{"id":27180,"date":"2011-03-13T09:18:57","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T15:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27180"},"modified":"2011-03-13T09:18:57","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T15:18:57","slug":"how-did-vega-get-columbus-police-chief-job-in-the-first-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/how-did-vega-get-columbus-police-chief-job-in-the-first-place\/","title":{"rendered":"How did Vega get Columbus police chief job in the first place?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

In the wake of Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega\u2019s arrest last week<\/a> 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?<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, Vega\u2019s career \u2013 as a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy, Carrizozo police chief, Mesilla marshal and superintendent of the J. Paul Taylor Juvenile Justice Center \u2013 has had its critics,\u201d the article states.<\/p>\n

It also details Vega\u2019s criminal history \u2013 \u201ca 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel he was qualified to be the superintendent,\u201d the Sun-News quoted Archuleta as saying. \u201cI brought it to the attention of some of the higher people, sent the paperwork to the governor\u2019s office and (then-Gov. Bill Richardson\u2019s) secretary … nobody did anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full article by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the wake of Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega\u2019s 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?<\/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":[140,142,195],"class_list":["post-27180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-crime","tag-mexicos-drug-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27180","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=27180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}