Jury hears Griego’s side in recorded interview

Prosecutor details contradictions; judge threatens ex-senator with jail time for speaking to witness outside courtroom

Former state Sen. Phil Griego’s lawyers have not yet decided whether he will testify in his corruption trial. But on Thursday, jurors got to hear a recording of Griego talking at length about the sale of state property that landed him in legal trouble.

Prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Office played a 50-minute interview of Griego by a freelance reporter in July 2014. Griego insisted to the reporter that he had no conflict of interest in receiving a $50,000 commission from the owners a downtown Santa Fe hotel who bought the East De Vargas Street property after Griego was involved in legislation that authorized the sale.

“This is what I do for a living, bro,” Griego told reporter Peter St. Cyr during the recorded conversation. “I’m a Realtor. … When I voted for this thing, there was no benefit there. … That was after the fact.”

The San Jose Democrat was referring to the fact that he didn’t actually sign a broker’s contract with the Seret family — which owns the Inn of the Five Graces on East De Vargas Street — until a month after the state Legislature passed the resolution that authorized the sale.

St. Cyr, currently executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, was the first to report Griego’s role in the transaction. His story, published in the Santa Fe Reporter in 2014, eventually led to Griego’s resignation from the Senate and to the criminal charges he faces.

In the recording, Griego went on to say that St. Cyr should look at how other legislators vote on various other issues. “Look at teachers who vote on their [school] budget, who vote on their retirement. Look at lawyers who vote on legislation that’s going to benefit their practice.”

At one point, St. Cyr said, “So everyone tells me you were pushing pretty hard for this deal.”

“What do you mean I was pushing pretty hard for this deal?” Griego responded. “The first time it appeared before the [Capitol Buildings Planning Commission], it was pushed back. I never once went to anybody to reschedule the deal. They were going to reschedule it the whole time.”

Prosecutor Zach Jones stopped the playback of the recording and brought up the point that earlier this week former House Speaker Ken Martinez testified in detail about how, immediately after the commission’s June 2014 meeting, an anxious Griego came into his Capitol office and asked Martinez to call the commission back into session because he needed to close on the deal that same day. Two other witnesses who were present also have testified about that conversation between Martinez and Griego.

During the recorded interview, St. Cyr asked Griego about how he could argue that he didn’t start working for the Serets until March 2014 when he had said in a previous

interview that he’d been working on the sale and monitoring it for the Serets for 18 months, as well as the fact that Griego in September 2013 had asked state Rep. Jim Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, to carry the necessary legislation.

“It had been in the works for a while, yes,” Griego said in the recording. “But nothing could happen until the legislation passed and the deal could be vetted by different agencies.”

Throughout the interview, Griego repeatedly said that he had voted in favor of the authorizing legislation. “Peter, I ain’t going to lie to you, bro,” he said. “I voted on the resolution. Yes, I monitored the deal for the Serets. But it was vetted by different state agencies.”

However, a video recording of the Senate vote on House Joint Resolution 8 shows Griego actually left the Senate floor immediately before the vote. Though the official roll call on the resolution shows Griego voting in favor, chief Senate Clerk Lenore Naranjo has testified that Griego’s vote should not have been counted.

In the recorded interview, there was discussion of the Senate floor debate on the resolution, in which Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, repeated some incorrect information from a fiscal impact report concerning a 25-year lease on the property that the state had signed with the Seret family. Griego acknowledged that he did not attempt to correct Cisneros. Asked why not, he said, “It never crossed my mind.”

During Thursday’s proceedings, real estate broker John Mahoney, for whom Griego used to work, testified that Griego had approached him Wednesday during a break in the trial. Griego said hello and added, “When this is all over, call me,” Mahoney testified. “He said he had someone who might be interested in some property I have.”

Prosecutor Sharon Pino asked Mahoney how that made him feel. “Well, I was a little uncomfortable having that conversation standing right outside the courtroom,” he said. When Pino asked why it made him feel uncomfortable, Mahoney laughed and said, “Well, I’m a witness. I’m not sure we should be having a conversation.”

But Mahoney said he didn’t feel Griego was trying to influence his testimony.

Griego’s lawyer, Tom Clark, asked Mahoney whether that conversation with Griego influenced his testimony. Mahoney said it did not. “And you would not perjure yourself to help Phil Griego?” the lawyer asked. Mahoney said he wouldn’t.

On Wednesday, outside the presence of the jury, state District Judge Brett Loveless threatened to jail Griego if he talked with any witnesses in the case.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday with the prosecution presenting its final two witnesses. Clark is expected to begin presenting his case Monday by questioning state Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, about what she knew about Griego’s role in the property sale.