Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Who is on Trial?

I have been keeping up with the trial of former State Treasurer Robert Vigil and I am beginning to wonder who is really on trial. If you read the stories carefully there is not much on Vigil's actions, but rather on former Treasurer Michael Montoya who is a witness. Time and again the government's witnesses have stated they could not say Vigil actually was getting some of these illicit funds during his term in office, or that funds that were sent to him were anything other that normal campaign contributions. Also, it appears that the prosecutors connect donors of Governor Bill Richardson to the case, namely former Game Commissioner Guy Riordan,who has not been charged. This gets prominent placement in the news coverage. Why is this getting this kind of buzz...certainly the Governor isn't implicated in anyway.

It will be really interesting to see what the jury ends up deciding. I have not been sitting through this trial, obviously, but in reading news accounts I wonder if the governments case will come down to guilty pleas on just a couple of counts.

I am certainly not trying to defend Vigil, but I am surprised at the government's case so far.

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