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Saturday, June 06, 2009
Corruption Cases Now a Job for One
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg is taking on public corruption.
Brandenburg told the Journal this week that she will appoint one of her deputy prosecutors to handle public corruption and organized crime cases full time.
Previously, public corruption cases were assigned to a team of assistant district attorneys, which also investigated white-collar crime cases.
Brandenburg said public corruption cases involving elected officials will still likely be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office, but her office will handle lower-level cases such as public employees stealing from the government.
Describing the types of cases the division will handle, Brandenburg cited the case of Danny Moon, who founded Albuquerque Charter Vocational High School and sister school Charter Vo-Tech Center.
Moon and his family were charged in 2008 with taking more than $1 million from the schools.
Moon was indicted on 64 charges of racketeering, fraud, embezzlement and making or permitting false public vouchers.
His wife and daughter were indicted for fraud and conspiracy. Trial proceedings for Moon are set to start in July.
"I think all public corruption is important," Brandenburg said. "We are doing this because of a lot of the cases we have seen."
Brandenburg plans to appoint Deputy District Attorney Robin Hammer to handle the cases.
Hammer, a graduate of Indiana University Law School, came to New Mexico in 1992 and has been a prosecutor for 16 years in Bernalillo, Santa Fe and San Juan counties.
She also has been a judicial candidate, and most recently was in charge of Brandenburg's White Collar Crimes Division.
"It's an exciting opportunity to target (this) serious group of criminals and to devote time to people who betray the public trust," Hammer said. "We are talking about people who steal money from the state."
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