Republican lawyer sues AG’s Office over records requests

Land commissioner’s son says Balderas’ staff is ignoring filings out of spite

A Republican lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat last year is accusing Democratic state Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office of withholding public records out of political spite.

Blair Dunn of Albuquerque in three separate lawsuits accuses the Attorney General’s Office of violating the Inspection of Public Records Act, which the office is charged with helping to enforce.

Balderas spokesman James Hallinanin an email called Dunn’s claims “reckless and false.”

Dunn, who described himself as part of a small circle of Republican political operatives in the state, said Balderas is letting his staff ignore Dunn’s requests because he sees Dunn as a political threat. Dunn also blamed political differences with Assistant Attorney General Ari Biernoff.

Dunn said he and Biernoff were on opposite sides of several issues in 2014, including the successful campaign by Dunn’s father, Aubrey Dunn, to unseat longtime state Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a Democrat whom Biernoff supported.

Blair Dunn said his difficulty getting records from the Attorney General’s Office began during that campaign when he requested records from a case involving a proposed horse slaughter plant in Roswell. The younger Dunn represented the company proposing the operation while the Attorney General’s Office, represented by Biernoff, opposed the plan.

Dunn requested communications between the Attorney General’s Office and an out-of-state law firm that collaborated with the state on the case. The attorney general denied the request, claiming attorney-client privilege. Dunn is challenging that claim in a lawsuit with the help of attorney Patrick RodgKaren

ers, a former Republican National Committee member.

Last week, Dunn filed two more lawsuits over subsequent records requests he says the Attorney General’s Office ignored.

He filed a case in the 7th Judicial District in Torrance County on behalf of his mother, Robin Dunn, seeking communications between the Attorney General’s Office and Blair Dunn’s ex-wife Lela Hunt. The attorney says his mother requested the records after Hunt asked for the transcript of a hearing in another case.

Dunn last week filed a complaint asking the state District Court in Santa Fe to order Balderas’ office to release records that Dunn’s law firm requested on behalf of former Secretary of State Mary Herrera, a Democrat who sought records related to two Whistleblower Protection Act cases brought by employees she fired while in office.

Hallinan said the Attorney’ General’s Office never received the request from Dunn’s mother or the one on behalf of Herrera because Dunn typed in the email address incorrectly. “Additionally,” Hallinan wrote, “Mr. Biernoff had no role in this IPRA process and does not work in the Open Government Division.”

Balderas’ office has asked the courts to dismiss the complaints.

Asked to respond to Hallinan’s assertion that he had typed the email addresses incorrectly, Dunn said: “I find that hard to believe because I get there by hyperlinking off their website. … They got the requests. They just didn’t want to respond to them.”