Prosecutors in Griego case seek to limit testimony
Hearing today to sort out what issues can be heard at former state senator’s trial
Prosecutors in a corruption case targeting former state Sen. Phil Griego are asking a judge not to allow any testimony that the sale of state property — which Griego brokered and helped get through the Legislature — was good for New Mexico. In addition, they want the judge to bar any testimony about Griego’s colleagues in the Legislature condoning his acts.
Assistant Attorney General Zach Jones also is asking state District Judge Brett Loveless to not allow Griego’s lawyer to tell jurors about the potential prison time Griego could receive if he’s convicted. The government contends this might create sympathy for the 69-year-old former lawmaker.
Griego’s lawyer, Tom Clark, has countered with a motion seeking to have the charges dismissed.
These and other legal issues could be decided by Loveless at a hearing Friday, Sept. 22. Griego’s trial is scheduled to begin next month.
A Democrat from San Jose, Griego is charged with nine criminal counts, including bribery, fraud, perjury and tampering with public records. At issue is the sale in 2014 of a state-owned building near the Capitol to an upscale bed and breakfast, Inn of the Five Graces on De Vargas
Street. It paid Griego more than $50,000 for brokering the deal.
Jones’ motion says that testimony concerning the presale condition of the property and whether the sale was good or bad for the state or the buyers is irrelevant.
“The issue is simply whether [Griego’s] fraud caused the state to sell one of its properties, enabling him to collect a commission,” Jones wrote in his motion.
Clark said this week that the state is trying to eat its cake and have it, too, by trying to squelch talk about the sale. “The truth is, that property was sold at a price well above its appraised value,” Clark said.
Jones’ motion also said that Griego is “expected to downplay his own criminal culpability by claiming he told some of his colleagues about his alleged criminal actions.”
Prosecutors say such testimony would be inadmissible hearsay that “invades the province of the the jury as finders of fact.”
Clark told that several people, including legislators and other government officials knew about Griego’s involvement in the real estate sale.
At Griego’s preliminary hearing, former House Speaker Kenny Martinez, D-Grants, testified that Griego’s financial involvement in the sale came up during a discussion they had in April 2014 at a meeting of the state Capitol Building Planning Commission. Griego, Martinez said, pressured him to reconvene the meeting to give a required final review of the the sale. Martinez declined to call the commission back that day.
The commission finally approved the transaction in June 2014. Martinez voted “no,” but he didn’t tell other commissioners about Griego’s involvement. The former speaker testified that he had discussed Griego’s stake in the sale with Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces. Papen wasn’t called to testify at the preliminary hearing and is not on the attorney general’s witness list.
The prosecution’s witness list includes several of Griego’s legislative colleagues, including Martinez and Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe. Trujillo, at Griego’s request, sponsored the legislation that allowed the sale of the state building.
Clark’s motion to dismiss argues that none of Griego’s actions that led to criminal charges were “official acts.” In a motion, Clark wrote: “The only evidence of a promise to pay any money in this case was an executed agency agreement [between Griego and the property buyers], which was signed after the legislative session ended. There is no evidence of any ‘official act’ by Mr. Griego after the agency agreement was signed, but before the sale closed.”
He cited a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the corruption conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. In that decision, the court said to be considered an “official act,” a defendant’s action “must involve a formal exercise of governmental power.”
One issue that might be discussed at Friday’s hearing is whether Clark should be allowed to call Attorney General Hector Balderas as a witness. Clark has said he wants to question Balderas about a $1,500 campaign contribution he gave Griego in 2013, shortly after news of Griego’s role in the land deal broke.
Clark had been negotiating with prosecutors about a possible plea deal in the Five Graces case. But, according to recently filed court documents, those talks fell through.
Griego resigned from the Senate a week before the end of the Legislature’s 2015 session. In a statement to The New Mexican the day he resigned, Griego said he “unintentionally and unknowingly violated an obscure provision of the New Mexico Constitution governing the timing of actions by citizen-legislators in their private business lives.”
Griego was a senator for 19 years and a Santa Fe city councilor for 12 years before that.
In a separate criminal case, a grand jury in June indicted him on 22 counts claiming he manipulated his campaign finance reports as a senator.