I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Jemez Mountain School District must disclose embezzlement-related financial records to the Rio Grande SUN by Saturday, District Court Judge Sheri Raphaelson has ruled, rejecting the District’s contention that disclosure would interfere with law enforcement.
At issue were District checks written to former business manager Kathy Borrego and others implicated in Borrego’s embezzlement of an estimated $3.4 million of the District’s money over several years.
Borrego pled guilty to embezzlement in February.
The SUN filed a state Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA) request in July 2009, seeking District checks written since 1999 to Borrego and others implicated in the alleged embezzlement conspiracy.
But District officials and attorneys refused to disclose the records, arguing that doing so could hinder Borrego’s prosecution. Under state law, public records may be withheld if they reveal confidential law enforcement sources, methods, or information or the identities of individuals accused but not charged with a crime.
Raphaelson ruled that the checks do not reveal such information, and ordered the District to disclose the requested records to the SUN by April 3.
“Common sense would dictate that the checks and payment vouchers had already been made public just by having traveled through the normal channels of commerce as would be necessary to accomplish the alleged embezzlement,” Raphaelson noted.
“We’re talking about checks written with taxpayer money, it seemed like such a no-brainer” New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah Welsh told The Independent. “This already cost (the District) extra money on top of what they lost in the embezzlement. I would hope they’d just comply with the law now and drop any further objections.”
Raphaelson’s ruling clarifies the narrow limits of the law enforcement exemption, SUN news editor Kevin Bersett told The Independent.
“The whole idea of the law enforcement exemption is (to withhold) police reports about things like undercover anti-drug work where they don’t want to reveal confidential sources,” Bersett said Tuesday. “Kathy Borrego was identified back in August. How could checks by a public entity reveal law enforcement sources?”
The ruling makes it clear that seizure of public records by investigators does not render those records exempt from public disclosure, Bersett said.
Evidence of how public money is spent is a “chief principle of open government,” Welsh said.
