NM Lt. Gov. Denish Still Holding Back Documents Supporting Claim to be Corruption Fighter
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By Jim Scarantino
Remember that TV ad portraying Lt. Gov. Diane Denish as a fighter of corruption? It ran during the Spring around the primary election, even though Denish was facing no opponent for the Democratic nomination for Governor. It featured Frances Williams, who helped blow the whistle on misdeeds inside the District III Regional Housing Authority. Denish’s ad claimed she “investigated corruption in the Housing Authority“ and states that “today people are under indictment and the housing authority has tough oversight because Diane Denish wouldn’t back down.”
We fact-checked that ad in a June 3, 2010 report you can read here. We concluded the ad was false and misleading. The Attorney General insisted that his office alone produced the criminal case. The Lt. Governor has no investigatory powers and no one on her staff could have conducted an investigation into a complicated multi-million dollar caper. To dig deeper, we requested from Denish’s office all documents that would support the claims made in the ad. We submitted that request June 2, 2010, nearly three months ago.
We’re still waiting to see a single piece of paper that supports Denish’s claim she investigated corruption in the District III Housing Authority and that her actions led to any indictments.
Our request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act asked to see any documents concerning or containing information about the individuals the New Mexico Attorney General has indicted, and other key figures in the District III case whose names are intricately involved in the facts surrounding the charges. Those individuals we asked about included the key defendant, Vincent “Smiley” Gallegos, co-defendants and the whistle-blower, Frances Williams.
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