Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
A common criticism of Attorney General Gary King is that his office’s attorney/client relationship with state agencies creates a conflict when he has to investigate corruption allegations involving one of those agencies.
King defends his office by saying that a “Chinese wall” exists between his civil and criminal divisions. The civil divisions report to King, and the criminal investigations and prosecutions divisions report to Chief Deputy Attorney General Al Lama.
In a Wednesday interview, King said he and Lama don’t discuss cases with each other when a conflict could exist.
“In cases where we need a Chinese wall, that’s where the differentiation is. The civil side answers to me and the criminal side answers to him,” King said. “We go out of our way to try and be ethical.”
The fact that the AG’s office acts as an attorney for state agencies and is also charged with investigating and prosecuting public corruption has been an issue in two criminal cases King’s office has brought forth. In the housing authority scandal, the defendants have argued that the AG can’t prosecute them and work on a related civil case. The state Court of Appeals has been asked to rule on the issue.
And the district judge in the AG’s criminal case against former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and others has yet to rule on conflict-of-interest allegations related in part to civil work the AG did for the Secretary of State’s Office. That’s one of the reasons the trial in the case has been delayed.
King said his office is fighting the conflict-of-interest allegations in both cases because he believes it is “time to draw the line and say look, this is what has to be done to go after these cases.”
King pointed to the housing authority case and the case against Vigil-Giron as evidence that his office can bring forth public corruption indictments even when the office’s civil side is involved in attorney/client issues with the agencies the criminal side is investigating.
A constitutional charge
King said his office is charged by the New Mexico Constitution with handling both civil and criminal issues on behalf of the state, so the AG’s office has to have “internal processes to deal with that” when a potential conflict arises. AG’s offices are set up similarly in other states, he said.
There’s no case law in New Mexico on the issue, so the housing authority case before the Appeals Court could set precedent. The case made it to the higher court after a district judge ruled in the AG’s favor.
King said he has no doubt that the Appeals Court will rule that the AG’s internal Chinese wall is sufficient. Any other ruling would create a significant problem, King said.
“If the courts were to rule that there was a conflict that couldn’t be resolved, then that would emasculate the ability of the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute corruption,” he said.