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Employee alleges ‘criminal activity’ in Herrera’s office
Secretary of State Mary Herrera
Secretary of State Mary Herrera is under fire once again, this time from Office Administrator Manny Vildasol, who secretly recorded video in Herrera’s office and says he has turned it over to the FBI because it shows “issues of criminal activity and unethical behavior.”
Vildasol made that comment to KOB-TV reporter Gadi Schwartz, who included the allegations in a report about Herrera’s laptop computer being infected with viruses. KOB had a difficult time getting “a straight answer” on what exactly was found on Herrera’s computer, according to the report.
But Vildasol provided secret video he recorded of IT staff trying to get rid of viruses on the computer, including a program that disguises itself as anti-virus software and then puts pornographic icons on the desktop.
Vildasol was quoted by KOB as saying he took the video “because he was tired of working in a place where anything that could be seen as negative was brushed under the rug.”
“It is a cover up. Again, not to provide (anything) controversial, make sure there is nothing controversial that would possibly make it to the media and impact her re-election,” he said.
And then this about why he was recording:
“I can’t give over those particulars because that information has been given over to the FBI and they are currently investigating, but there are issues of criminal activity and unethical behavior and it violates not only policy and procedure but also the law.”
He didn’t provide additional details.
The FBI doesn’t confirm or deny investigations. Herrera, asked by Schwartz about Vildasol’s allegations, said they were politically motivated.
“I don’t know what his intentions are. You need to ask him. I don’t know why he’s doing it,” she said.
Here’s the full KOB report:
A growing chorus
Vildasol isn’t the only employee to publicly criticize Herrera. When he quit in March, then-Elections Supervisor A.J. Salazar authored a scathing resignation letter in which he wrote that Herrera runs “a crooked organization.” He said at the time that he turned his allegations over to the attorney general.
A number of former employees have backed up some of the allegations made by Salazar.
Herrera, a Democrat, is facing Republican Dianna Duran in November. Concerns about the way Herrera runs the office have prompted one prominent Democratic county clerk, Valerie Espinoza of Santa Fe, to support Duran. And Doña Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins, another Democrat, has expressed concern about whether Herrera can win re-election because of the allegations against her.
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One assumes that if the Secretary of State wasn’t visiting pornography sites with her state laptop then someone else must have been using it with or without her permission. Whether or not this person was authorized to use this laptop how did they get access to it and all of the sensitive information (including Social Security Numbers and physical addresses for every registered voter in New Mexico) it might provide? What steps have been taken to prevent this from reoccurring and also, considering the possible consequences of virus infection or possible intrusion by a hacker to the office of the SOS and other IT systems, why wasn’t even the most rudimentary kind of protection installed on this laptop?
I’ll bet if it was a Republican in office, there would be hell to pay. The bottom line is, this crap should not be on any state owned laptop! Someone failed as a supervisor to ensure this wouldn’t happen, now it costs the state man hours to clean up the mess. I’m sick of the establishment in this state sidestepping problems when their party is involved.
Haven’t we seen many allegations come up against Herrera in the last year, especially from members of her own party! That should be a serious red-flag. This is one item in a laundry-list of issues we have had with the SOS office.
I agree with jbaca16. Why is an attack on Herrera’s laptop supposed to be her fault? Seems to me Vilisac is the underhanded one, sneaking in to record a video of her laptop problems and the effort to fix them. Sounds a lot like a smear campaign to me.
I checked with my IT Department and am advised that the viruses in question will not spread to the county’s voter data base.
Lynn Ellins, County Clerk
It’s Herrera’s determination to keep anything scandalous that emerges under the rug. Citizens have the right to know what is happening in their offices. Here are the underlying issues:
1. There should have never been porn, or viruses on a state-owned computer.
2. Herrera should have fired the staff that failed to put the proper protective software (anti-virus, anti-spam) on these computers. They didn’t do their job. Period.
3. These viruses expose state computers and their computer network to potential security threats. Anyone that is registered to vote could have a home address, social security number and other information that is very valuable to identity thieves.
Sorry, I don’t get the point of this story. Getting a computer virus and trying to remove it is wrong?