{"id":4317,"date":"2009-03-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/ag-postpones-housing-authority-grand-jury\/"},"modified":"2009-03-06T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T13:00:00","slug":"ag-postpones-housing-authority-grand-jury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/ag-postpones-housing-authority-grand-jury\/","title":{"rendered":"AG postpones housing authority grand jury"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sen. Papen is among those who are frustrated that the case hasn\u2019t moved forward<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Attorney General Gary King<\/a> has delayed his plan to take the drawn-out investigation of scandal in the state\u2019s affordable housing system before a grand jury, and that has some frustrated.<\/p>\n

Witnesses in the case had been subpoenaed<\/a> to appear before the grand jury in February, but that never happened. Multiple sources confirmed that the housing authority grand jury was postponed, but King\u2019s office, which never confirmed its grand jury plans in the first place, won\u2019t say now why the grand jury has been delayed.<\/p>\n

<\/span>As is customary, AG spokesman Phil Sisneros would say only that his office doesn\u2019t comment on the status of investigations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The delay frustrates Sen. Mary Kay Papen<\/a>, D-Las Cruces. She was among those expecting action from the AG sometime during the current legislative session, in which she is the sponsor of a bill that would overhaul the housing authorities<\/a> in response to the scandal.<\/p>\n

\u201cGary King said he was making this a priority, and I hope that\u2019s accurate because it doesn\u2019t appear that way,\u201d Papen said. \u201c\u2026 They say they\u2019re working on it, and I\u2019m not really privy to what they\u2019re doing. It just seems like it\u2019s grinding very slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation has spanned nearly three years and preceded King taking office at the beginning of 2007. King said the probe was a top priority<\/a> when he took office but, before news broke in January of the plan to take the case before a grand jury last month, many had begun to wonder whether it would ever lead to criminal charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not all are worried. Lt. Gov Diane Denish<\/a>, who has joined Papen in championing reform of the housing authority system, said she\u2019s not concerned about the pace of the probe or the AG\u2019s unwillingness to comment. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be inappropriate for the attorney general\u2019s office to discuss an ongoing investigation,\u201d she said. \u201cI am confident that he is pursuing all legal recourse. It\u2019s important that all evidence is thoroughly reviewed before any action is taken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody is waiting\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The scandal captured headlines in 2006 when the Albuquerque-based Region III Housing Authority defaulted on $5 million in bonds it owed the state. The State Investment Council<\/a> (SIC) and state auditor<\/a> have found widespread misuse of the bond money, which was supposed to be spent on houses.<\/p>\n

The misuse included a $300,000 loan the housing authority made to a private company owned by former Region III Director Vincent \u201cSmiley\u201d Gallegos, the man at the center of the scandal, under the guise of purchasing more than 30 lots in Las Cruces — lots that had already been purchased by the authority. Gallegos repaid the loan before he resigned in 2006.<\/p>\n

There has been some action in response to the scandal. The AG obtained court orders to boot three tenants from homes owned by Region III because they didn\u2019t qualify for affordable housing — two employees of the authority and a board member. A judge was disciplined for a conflict of interest related to the scandal. And the SIC is suing Gallegos and Albuquerque bond attorney Robert Strumor in an attempt to recover public money that was lost when Region III defaulted on the bonds.<\/p>\n

But no one has been held criminally liable, and Papen is among those hoping for more.<\/p>\n

State Auditor Hector Balderas<\/a> has publicly expressed frustration at the level of documentation the housing authorities were required to keep that cannot be located, and says that reality hindered investigation. But Balderas is unwilling to publicly guess whether the documents were destroyed, taken or not kept in the first place.<\/p>\n

Papen said the volume of missing documentation that was required to be maintained leads her to believe documents were destroyed — which would be a felony crime — and she wants that to be among the actions for which someone is held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just hoping that we will see more action coming from the attorney general, that we\u2019ll see his case move forward,\u201d Papen said. \u201cI think everybody is waiting to see what the attorney general is going to do — if and when he\u2019s going to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Papen is among those who are frustrated that the case hasn\u2019t moved forward Attorney General Gary King has delayed his plan to take the drawn-out investigation of scandal in the state\u2019s affordable housing system before a grand jury, and that has some frustrated. Witnesses in the case had been subpoenaed to appear before the […]<\/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-4317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317","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=4317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}