New search warrants released in investigation of Gurulé-Girón
Warrants include those issued to the mayor’s banks and credit card companies
Four months after investigators searched the home and office of embattled Las Vegas, N.M., Mayor Tonita GuruléGirón to find possible evidence of bid-rigging, bribery or other crimes, the Attorney General’s Office has released 10 more search warrants related to the investigation.
The new batch of warrants include those that were issued to Gurulé-Girón’s banks and credit card companies. There also was a warrant to Yahoo seeking her emails and two to Apple seeking emails, voicemails, text messages and other documents stored on Gurulé-Girón’s iCloud account. Also among the latest warrants were those issued to financial institutions where contractor Marvin Salazar — who investigators suspect was involved in a bid-rigging scheme with the mayor — has accounts.
The return and inventory forms attached to the warrants indicate records were supplied by the various companies but do not discuss the actual content of the documents turned over.
Gurulé-Girón did not respond Friday to a request for comment.
No charges have been filed against either the mayor or Salazar.
In late June, following months of controversies, investigators raided the homes and offices of the mayor and
Salazar and released public documents indicating that their investigation centers on Gurulé-Girón’s relationship with Salazar, who is her former campaign manager. Some witnesses have described him as the mayor’s boyfriend, though Gurulé-Girón for nearly two years has denied any romantic relationship.
Among the city contracts with Salazar’s company under investigation are a $19,000 project to install hardwood floors at City Hall, a $3,000 contract to install a scoreboard for Little League teams at a city park and a $94,000 “emergency” contract to repair floors damaged by a leaking water fountain. Some former city officials have said the latter project, which originally was supposed to cost about $10,000, was not really an emergency.
The mayor is also under suspicion of doing favors for Salazar, including ordering the director of the city’s Solid Waste Division to allow Salazar to dump trash for free.
Gurulé-Girón has denied there was anything illegal about these contracts.