Sunland Park Acting Police Chief, Mayor-Elect Plead Not Guilty To Bribery Charges

The turmoil in Sunland Park continues to grow in ways that would rival the best Hollywood scripts.

Last month, a mayoral candidate was secretly videotaped getting a topless lap dance from a woman in an alleged effort to extort him and get him to drop out of the race.

Then his rival, mayor pro tem Daniel Salinas, was arrested and accused by authorities of being involved in the extortion attempt. A few days after being arrested, Salinas was elected mayor.

On Tuesday, Salinas and Luis Monarez, the former Sunland Park police chief and current acting chief, stood in front of judge Lisa Schultz both donning shackles and prison jumpsuits.

Salinas and Monarez entered a plea of not guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery. Salinas is being held on a $50,000 secured bond and is under house arrest. Monarez is being held on a $30,000 secured bond.

New Mexico State Police took Monarez into custody Monday afternoon and Salinas turned himself in to police Monday night.

According to Monarez’s arrest warrant, Sunland Park’s with top politicians, including Salinas, met at a local restaurant to allegedly scheme on how to keep their city council candidate in office.

Salinas’ attorney, Joshua Spencer, called the charges against Salinas an attempt to keep his client in jail and out of city hall.

“The district attorney just wants to keep (Salinas in jail),” said Spencer. “There’s been absolutely zero indication that Mr. Salinas had anything to do with being a mastermind to anything.”

“You can clearly tell by Mr Salinas behavior that he was going to get his agenda met,” said District Attorney Amy Orlando. “Which means he was going get everybody lined up that he wanted in government and that he was going to do it any way that he could.”

According to his arrest warrant affidavit, Monarez finally wanted to “be honest” with police and said City Manager Jaime Aguilera and Salinas offered to rehire Monarez and place his sister, Veronica Monarez, in a job within the police department, if she would not run for city council.

Police said it was allegedly so Salinas’ candidate, Jessica Avila, could run unopposed and be guaranteed a win. Avila did win the city council position.

“New Mexico is better than this,” New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said at a news conference regarding the audit of Sunland Park. “New Mexicans deserve better than to read these stories. The fact they don’t have records that is concerning.”

Martinez and State Auditor Hector Balderas described the situation in Sunland Park as being more volatile than previously thought, rife with fraud, abuse, and waste, all perpetuated by a culture of fear. The audit could take another month to complete.

Salinas has been barred from City Hall as part of the terms of his bond and can’t contact city workers.

Delaying the early-March city elections was considered. After hearing arguments from Orlando and Frank Coppler, Sunland Park City Attorney, Judge Susan Riedel ruled the state did not have enough evidence to meet the standard required by state law.

According to the 57-page motion filed by Orlando, the investigation turned up evidence of voter fraud cases where people were voting from Texas and voting more than once.

“In 19 years of being a prosecutor that we’ve never had the evidence up front of election fraud, but we have evidence, in fact, that six people have voted that live in Texas,” Orlando said earlier this month.

Orlando said there could be between 15 and 20 more cases of people voting from Texas.

The report states 13 people were registered to vote using the home address of Silvia Gomez, the city’s senior center director. One of those people was Jesus Dario Hernandez, of El Paso, the Sunland Park public works director.

The document also alleges that Salinas and Aguilera stole a box of 500 absentee ballots. Orlando said on the first day of absentee voting, 300 absentee ballots were turned in.

Salinas and Aguilera are charged with extortion and tampering with evidence after being accused of telling mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez to drop out of the race or they’d release a video of Hernandez with a topless woman. Orlando said the actions of the four city employees involved with that case “evidence a concerted, calculated and deliberate plan to undermine the integrity of the election.”

Orlando said the criminal investigation of the election is ongoing, and the state is going to press charges against anyone who has committed voter fraud. That’s a fourth degree felony, and if convicted, a person can face up to 18 months in prison.

Dona Ana County officials were present at election locations on March 6 to ensure it ran fairly and properly.

Salinas faces the new charges of bribery on top of the extortion charges for which he was jailed recently.