{"id":4495,"date":"2009-04-24T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-24T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/lawsuit-seeks-release-of-gripgate-subpoenas\/"},"modified":"2009-04-24T15:14:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-24T21:14:00","slug":"lawsuit-seeks-release-of-gripgate-subpoenas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/04\/lawsuit-seeks-release-of-gripgate-subpoenas\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit seeks release of GRIPgate subpoenas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My business, Haussamen Publications, is trying to force the release of subpoenas received by state agency in pay-to-play probe<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a passionate believer in open government. That\u2019s why my business, Haussamen Publications, filed a petition today seeking a court order to force the New Mexico Finance Authority<\/a> (NMFA) to release copies of subpoenas it has received in the federal probe of allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration.<\/p>\n

In January, I requested copies of subpoenas received by the governor\u2019s office and NMFA in the investigation. While the governor\u2019s office provided a copy<\/a> of the subpoena it received, the NMFA denied my request<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The petition contends that any subpoenas NMFA has received in the federal probe should be public and notes that the governor\u2019s office released such a document in response to an identical request. It seeks a court order for the release of the subpoena or subpoenas NMFA has received in the investigation and the awarding of costs and attorney fees.<\/p>\n

The petition, which names the NMFA\u2019s custodian of public records Connie Marquez-Valencia as the respondent, was filed in the Third Judicial District Court in Las Cruces. Click here<\/a> to read the petition.<\/p>\n

The attorney representing Haussamen Publications, the publisher of this site, is David P. Lutz of Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

In a February letter informing me of the denial of my records request, Reynold Romero, the NMFA\u2019s general counsel, wrote that \u201crelease of the requested documents could compromise or impede an ongoing federal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview, Romero told me his denial wasn\u2019t based on any of the specific exemptions to the state\u2019s Inspection of Public Records Act<\/a>. He instead cited the provision that allows exemptions \u201cas otherwise provided by law.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, I sought guidance from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government<\/a>. The group sent a letter to the NMFA asking the state agency to justify denying my request<\/a>. Romero responded by citing a passage from a letter that accompanied a subpoena the grand jury sent to NMFA:<\/p>\n

\u201cSubpoenas issued in connection with proceedings before a grand jury are specifically exempt from the customer notification requirements of the Right to Financial Privacy Act<\/a>\u2026 and disclosure under certain circumstances is prohibited\u2026\u201d the letter states. \u201cPremature disclosure of this subpoena for records might impede the investigation in this case. Therefore, you are requested to not disclose the existence of this subpoena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition filed today contends that, \u201cThe asserted basis for denial does not fall under any of the enumerated exceptions to required disclosure under the Inspection of Public Records Act.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let you know how the court case progresses.<\/p>\n

– Heath Haussamen<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My business, Haussamen Publications, is trying to force the release of subpoenas received by state agency in pay-to-play probe I\u2019m a passionate believer in open government. That\u2019s why my business, Haussamen Publications, filed a petition today seeking a court order to force the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA) to release copies of subpoenas it has […]<\/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-4495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495","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=4495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}