New corruption allegations in NM may involve Bill Richardson

Hotair ^ | May 15, 2011 | by Ed Morrissey

[MAKOTHEDOG]

Just when Bill Richardson appeared to be in the clear on corruption charges in New Mexico, new allegations of pay-for-play during his administration may envelop the former Governor again. A grand jury indicted a sitting district judge on charges of corruption for buying his appointment from Richardson in 2006, and a whistleblowing judge believes the rot went all the way to the top:

Third Judicial District Judge Mike Murphy allegedly said he gave $4,000 to get appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Bill Richardson in 2006, and told several people that other judicial appointees had to give money as well.

That’s according witness statements detailed in an incident report about the bribery case against Murphy. Ninth Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler, the special prosecutor in the case, released the report and the grand jury indictment of Murphy today in response to a records request from NMPolitics.net. It’s the first time the facts of the case have been made public.

Read the full report here. What’s so shocking about it isn’t that payoffs were occurring, but that so many people knew they were occurring and did nothing about it. Judge Lisa Schultz was warned on more than one occasion that she was risking her personal safety in pursuing the corruption, by more than one judge. She defiantly told the district attorney’s office about the corruption in 2009, which then referred the case to independent counsel due to the inherent conflict of interest in investigating judges that preside over their own cases. The DA at that time was Susanna Martinez, who wound up succeeding Richardson as governor last year.

Schultz could have taken the matter to the Judicial Standards Commission, but she didn’t trust them — for a very specific reason:

She had previously asked Norm Osborn, the Third Judicial District Court’s staff attorney, for an opinion. He wrote in a Sept. 24, 2007 memo that Murphy’s conduct was inappropriate and could be interpreted as “offering political influence in return for campaign contributions,” according to the report. Osborn urged Schultz to “consider referring this matter to the Judicial Standards Commission and to do so without delay.”

Schultz didn’t want to do that. She wrote in her journal that the majority of the commission’s members were appointed by Richardson, and the commission, which investigates ethical complaints against judges, had power over her.

Schultz wrote that she believed “the scheme also involved Governor Richardson,” and she did not feel comfortable “turning in Governor Richardson to his own board.”

Schultz then went on to secretly record a subsequent conversation with Murphy, in which he tacitly admitted to the corruption:

“Judge Schultz said to Murphy, ‘Do you remember when I asked you and Judge Martin about the fact that you guys had mentioned to judicial candidates that they, it would help their chances to give money to Edgar Lopez and hence the governor, blah, blah, blah, blah?’”

“Judge Murphy responded and said, ‘Yeah, of course, that’s over now, because we’re going to have a new governor.’”

Edgar Lopez is the alleged bagman in this operation, and the buffer for Richardson in the alleged scheme. If Murphy cuts a deal — and a former judge has a lot of reasons to avoid the general population in a state prison — it will be to turn on Lopez and other judges who paid off Lopez for their appointments. Assuming this is true, Lopez will be looking at a very long stretch in prison if he keeps his mouth shut about Richardson, who is after all the man who made the appointments after Lopez got the cash. Lopez couldn’t collect unless Richardson was in on the scheme, and without Richardson, the other judges wouldn’t have felt the need to threaten others to keep quiet.

Richardson isn’t out of the woods at all in New Mexico. This should get very, very interesting, and it may set the Democratic Party back decades in the state.

[JouleZ]

Thats the way we roll in the New Mexican Territory.

****************

Richardson and his corruption are big news here but my fav is the Columbus, NM police running guns across the border and the “Chavez Crime Family” who are LEO’s and alleged to kill people and make it look like a suicide. Move over Chi Town!

[MAKOTHEDOG]

The town of Columbus, NM has raised the bar pretty high.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I hope it sticks like superglue.

[JaguarXKE]

Corruption involving Richardson? I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you!

[Army Air Corps]

Bill Richardson corrupt? Say it ain’t so, Joe! /sarc

Richardson is as crooked at Billy Jeff Clinton.

[CedarDave]

Pinging the list again; from the ABQ Journal Breaking News ...

BREAKING: State Supreme Court Suspends Indicted Judge

The state Supreme Court has suspended Las Cruces District Judge Michael Murphy who was indicted on bribery charges.

~~ Snip ~~

A special prosecutor in the case said the indictment of the judge is just the beginning of the latest investigation into pay-to-play allegations against former Gov. Bill Richardson’s administration.

http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2011/05/16/abqnewsseeker/state-supreme-court-suspends-indicted-judge.html

I like the comments of the special prosecutor, who in this case is Matt Chandler, Clovis district attorney who ran but lost against Gary King for NM AG last November.

[GOPJ]

bttt

[unkus]

Wow. I like to see this kind of thing happening. Do you think Richardson is in real trouble or will he weasel his way out of it?

[MAKOTHEDOG]

I felt the same way about Chandler too. Being tied to Richardson and corruption didn’t work for Denish and won’t work for King.

[MAKOTHEDOG]

It would be nice if they could tie everything to Richardson but I really don’t see that happening. It would be hard to prove the cash payments were tied to him. I think it really will come down to who has the most to lose and who sings and what can be proven. Mind you, this is in the very early stages and it already stinks bad. If indeed Richardson is a player in this put him in jail. He wouldn’t be the first ex gov. to be locked up.

Richardson and Clinton are professional snakes, eh.

[unkus]

You’re right about that...we’d better be leary of Hillery.

Was Gov. Jack Campbell as bad as I’ve heard? That’s been a while ago.

[Impy]

What was it he did to Denise Denish?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Groped her. And when he didn’t resign early to give her a leg up for the Gov’s race, he screwed her (rhetorically speaking).