{"id":467,"date":"2006-08-15T12:47:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-15T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/judge-vigil-trial-staying-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2006-08-15T12:47:00","modified_gmt":"2006-08-15T18:47:00","slug":"judge-vigil-trial-staying-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/08\/judge-vigil-trial-staying-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge: Vigil trial staying in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a onblur=\"try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}\" href=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/1600\/Vigil%2C%20Robert.7.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;\" src=\"http:\/\/photos1.blogger.com\/blogger\/5892\/2386\/200\/Vigil%2C%20Robert.5.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>A federal judge issued a preliminary ruling Tuesday morning denying a request to move the trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil out of <st1:place st=\"on\"><st1:state st=\"on\">New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>, according to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abqjournal.com\/news\/apvenue08-15-06.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The review is pending U.S. District Judge James Browning\u2019s review of a few other cases, but the judge said he\u2019s confident a jury can be found in the state, the Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The retrial is set to begin Sept. 5. Vigil resigned in October and has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of racketeering and extortion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Vigil\u2019s attorney, Sam Bregman of <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, had argued that pretrial publicity and the nasty congressional race in the central part of the state have made it impossible for Vigil to get a fair trial. Attacks in that race between Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M. and Democratic challenger Patria <st1:state st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:state>, the state\u2019s attorney general, have focused on whether <st1:state st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> could have stopped corruption in the treasurer\u2019s office earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Television in that part of the state has been inundated with attack ads, as this is one of the most hotly contested congressional races in the nation. But those commercials have not run in the northern and southern parts of the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Bregman also argued that, under the prosecution\u2019s theory, every potential juror in the state is a victim in the case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Prosecutors, arguing against the change of venue request, said Bregman created much of the publicity he now complains about.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Bregman said he intends to appeal Browning\u2019s decision, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Bregman asked that the first trial earlier this year be held in <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, but a judge denied that request. Though the trial was held in <st1:city st=\"on\"><st1:place st=\"on\">Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, the judge expanded the jury pool to include the entire state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">That trial ended with a hung jury. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A federal judge issued a preliminary ruling Tuesday morning denying a request to move the trial of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil out of New Mexico, according to the Associated Press. The review is pending U.S. District Judge James Browning\u2019s review of a few other cases, but the judge said he\u2019s confident a jury can [&hellip;]<\/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-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","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=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}