{"id":14141,"date":"2010-03-04T14:17:45","date_gmt":"2010-03-04T21:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=14141"},"modified":"2010-03-04T14:17:52","modified_gmt":"2010-03-04T21:17:52","slug":"judge-dismisses-civil-case-against-bond-attorney-in-housing-authority-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/03\/judge-dismisses-civil-case-against-bond-attorney-in-housing-authority-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge dismisses civil case against bond attorney in housing authority scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Heath Haussamen<\/p><\/div>\n

A judge has agreed to dismiss the State Investment Council\u2019s<\/a> civil case against a bond attorney involved in the housing authority scandal<\/a> and that attorney\u2019s counterclaims against the state agency.<\/p>\n

The investment council (SIC) had been suing<\/a> bond attorney Robert Strumor, along with former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos, to try to recover some or all of the $5 million in bond money that was lost when Region III defaulted on the bonds in 2006.<\/p>\n

The SIC had accused Strumor, once one of the most prominent bond attorneys in the state, of misrepresenting the facts as he sold the SIC on the bond proposal and negotiated the terms of those bonds.<\/p>\n

In response to the SIC lawsuit, Strumor filed a counterclaim alleging that the SIC failed \u201cto exercise reasonable care selecting and purchasing bonds which are at issue in this case.\u201d Strumor claimed that he had incurred attorneys\u2019 fees and been exposed to liability as a result of the SIC\u2019s actions, and he sought damages.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 19, Strumor, his law firm \u2013 which was also a party in the lawsuit \u2013 and the SIC filed a joint motion to dismiss<\/a> the claims against Strumor and Strumor\u2019s counterclaims. District Judge Nan Nash approved an order to dismiss<\/a> three days later.<\/p>\n

The claims and counterclaims were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refilled.<\/p>\n

The SIC\u2019s civil lawsuit against Gallegos remains \u2013 as does the attorney general\u2019s pending criminal case<\/a> against Gallegos, Strumor and two others \u2013 which is why SIC spokesman Charles Wollmann said he could not comment on the dismissal of the claims and counterclaims involving Strumor.<\/p>\n

Much of the state\u2019s housing authority system collapsed in 2006 when Region III defaulted on the bonds. Though the bond money was only supposed to be spent on housing, much of it was spent to prop up the administration and operations of Region III and some other housing authorities across the state and on other questionable activities.<\/p>\n

In addition to the SIC lawsuit and the criminal charges brought by the attorney general, the state auditor has released a report that he said indicates the housing authorities were\u00a0\u201ca colossal failure.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A judge has agreed to dismiss the State Investment Council\u2019s civil case against a bond attorney involved in the housing authority scandal and that attorney\u2019s counterclaims against the state agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[152,107],"class_list":["post-14141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-housing-authority-scandal","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}