In the wake of Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega’s arrest last week in a firearms trafficking case, the Las Cruces Sun-News asks an interesting question: Why was Vega hired for the job in the first place?
“For years, Vega’s career – as a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy, Carrizozo police chief, Mesilla marshal and superintendent of the J. Paul Taylor Juvenile Justice Center – has had its critics,” the article states.
It also details Vega’s criminal history – “a 1996 indictment for felony extortion and two counts of felony intimidation of a witness, a fourth-degree felony, and a 2001 arrest on charges of stalking and harassment. A plea bargain was reached in the 1996 case, with Vega instead pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor false imprisonment. Both of which were dropped following the 2001 arrest.”
Phillip Archuleta, the local president of the League of United Latin American Citizens and a labor law administrator with the New Mexico Department of Labor, tried to get rid of Vega when he served on the J. Paul Taylor board of directors in 2006 and Vega was running the facility.
“I didn’t feel he was qualified to be the superintendent,” the Sun-News quoted Archuleta as saying. “I brought it to the attention of some of the higher people, sent the paperwork to the governor’s office and (then-Gov. Bill Richardson’s) secretary … nobody did anything about it.”
Read the full article by clicking here.