Perjury Cases Against Rio Arriba Commission Chair Naranjo and Ex-County Manager Campos in Limbo

District Judge Yet to Rule on Critical Procedural Motions
By Jake Arnold

Both the current Rio Arriba County Commission Chair, Alex Naranjo and former Rio Arriba County Manger, Tomás Campos have their respective trials set for May, 2024. They were indicted in July by a special grand jury on single counts of giving false testimony before that body. The special grand jury was investigating allegations of corruption and associated criminal conduct within the operations of the North Central Solid Waste Authority. As a county commissioner and county manager, both Naranjo and Campos served on the NCSWA governing body in past years. The indictments handed up against them do not address any NCSWA corruption or illegal activity, and only involve allegations of lying to the grand jury

Currently, the cases are on hold as their defense attorneys await action on motions by First Judicial District Matthew Wilson and/or the New Mexico Attorney General to deal with roadblocks impeding progress in adjudicating the cases.

Naranjo’s defense attorney, Justin Pennington, and Campos’ defense attorney, Tom Clark, in late August filed a joint motion in both cases claiming that district court staff have improperly blocked them from receiving transcripts of the grand jury proceedings leading up to the indictments. The motion seeks to have Wilson order production of the transcript so that the defense attorneys can proceed with preparing their defense on behalf of their clients. 
 
Additionally, a motion filed in late August by Clark, on behalf of Campos, seeks to have the First Judicial District Attorney removed from any continued involvement in prosecuting these cases.  District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altweis in early August filed a notice stating her office had a conflict of interest and could no longer continue as prosecutors in these cases. 
 
The conflict outlined by Carmack-Altweis involves her office's contentious relationship with the organizer of the successful petition effort to convene the special NCSWA  grand jury, Antonio (Ike) DeVargas.  The Carmack-Altweis notice requested that the NM Attorney General take over the cases or that a special prosecutor be appointed to handle these cases.
 
The toxic relationship involving DeVargas, the special grand jury, and the D.A.'s Office required the intervention of the district judge then-overseeing that special grand jury, Jason Lidyard, who later recused himself from the Naranjo/Campos perjury cases. 

As of today, however, court records continue to state that the D.A.'s Office remains the prosecutorial agency in these cases. The defense motion re: the Carmack-Altweis notice, seeks compliance with her interpretation of court rules requiring her office to hand the case over to another prosecutorial entity. In this instance, the defense and the prosecution appear to be in agreement: the D.A.'s office is ineligible to continue prosecuting these cases and some other prosecutorial agency (the A.G.) or a special prosecutor must take over.

These defense motions do not request a hearing on the merits of these motions and Judge Wilson has not scheduled such hearings on his own.  Consequently the cases are in limbo and cannot proceed with the normal series procedural pre-trial actions by either side that often transpire over the course of several months during the run-up to actual jury selection and trial. 

Meanwhile, it is unclear if any transfer of these perjury cases to the A.G. or a special prosecutor would concurrently result in continued investigation by one or the other of those entities into alleged corruption/criminal conduct within the NCSWA. In their report at the conclusion of the special grand jury's term, the jurors suggested that such an investigation should be conducted, as many allegations could not be fully considered by that grand jury before the required termination of that that body's term.