.
Good things have happened for New Mexico so far in 2009. We should be thankful for the good, and perhaps the bad can be put into proper perspective. Here are a few of those good things in which the Attorney General’s Office was involved:
• In January we presented a check for more than $377,000 to the New Mexico Primary Care Association. NMPCA planned to distribute these funds to 15 federally qualified health centers throughout New Mexico to provide enhanced medication services to persons with diabetes in New Mexico. Our office obtained these funds as part of a legal settlement with companies that faced lawsuits for violations of consumer protection laws.
• In February of this year our Medicaid Fraud & Elderly Abuse Division successfully obtained guilty verdicts on charges brought against an Albuquerque nursing home operator for abusing a resident. This conviction sent a strong message statewide that crimes against our vulnerable elderly population will not be tolerated and will be vigorously prosecuted.
• March saw a huge victory for New Mexicans in a longstanding case involving public access to state lands. The Attorney General’s Office opposed the private closing of a road in Northern New Mexico that the public has used for 150 years to access state land, and the N.M. Supreme Court ruled in our favor to reopen that road to public use.
• On April 8, AG prosecutors were successful in convincing a New Mexico grand jury to issue indictments on eight criminal charges including election law violations and embezzlement-related fraud against a Public Regulation Commission member and his father, a former PRC member, on related charges.
• In June, my office filed criminal charges against a former state housing authority official for fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and conspiracy related to the operation of the Region III Housing Authority.
• After working last year to pass a law making human trafficking a crime in New Mexico, in July, my office launched a statewide public awareness campaign to educate the public about how to spot and report it and to try to make everyone understand that human trafficking is not the same as immigrant smuggling.
• In August, again, AG prosecutors succeeded in convincing a grand jury to return indictments against a former New Mexico secretary of state and three others, alleging misuse of public money.
• Protection of New Mexico’s environment was boosted in September as my office launched new ways for the public to help report violations to the AG’s Environmental Crimes Unit. We now have a telephone tip-line and a special e-mail address to receive environmental crimes tips and information about environmental law violations, plus we are producing a new brochure to aid the public in recognizing and reporting such crimes.
• And in October, the AG’s Office led the way to saving taxpayer dollars by sharing ways for other state agencies to utilize current technologies, such as Google Apps, to improve communications, transparency and productivity.
Good things are happening in our state government and likely in our lives as well. This month I had neck surgery to help alleviate longstanding pain and mobility problems, and I am very thankful that it went well. Perhaps we can all take stock of the things I have mentioned and the other good things in our lives and give thanks, then strengthen our resolve to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.
King, a Democrat, is New Mexico’s attorney general.