Official guilty in sex for money case

LAS CRUCES — Doña Ana County Treasurer David Gutierrez was found guilty of public corruption or gross immorality by a public official on Wednesday evening.

A 12-member jury reached the guilty verdict after hearing two days of testimony and deliberating for more than two hours on Wednesday.

Gutierrez, 61, was on trial in a case that was based on allegations that he offered a woman who worked in his office money in exchange for sex in August 2014.

Prosecutors said Gutierrez was effectively removed from office when the verdict was read by state District Judge Angie K. Schneider, who presided over the two-day trial in 3rd Judicial District Court.

Gutierrez, a Democrat who has been elected four times as county treasurer, was heading into the last month of his final term in office when the trial commenced on Monday. He was unable to run for re-election this year due to term limitation.

Gutierrez testified in his own defense on Wednesday and maintained that he made the statement to the woman, Luz Olivia Nuñez, a teller in the Treasurer’s Office, as a compliment.

“I was trying to lift her spirits,” he told the jury.

After the verdict was read, Gutierrez’s attorney, Jose Coronado, said Gutierrez was “stunned.” He is considering appealing the verdict, Coronado said.

Through a victim advocate, Nuñez said she was “satisfied” with the verdict.