Perjury charges dropped against Rio Arriba County officials

Dec. 21—A special prosecutor has dismissed perjury charges against Rio Arriba County Commissioner Alex Naranjo and former County Manager Tomas Campos in a case involving the North Central Solid Waste Authority.

The grand jury that indicted the pair exceeded the scope of its authority, 13th Judicial District Attorney Barbara Romo wrote in dismissal documents filed earlier this week. Romo took over as special prosecutor after the First Judicial District Attorney's Office said it had a conflict of interest and couldn't prosecute the cases.

New Mexico is one of just two states where citizens have the power to call for a grand jury investigation into wrongdoing by public officials. Rio Arriba County resident Antonio "Ike" DeVargas gathered about 800 signatures to impanel a grand jury to look into the dealings of the North Central Solid Waste Authority, where Naranjo and Campos both served on the board.

DeVargas said Thursday the dismissals were a "slap in the face" to the residents of Rio Arriba County and the entire state, and he blames the First Judicial District Attorney's Office.

"From the get-go, they didn't want to do the job, and the assistant district attorney that was supposed to assist the grand jury did everything he could to nullify the grand jury," he said in a phone interview.

Naranjo's attorney, Elden Pennington, said Thursday the outcome of the case was proper.

Campos' lawyer, Tom Clark, said the charges were dismissed "for the right reasons.

"It was just a matter of time until someone looked at it and realized it was a bogus charge," Clark said. "Perjury, it requires a knowing intent to deceive, and neither of these men knowingly deceived anybody."

The waste authority was formed in 2004 by an agreement between the city of Española, Rio Arriba County and Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos to provide garbage collection to residents.

The grand jury — made up of county residents aided by a prosecutor — heard from more than a dozen witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents before issuing a scathing 22-page report in July saying the authority should be placed into receivership and a new board appointed due to a range of problems, some potentially illegal.

The report called for the waste authority itself to be indicted, citing "fake billing for services not rendered," among other allegations. It recommended the state Attorney General's Office investigate the authority and remove any board members who held public offices from their posts.

The grand jury also filed perjury charges against Naranjo and Campos, alleging they had lied when testifying before the panel.

Asked Thursday to elaborate on Romo's reasons for dismissing those charges, her office sent an email citing case law and statute limiting the scope of a grand jury's inquiry to only issues that had been raised in the original petition.

"Therefore, when the Rio Arriba County special grand jury returned the indictments against Mr. Naranjo and Mr. Campos for allegedly committing perjury in its presence ... it exceeded its limited legal authority or investigative scope of inquiry because a 'perjury' allegation was never alleged in the citizens' petition or included in the court's limiting order to convene; nor could it ever be predicted and alleged as such," Romo's office wrote in the email, sent by Chief Deputy District Attorney Daniel Romero.

Romo's office didn't directly address questions about whose responsibility it was to ensure the grand jury acted within its authority or whether she believed the charges had merit.

The indictments charging Naranjo and Campos were signed and approved by Deputy District Attorney B. Douglas Wood, an employee of First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies' office who had been tasked with facilitating the grand jury.

The District Attorney's Office initially argued it was prohibited from participating in all grand jury proceedings except within narrow restrictions set by the state Supreme Court, but District Judge Jason Lidyard rejected that argument and ordered the proceedings to continue.

When the grand jury issued its finding in July, it reported the panel found it difficult to obtain critical information from the District Attorney's Office and "on multiple occasions ... received inaccurate information or discovered that information had been withheld regarding important procedures and deadlines."

Carmack-Altwies' office later cited that critique and the office's earlier attempt to avoid participating in the grand jury proceeding as justification for giving the cases to a special prosecutor, saying in part, "it is now impossible to maintain public trust in [the office's] prosecution of the matter."

Nathan Lederman, a spokesman for the District Attorney's Office, did not directly address The New Mexican's questions regarding who was responsible for ensuring the grand jury acted within its authority or why Wood signed off on the indictments if they weren't proper. He directed questions to Romo.

"Once a conflict is present, a special prosecutor is appointed," he wrote. At that point, the First Judicial District Attorney "relinquishes discretion and authority over the case," he wrote, adding that his office "was ordered by the court to serve as an aid to the grand jury, but our office did not participate in litigating either case."

Three District Court judges — Lidyard, T. Glenn Ellington and Mary Marlowe Sommer — recused themselves from hearing the perjury cases before they were assigned to District Judge Matthew Wilson.

Richard Rosenstock, a local attorney who had helped DeVargas with the petition to empanel the grand jury, called the outcome "an example of why people think there are two standards of justice.

"Basically [Romo] is saying you can lie to a special grand jury about the matters under consideration and that's legal and not prosecutable," Rosenstock said in an interview Thursday.

DeVargas filed a complaint in October seeking to recall Naranjo from office. He said he intends to continue with that effort, although he thinks the dismissal of the perjury charge could hurt his case.

The recall process requires a judge to review DeVargas' complaint and determine if he has grounds to begin gathering signatures to hold a recall election. The state Supreme Court assigned the case to 2nd Judicial District Judge Benjamin Chavez last month, writing in its order that all the judges in the First Judicial District had either recused themselves or where "otherwise unavailable" to preside over the case.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez's office has said his staff is conducting a "wide-ranging civil investigation" into the allegations made about the solid waste authority. That inquiry will continue, spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez said Thursday.

"The dismissal of criminal charges has no bearing on the Attorney General's ongoing investigation into the North Central Solid Waste Authority," she wrote in an email. "That investigation is active and ongoing, and we will notify members of the public when we've made a final determination about appropriate next steps."