Prosecutors have completed their review and will file no criminal charges related to the 2004 special audit of Doña Ana County government.
Shari Weinstein, chief deputy district attorney in Santa Fe, confirmed Wednesday that her office has closed the case after reviewing the results of an investigation by the New Mexico State Police.
“We’re not pursuing any criminal charges,” Weinstein said. “If there were any possible criminal charges from our point of view, the statute of limitations has run.”
A source told me that police and prosecutors believe there were several misdemeanor violations but no felonies, and the statute of limitations on the misdemeanors expired before the audit began.
The Santa Fe district attorney’s office took the case because Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez had a conflict of interest. She and her staff are housed by the county, which was in the process of designing its new building and her new offices at the time of the audit. One of three findings referred to prosecutors involved the architect selection.
The audit found widespread problems as recently as 2004, but the state auditor said it appears most identified problems have been fixed. Three findings were referred to prosecutors:
• The county set up a loan agreement with landowners to repay its 1999 water bonds, which were used to build a water and sewer system in Santa Teresa. Bond payments were supposed to be made with revenue from the system, but the agreement bypassed the terms of the bond and created an entirely new arrangement.
• The county improperly used money from the 1999 water bonds to pay other bills not related to the water and sewer system.
• The commission may have intentionally violated the state procurement code in its selection of an architect to design the new county administrative complex. Commissioners bypassed the established process to review and rank the firms that applied and voted on secret, paper ballots to select the firm. The ballots later vanished.
County spokesman Jess Williams was pleased to learn that criminal charges won’t be filed.
“The fact that this matter has come to a close is good news for all Doña Ana County residents, and means the Board of County Commissioners and management can keep our focus where it belongs – on substantive matters of public policy,” Williams said.