{"id":84674,"date":"2015-09-15T11:19:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T17:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=84674"},"modified":"2015-09-16T09:28:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-16T15:28:25","slug":"duran-appears-in-court-pleads-not-guilty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/09\/duran-appears-in-court-pleads-not-guilty\/","title":{"rendered":"Duran appears in court, pleads not guilty"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dianna<\/a>

Courtesy photo<\/p>

Dianna Duran<\/p><\/div>\n

As promised, N.M. Secretary of State Dianna Duran pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to\u00a0criminal charges related to abusing the state\u2019s campaign finance system.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Legislative Council approved $250,000 in\u00a0funding for\u00a0a bipartisan committee<\/a> House Speaker Don Tripp has appointed to investigate\u00a0possible impeachment of Duran, said\u00a0James Hallinan, a spokesman for the attorney general.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s court appearance\u00a0was Duran’s first. From the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Duran was stoic during the 30-minute appearance before District Judge Glenn Ellington. She did not speak to reporters while leaving the courthouse through a side exit, and her husband at one [point] pushed away a television reporter\u2019s microphone.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Duran\u2019s attorney raised several technical complaints about the charges filed against Duran, but the judge rejected motions to dismiss part or all of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not been convicted of any offenses,\u201d Duran\u2019s attorney, Erlinda Johnson, said at one point during the hearing. \u201cAs she sits today, she is an elected official.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The office of Attorney General Hector Balderas\u00a0filed the 64-count criminal complaint against Duran\u00a0in late August<\/a> alleging fraud, money laundering and embezzlement.<\/p>\n

The case centers on allegations that Duran used campaign funds to cover gambling at several New Mexico casinos.<\/p>\n

Johnson had already said the embattled secretary of state would plead not guilty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judge ordered Duran to stay away from casinos as part of the conditions of her release, the Journal reported. And from Albuquerque’s KOB-TV<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Duran will be released on her own recognizance. Her conditions of release include no drugs or alcohol and she cannot leave New Mexico unless it is for state business.<\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing is expected to take place sometime between mid-November and December.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For now, Duran remains the secretary of state. Duties of her office including supervising elections, overseeing the state’s campaign finance reporting system, and handling registrations for corporations.<\/p>\n

Duran hasn’t been in the office since she was charged on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n

This article has been updated to include the Legislative Council’s action.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As promised, N.M. Secretary of State Dianna Duran pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges related to abusing the state\u2019s campaign finance system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55834,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,1191,705,107],"class_list":["post-84674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-dianna-duran","tag-money-in-politics","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84674","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=84674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}