A formal complaint was filed on August 2, 2021, with New Mexico State Ethics Commission and the Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court against Town of Edgewood’s attorneys Marcus Rael and Jessica Nixon. Complete Santa Fe New Mexican article here..
Edgewood resident Karen Kiser filed the complaint, supported by detailed documents, that alleges Marcus Rael and Jessica Nixon, both of the law firm Robles, Rael & Anaya, have conflicts of interest that call into question their ability to adequately represent the interests of Town of Edgewood. In fact, on two previous occasions the conflict has been noted. First, in early 2020 as part of a detailed writing by a member of Robles, Rael & Anaya’s own law firm, and then again in Autumn 2020, with a matter before Judge Maria Sanchez Gagne (First Judicial District) where the judge noted that Rael should not be representing the Town and Bassett (former Edgewood mayor John Bassett).
Yet, despite both those legal opinions, Robles, Rael & Anaya attorneys continues to work on and bill for Town of Edgewood legal matters that would appear to fall into areas of conflict of interest.
The Town of Edgewood and it’s taxpayers have received periodic invoices in amounts of more than $60,000, and in the period just since October 2020, RRA has invoiced the town for approximately $150,000. Some of those billings have been for a bizarre effort to allow the town to defy enforcing the town’s own nepotism ordinance. Talk about a convoluted and inappropriate endeavor on the town’s part (done without official approval of the town council, to boot).
The legal authority for Robles, Rael & Anaya to act on behalf of the Town of Edgewood has also been called into question, since no legal vote of the council was taken to extend a previous contract with RRA.
RELATED: In an interesting twist, on August 6, 2021, Marcus Rael was disqualified in a case before the NM PRC for alleged conflict of interest. READ the AP article here.
