By Patrick J. Rogers
Albuquerque attorney
It is simply impossible to ignore someone capable of relegating Anna Nicole Smith to the back pages of the national media. Therefore, I reluctantly respond to David Iglesias' new demands.
What purpose is served by his media blitz, the interviews, the quotes, the pending book deals and the attention from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Congressional Hearings, "Meet the Press" and of course, CNN? It is ironic, all of this media attention generated by someone who previously exhibited obliviousness to crimes reported in the local media and FBI complaints about his inattention to public corruption cases. The Dec. 2006 Albuqueurque Journal reported that "the pace of the (public corruption) investigation has apparently been a point of contention between investigators and Iglesias' office. The FBI confirmed in July that it had sent a case involving the courthouse to the United States Attorney's Office. Since then, indictments have been expected or rumored on a monthly basis."
Mr. Iglesias was a political appointee and an attorney who understood, or should have understood, that he could be dismissed for any reason or no reason at all. After failing to fulfill many of the duties of his position, Mr. Iglesias now demands an apology, a retraction and that his advice about the appointment of the next United States Attorney be taken seriously. For someone who argued that losing 22 of 23 counts in the Vigil public corruption trials is actually a victory for the people of New Mexico, these demands seem particularly inappropriate. For someone preoccupied with his own travel to exotic foreign lands in lieu of hiring more prosecutors, his demands seem very misguided.
I acknowledge a bias for hard work and timely, appropriate prosecutions over the formation of government task forces favored by Mr. Iglesias. His government task force— like many government task forces— was to borrow a phrase "nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people." Bizarrely, Mr. Iglesias' public statement at the time was that the task force was going to investigate, not the thousands of questionable voter registration forms and the overwhelming evidence of registration fraud presented to his task force, but rather "privacy act violations."
At the time in 2004, Mr. Iglesias claimed that the Department of Justice had prohibited any action prior to the 2004 election. The storyline that he (now) recalls is that several people in the Department of Justice "didn't disagree" with his decision not to proceed. Notably, Mr. Iglesias' personal reluctance to proceed was not shared by Colorado prosecutors— and many others— who did address the same crimes and the same potential voter fraud in a manner designed to provide the public some measure of confidence in the integrity of the pending election. Mr. Iglesias' decision to form a task force and ignore the crimes reported in the media in 2004 led directly to the more obvious and gross fraud in 2005 by the same political group in connection with the City of Albuquerque minimum wage petition drive.
I do agree with Mr. Iglesias, but not about the need for a book on his life story or the dramatic made-for-TV movie that certainly must follow. Rather, I agree that appointment of the next U.S. Attorney for New Mexico is important.
The chief federal law enforcement official for New Mexico must be tough enough to deal with murderers, possible terrorists and the occasional phone call that ends without a "good-bye."
The next U.S. Attorney should not need the help of the Democratic Senate campaign chairman, Chuck Schumer, The New York Times or a literary agent to help recover a three-month-old memory of feeling "violated" by a phone call.
Judgment and priorities are important. The majesty, full-weight and force of the United States justice system is not properly engaged to attempt to imprison a dental hygienist who puts bubble gum on the back of a speeding ticket payment. Similarly, aliens, or at least most Canadians, teaching counter-terrorism to government employees in Roswell do not constitute a serious terrorist threat.
The next U.S. Attorney should curtail the foreign junket opportunities and use the savings to hire more prosecutors. Indeed, the next United States Attorney needs to do more than pay lip-service to public corruption cases, the FBI's number two priority after combating terrorism.
So, what is next for Mr. Iglesias? I am not sure whether there are many opportunities in New Mexico for lawyers in private practice specializing in the formation of government task forces, but we need not worry about Mr. Iglesias .... We can also count on Mr. Iglesias appearing regularly in the media, at least through the 2008 election. The Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senate campaign chief Chuck Schumer, and Hollywood "are not done with him yet."
And what about, O Fair New Mexico? Perhaps the United States Attorney's Office, without an absentee manager, can now reconsider its priorities and soon find the ability, the will and the resources to properly pursue appropriate public corruption and election fraud cases on a timely basis.
Patrick J. Rogers, who often represents the Republican Party of New Mexico, has also represented the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce in a 2005 lawsuit concerning petition fraud, presidential candidate Ralph Nader when Democrats attempted to keep him off the ballot, and Republicans, a Democrat, and a Green in various voter I.D. suits.
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