{"id":27898,"date":"2011-03-30T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T21:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=27898"},"modified":"2011-03-31T13:21:05","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:21:05","slug":"supreme-court-lets-ag-prosecute-housing-authority-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/supreme-court-lets-ag-prosecute-housing-authority-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court lets AG prosecute housing authority case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Attorney General Gary King (Photo by Heath Haussamen)<\/p><\/div>\n

The N.M. Supreme Court has given Attorney General Gary King\u2019s<\/a> office a green light to proceed with prosecution of the case against defendants in the housing authority scandal, the Albuquerque Journal<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

From the Journal:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state Supreme Court on Friday refused to get involved \u2014 at least for now \u2014 in the AG\u2019s prosecution of a former legislator, a prominent lawyer and two others in the Region III Housing Authority case.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

King\u2019s office was quoted by the Journal as saying this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe join many New Mexicans who are glad that the procedural roadblock in front of prosecuting the Region III proceedings is finally removed. We will continue to press forward and have these cases decided on the evidence by fair and impartial juries.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Former Region III Housing Authority Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos, former Region III accountant Dennis M. Kennedy, and former Region III bond attorney Robert Strumor are facing felony charges including fraud and money laundering. A fourth defendant, former Region III attorney David N. Hernandez, is charged with tampering with evidence.<\/p>\n

The case centers on the misspending of bond money issued by the State Investment Council. Read more about the scandal here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The question of whether King can prosecute the case has significantly delayed trial. The appeal to the state\u2019s high court came after the Court of Appeals\u00a0ruled that King can prosecute the case<\/a> even though his office also represents, in a civil capacity, the housing authorities and the State Investment Council.<\/p>\n

That dual role created, as the very least, a negative appearance, the defendants argued in\u00a0a Feb. 14 filing<\/a> with the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

King is currently fighting to prosecute another public corruption case his office has brought forward. Earlier this month, a district judge ruled that King\u2019s office can\u2019t prosecute the corruption case<\/a> against former Secretary of State\u00a0Rebecca Vigil-Giron<\/a> and others because of perceptions of a conflict.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the defendants had alleged a conflict because the AG\u2019s office provided counsel to the secretary of state on contracts related to the indictment, and also because one of the defendants used to work in the AG\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s options in that case are to appeal the ruling or hand the case over to a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The N.M. Supreme Court has given Attorney General Gary King\u2019s office a green light to proceed with prosecution of the case against defendants in the housing authority scandal, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,152,107],"class_list":["post-27898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-housing-authority-scandal","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27898","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=27898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}