{"id":464228,"date":"2017-11-16T20:43:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T03:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=464228"},"modified":"2017-11-17T13:55:57","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T20:55:57","slug":"former-sen-griego-convicted-of-bribery-other-ethics-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/11\/former-sen-griego-convicted-of-bribery-other-ethics-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Sen. Griego convicted of bribery, other ethics violations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A jury found former state Sen. Phil Griego guilty on Thursday of five charges stemming from his dual role as a legislator who helped push approval of the sale of a state building and a broker who made money off the transaction.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_131799\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-131799\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Griego-Phil-336x248.jpg\" alt=\"Phil Griego\" width=\"336\" height=\"248\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Phil Griego<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The convictions &#8212; on counts of bribery, fraud and violating the state&#8217;s ethics laws &#8212; included four felonies.<\/p>\n<p>Griego could face up to 17.5 years in prison, though he&#8217;s free for now while awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Holding the powerful accountable is how we ensure our government truly serves the citizens of New Mexico and that no one is above the law, regardless of their political status,&#8221; said state Attorney General Hector Balderas, whose office prosecuted the case.<\/p>\n<p>Griego,\u00a0D-San Jose, &#8220;was largely stoic as the verdict came in,&#8221; the Albuquerque Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/1093925\/griego-found-guilty-of-bribery-ethical-violations.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>. &#8220;His wife was in tears.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Griego, 69, didn&#8217;t speak to reporters when he left the courthouse in Santa Fe, the Journal reported.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t believe the state proved its case, but the jury thought otherwise,\u201d Griego&#8217;s attorney Tom Clark told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Though Balderas&#8217; office gets credit for prosecuting Griego, journalism first shone light on Griego&#8217;s misdeeds. The Santa Fe Reporter published <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfreporter.com\/news\/coverstories\/2014\/07\/22\/sold-out\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an investigative report<\/a> in 2014 about Griego&#8217;s brokering of the sale of the historic Santa Fe building that he also voted, in his official role, to sell. He made $50,000 on the deal.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Griego, who served for 18 years,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/555514\/politics\/breaking-sen-phil-griego-resigns-from-nm-senate.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resigned from the Senate in 2015<\/a>, during a legislative inquiry into the deal. He admitted to ethics violations, but that didn&#8217;t stop the criminal investigations.<\/p>\n<p>In a second, pending case, Griego faces 22 felony and misdemeanor counts including embezzlement, fraud, perjury and filing a false campaign report stemming from allegations that he personally and illegally benefited from his campaign&#8217;s funds and lied about it on public reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic officials are elected to do the work of the people, not to enrich themselves from their official duties while New Mexicans struggle just to get by,&#8221; Balderas said following Thursday&#8217;s verdict. &#8220;New Mexico families deserve the highest level of ethics and service from their elected officials.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The case stemmed from Griego&#8217;s dual role as a legislator who helped push approval of the sale of a state building and a broker who made money off the transaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,3268,3623,114,107],"class_list":["post-464228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-journalism","tag-phil-griego","tag-public-corruption","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464228","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=464228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}