Posted on 03/30/2007 12:38:48 AM PDT by InShanghai
4 in N.M. charged with corruption
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A former state senator and three other people were charged with corruption Thursday in a highly politicized case that a former federal prosecutor told Congress he believes led to his firing.
A federal grand jury accused former New Mexico Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon and the others of conspiring to skim $4.2 million in public funds meant for construction of a county courthouse.
David Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys fired late last year, told Congress this month that he rejected what he believed to be pressure from U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (news, bio, voting record) and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson (news, bio, voting record), New Mexico Republicans, to rush the indictments, which would have hurt Democrats in the November elections.
Spokesmen for Domenici and Wilson, who was in a hotly contested race at the time, said Thursday they would have no comment on the indictments.
The firing of Iglesias and the other prosecutors has blown up into a scandal that has spawned calls for the resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathon Gerson in Albuquerque said the 26-count indictment handed up Thursday stemmed from an investigation that has lasted more than a year.
"We handled this as we would have handled any other case," Gerson said. "We handled this matter professionally without attention being paid to outside influence."
Charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering Thursday were Aragon; former metro court administrator Toby Martinez; Raul Parra, a partner in Albuquerque engineering firm P2RS; and software consultant Sandra Mata Martinez, Toby Martinez's wife.
Architect Marc Schiff; former Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz, who was a lobbyist for Schiff's firm; and subcontractor Manuel Guara have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of mail fraud. Their plea agreements were unsealed Thursday.
Aragon, Parra and the Martinezes conspired to submit and approve false invoices for payment and to make excessive requests for payment, the grand jury alleged. The Martinezes received about $2 million and Aragon $700,000 from the fraud, the indictment said.
Aragon did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Messages also were left for attorneys representing Parra and the Martinezes.
Prosecutors allege Schultz took cash payments from Schiff and passed some of the money to Toby Martinez, who approved inflated invoices. Schultz's attorney, Peter Schoenburg, noted that his client has cooperated with investigators.
"I think he regrets his actions very much," Schoenburg said.
Messages seeking comment from attorneys representing Schiff and Guara were not immediately returned. Contact information could not immediately be located for the Martinezes and Parra.
___
Associated Press writers Barry Massey and Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report.
Manny Aragon is a Democrat that's had his hand in the cookie jar for so long it's stuck, and he's only now being charged... But what really chaps my hide is the way this article makes two republican senators look like they've been doing something wrong (pressing to expedite the cases), and that the attorney (who should've been fired earlier) is somehow a victim of the evil empire...
The crimes committed and their seriousness are completely ignored. What a crock!
The dinosaur media death is slowly proceeding the only way this can be rooted is by fixing our liberal education system and the way these reporters bias their reporting!
As best I can tell Iglesias was incompetent and the subject of lots of complaints...he will make a really good Democrat
Right is wrong in upside down land!
I knew they were dems when they were noted as "people" with no party designated.
It's amazing how over time the definitions of "corruption" and "traitor" have become something else. Liberalism has ruined our society.
A modern day revolution is a-brewing.
No article noting a RAT involved in wrongdoing will ever mention the party. If it's a Republican, it will be splashed all over the place...
I'm in favor of deporting all leftwing moonbats to the Northeast or San Francisco, then sealing the Red State borders in both directions, and forming a new Confederated States of America. We'll take San Diego, they can have Washington.
They can have NYC, we'll take the tanks, carriers, and boomers. We KNOW how to use them, they obviously don't...
...we'll take the tanks, carriers, and boomers. We KNOW how to use them, they obviously don't...
The tools are useless without the operators. The patriots in rank are our greatest asset, without whom we would be as useless as, gasp, France.
Let's take a random poll of the officers, pilots, engineers, etc. and see where most hail from. I'm betting the majority are from red states...
The hairbrained idea begins to come together...
Fourteen paragraphs and NO mention that Aragon is a Dem. Typical, fair, balanced propaganda from the AP.
Yeah. The AP has actually become a joke. Thanks to the internet more and more people are coming to understand that large parts of the MSM are nothing but appendenges for the Democrat National Committee.
And you know...the AP won't fix this because, it's really who they are.
I understand why the republicans wanted news of this case leaked to counter all the leaks of republicans, but we should rather not want any cases leaked.
However, this should be used as an example countering the rediculous charge by the democrats that firing a DA halts prosecutions.
Realise they already contradict themselves -- they argue both that some were fired to HALT investigations, and others were fired because investigations weren't going quickly enough. Meaning they think that firing a prosecuter will slow down an investigation that is in progress, but also firing a prosecuter will speed up an investigation that is in progress.
In this case, the prosecuter on a case that was moving slowly was fired, and the investigation continued and now there are indictments. Which shows both that investigations and prosecutions are not by necessity hurt in any way by firing the prosecuter, and also shows that the charges last fall that there were cases coming against the democrats that weren't being advertised was true.
Don't know about engineers, but a poll of military officers in 1998 had 90% of them identifying themselves as "Republican" or "conservative."
I remember the left wingers going ballistic over the numbers.
What can you say?
A State run by Democrats, driven by reverse racism.
Further, on March 9, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White called KKOB Radio's morning show and told listeners that complaints about fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias's performance had been circulating since at least 2004 and not from politicians, but from federal law enforcement officials (none of whom he named). http://www.abqjournal.com
Link to yesterday's FR thread here:
Bring the attorney up on charges of conspiracy with the RATS in NM.
Then call for an investigation about Reid, Schumer, Clinton and Kennedy.
I bet this will go away very quickly.
I wonder if the leftwingnuts are going ballistic over similar numbers being lefties in the MSM?...
you forgot "freezerman" william jefferson
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