Ex-mayor sentenced in project swindle

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It's seven down and one to go as a federal judge Wednesday sentenced the former mayor of Albuquerque and another defendant in the corruption scandal surrounding construction of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Courthouse.

Neither ex-mayor Ken Schultz or project subcontractor Manuel Guara will serve any jail time after cutting early plea deals with federal prosecutors and cooperating in the case.

U.S. Senior District Judge John Conway sentenced  Schultz to five years probation and paying a share of $591,000 in restitution.

In recent years Schultz had been a legislative lobbyist and served a go-between for the key players in the courthouse swindle. Eight people skimmed more than $4 million in kickbacks and padded contracts from the court construction project that got underway in 1999.

Before he sentenced Schultz, Conway said it was the most difficult thing he's had to do in his 23 years on the bench.

"I'm very sorry you've gotten hung up in this," Conway said. "I take no pleasure sentencing you.

"It's a sad, sad day."

However the ex-mayor got no sympathy from federal prosecutors.

"He was a seedy lobbyist, he was a shadowy bagman and now he's a convicted felon," U.S. Attorney Greg Fouratt said outside the federal courthouse. "Whether he was doing it to stay on the same stage of power and politics that he once inhabited, or he did it because that's the way the lobbying game is played in this state or he did it because he didn't think he was going to get caught, those are questions only he can answer."

Schultz, a former city councilor, served as mayor from December 1985 to November 1989.

The judge also sentenced subcontractor Guara to three years probation, six months home confinement and $100,000 in restitution.

Both men apologized to their court, taxpayers and their families.

The final of the eight defendants, architect Marc Schiff, will be sentenced in July.

All eight pleaded guilty to charges mostly involving conspiracy and mail fraud.

The other players in the scheme who already have been sentenced are:

Manny Aragón, former state senator and president pro tempore of the Senate. He helped secure extra funding for the project with the Legislature approved in 1998 and pocketed kickbacks. He was sentenced last month to 5 1/2 years in prison and nearly $2 million in fines and restitution.

Former Metro Court Administrator Toby Martinez, the court insider who approved bogus and padded invoices for payment, sentenced to 67 months in prison and $2.7 million in restitution.

Sandra Mata Martinez, Toby Martinez's wife, who pleaded guilty to knowing about the scheme and not reporting it. Some of the diverted money was laundered through a front company set up in her name earning her a sentence of five years probation and $106,000 in restitution.

Raul Parra, a business owner whose contract to install audio video systems in the courthouse became the source of much of the skimmed loot. The scheme began falling apart when a business dispute between Parra and his partner went to court with the partner alleging Parra was paying kickbacks. Last month a federal judge sentenced Parra to 46 months in prison and $611,000 in fines and restitution. Manuel Guara was a subcontractor working with Parra's company.

Michael Murphy, who came into the construction process as project manager late in the game and admitted he received an illegal payment of $20,000. Johnson sentenced Murphy to two years of supervised probation and $20,000 in restitution.

Schiff, Schultz and Guara cut the first plea deals and cooperated with federal prosecutors.