![\"Dianna](\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Duran-Dianna-336x232.jpg\")
<\/a>Courtesy photo<\/p>
Dianna Duran<\/p><\/div>\n
The article was referring to the conclusion of the criminal case in the housing authority scandal<\/a> — which\u00a0revolved around the alleged misuse of millions of dollars in bond money after a significant portion of the state’s\u00a0infrastructure for providing affordable housing collapsed.<\/p>\n Then-Attorney General Gary King charged several people<\/a>\u00a0tied to the housing-authority system with felony crimes in 2009. But after a drawn-out battle, which\u00a0included a fight over whether King had a conflict <\/a>that should prohibit his prosecution\u00a0of the case, one defendant pleaded guilty to a handful of misdemeanors<\/a>\u00a0in 2013. A year later,\u00a0King dropped all charges<\/a> against the other defendants.<\/p>\n That included dropping charges against bond attorney Robert Strumor. Among the attorneys on Strumor’s defense team was Erlinda Ocampo Johnson, according to the New Mexico courts website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now Johnson is representing Secretary of State Dianna Duran, who is the target of\u00a0the first felony case new Attorney General Hector Balderas has brought against a public official.<\/p>\n Duran is charged with 64 counts<\/a> including fraud, embezzlement and money laundering related to allegations that she abused the state’s campaign finance system for personal gain. Duran has pleaded not guilty<\/a>.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Johnson filed a motion to disqualify Balderas from the case, arguing that he has a bias against Duran.<\/p>\n From the Albuquerque Journal<\/a>:<\/p>\n The motion seeking to disqualify the AG\u2019s Office from prosecuting Duran argues that Balderas has a conflict of interest due to his past working relationship with the secretary of state, while also arguing he appears to have a political \u201cvendetta\u201d against Duran.<\/p>\n \u201cThis perversion of the criminal justice system can be seen as nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to seek retribution of the most punitive kind against Ms. Duran,\u201d the secretary of state\u2019s lawyer wrote in the motion, which says Duran intends to call two lawyers in the Attorney General\u2019s Office as witnesses in the case.<\/p>\n The motion also cites a judge\u2019s 2011 decision to remove the office of then-Attorney General Gary King from the corruption case of former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron and three others.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The Vigil-Giron case was another brought by King that ended with a whimper<\/a> after a long legal battle.<\/p>\n\n