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4 are charged in N.M. case that fired lawyer has cited

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From the Associated Press

A former state senator and three other people were charged with corruption Thursday in a highly politicized case that a former federal prosecutor told Congress he thought led to his firing.

A federal grand jury accused former Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon and the others of conspiring to skim $4.2 million in public funds meant for construction of a county courthouse.

David C. Iglesias, one of eight U.S. attorneys fired last year, told Congress this month that he rejected what he thought to be pressure from Sen. Pete V. Domenici and Rep. Heather A. Wilson, New Mexico Republicans, to rush the indictments, which could have hurt Democrats in the November elections.

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Spokesmen for Domenici and Wilson, who was in a hotly contested race at the time, said Thursday that they would have no comments on the indictments.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jonathon Gerson in Albuquerque said the 26-count indictment stemmed from an investigation that had lasted more than a year. “We handled this as we would have handled any other case,” Gerson said. “We handled this matter professionally without attention being paid to outside influence.”

Charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering were Aragon; former court administrator Toby Martinez; Raul Parra, a partner in the Albuquerque engineering firm P2RS; and software consultant Sandra Mata Martinez, Toby Martinez’s wife.

Architect Marc Schiff; former Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz, who was a lobbyist for Schiff’s firm; and subcontractor Manuel Guara have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of mail fraud. Their plea agreements were unsealed Thursday.

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