Sex ring case to go before grand jury

sozden@unm.edu

Charges of promoting a prostitution ring, conspiracy and tampering with evidence against former UNM president and professor emeritus F. Chris Garcia will be heard by a grand jury in the next month, almost a year after the charges were dropped until further notice.

Public Information Officer for the District Attorney’s office Kayla Anderson said the charges against Garcia were “nolle prosequi,” meaning “do not prosecute,” in August 2011. She said Garcia was released from custody so the FBI has time to complete the investigation and prepare for indictment.

“The FBI is investigating significant computer evidence,” she said. “It is being sorted through and they will continue to gather evidence until the grand jury hearing.”

She said Garcia’s case was submitted to a grand jury and the hearing will be next month. She declined to comment further and said the specific date is not a matter of public record.

According to an Albuquerque Police Department investigation, Garcia used the Internet name “Burque Pops” in an online prostitution ring called Southwest Companions. Garcia was arrested in June 2011.

Defense attorney David Serna said Garcia hired attorney Bob Gorence to act as co-counsel with Serna. He said they have been working on the case for about three months and will mount a vigorous defense against the prosecution.

“I think he hired him on because both of us are well-known attorneys, we’ve both had our fair share of success and we’ve worked on together in the past,” he said. “They’re going to know what kind of lawyers Dr. Garcia has.”

Serna said the charges were initially dismissed to allow the DA’s office more time to gather evidence, but said he does not believe any new evidence has been gathered.

“I really think it’s just a big ado about nothing, I think they’re just scratching their heads,” he said. “I’m just speculating but it may have been that the prosecution didn’t want to bring it on before (District Attorney) Kari Brandenburg’s election; if the case if going to fall through, it would be better to fall through after the election.”