{"id":1881,"date":"2007-06-22T11:22:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-22T17:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/four-indicted-on-public-corruption-charges\/"},"modified":"2007-06-22T11:22:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-22T17:22:00","slug":"four-indicted-on-public-corruption-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/06\/four-indicted-on-public-corruption-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Four indicted on public corruption charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The wife of a state lawmaker and three others have been indicted on government corruption charges related to mismanagement of funds at the <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:placename st=\"on\">West<\/st1:placename> <st1:placename st=\"on\">Las Vegas<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype st=\"on\">School District<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Attorney General <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ago.state.nm.us\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gary King<\/a> today filed grand jury indictments against Roberta Vigil, Ralph Garcia, Joe Baca and Beverly Ortega, according to a news release. The charges stem from alleged fraudulent spending of federal money along with state funds specifically appropriated for the school district\u2019s bilingual education program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\u201cTransparency and honesty in government are vital components in the public\u2019s trust of its leaders,\u201d King said. \u201cWe believe today\u2019s indictments are an important step toward restoring that confidence.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Vigil, Garcia and Baca are charged with fraud, a second-degree felony punishable by up to nine years in prison; conspiracy, a third-degree felony punishable by up to three years in prison; and misuse of public money and prohibited sales by school board members, each a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. In addition, Vigil is charged with tampering with public records, a fourth-degree felony, and a misdemeanor procurement code violation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Ortega is charged with one count of conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Vigil is formerly the director of bilingual education for the district and is the wife of state Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/legis.state.nm.us\/lcs\/legdetails.asp?Name=241&amp;Submit=Search\" target=\"_blank\">Richard Vigil<\/a>, D-Ribera. Garcia is a current school board member. Baca, until recently, was superintendent, and Ortega was an assistant to Vigil.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I\u2019ll have a more in-depth story on this soon, so check back. I just wanted to get the immediate news out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The wife of a state lawmaker and three others have been indicted on government corruption charges related to mismanagement of funds at the West Las Vegas School District. Attorney General Gary King today filed grand jury indictments against Roberta Vigil, Ralph Garcia, Joe Baca and Beverly Ortega, according to a news release. The charges stem [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881","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=1881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}