{"id":20585,"date":"2010-08-17T14:17:15","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T20:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=20585"},"modified":"2010-08-17T14:18:26","modified_gmt":"2010-08-17T20:18:26","slug":"hicks-won%e2%80%99t-answer-questions-about-office-supply-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/08\/hicks-won%e2%80%99t-answer-questions-about-office-supply-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Hicks won\u2019t answer questions about office supply deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Janetta Hicks<\/p><\/div>\n

Janetta Hicks, whose home business used to sell supplies to District Attorney Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> office while she was an employee in that office, is refusing to answer NMPolitics.net\u2019s questions about the situation.<\/p>\n

I had some follow-up questions for Hicks, who is now the district attorney<\/a> in Southeastern New Mexico, after reading her comments in a Roswell Daily Record article<\/a> regarding the situation.<\/p>\n

The Albuquerque Journal was first to report<\/a> that Martinez\u2019s office had purchased more than $60,000 in office supplies from Hicks\u2019 company. At the time, Hicks was one of the top employees in the office. Martinez has defended the arrangement as legal, and though the Journal questioned in its initial article whether the deal violated state law,\u00a0a follow up article<\/a> pointed out that a current law barring such arrangements wasn\u2019t in place at the time of the purchases from 2003 to 2005.<\/p>\n

The Journal reported that Hicks didn\u2019t respond to its requests for comment. But Hicks was quoted by the Daily Record as saying the deal was \u201cperfectly appropriate\u201d and that supplies were purchased from her only when she could offer the cheapest price. She said she sold supplies to other clients, but refused to name any except to say she primarily worked with district attorney offices.<\/p>\n

Even then, she wouldn\u2019t specify which DA offices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been too much tension and I don\u2019t want to name other clients,\u201d the newspaper quoted Hicks as saying.<\/p>\n

I still had some questions, so I left a phone message with Hicks and sent her these questions in an e-mail on Monday:<\/p>\n