“The trust of the community in their public servants is a sacred commodity, Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins said, “and it has been shaken hard by recent events in our office.”
So he fired the whistleblower.
Earlier this week we reported on the arrests in the Dona Ana County Clerk’s office on identity theft charges. Now the whistleblower who brought to light the truth has been FIRED by Dona Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins. (more on that story below)
A whistleblower within the Dona Ana County Clerk’s office has been fired, days after helping authorities foil an elaborate fraud scheme.
According to our NBC affiliate in New Mexico Robert Hernandez was told of the termination today.
Hernandez says he was a temporary clerk’s office employee so county officials weren’t obligated to provide an explanation for his termination, but Hernandez thinks the move is backlash reporting the alleged fraud.
Hernandez says he now plans to run for county clerk in 2016.As we’ve reported, four county employees and three others allegedly participated in the scheme where identities
were stolen and tax refund checks were deposited into private bank accounts.
To those of us watching, it sure looks like the Dona Ana Clerk’s office is running or hiding something– why fire the honest person in the office?!
Ellins should resign
If it were not enough that Ellins seems unable to keep track of his own office, it completely betrays the trust of Dona Ana County residents and shames the state when a whistleblower like Mr. Hernandez is fired so suddenly. It’s unfair and sends the message to New Mexicans that Ellins would rather not have had the corruption charges brought to light– he seems to be saying corruption should just be brushed under the rug and folks’ identities may as well continue to be stolen?
If you would like to voice your concerns, you can call 575-525-6156 (a number that Ellins has said anyone having questions about the fiasco can call). Be prepared to:
1. Leave your name and phone number, 2. Politely tell Dona Ana County Clerk that it is awful he fired whistleblower Robert Hernandez over the ID theft-related arrests, 3. The action reflects negatively on the county and state, and 4. That he needs to resign.
More on this week’s arrests
Reportedly the county employees arrested were allegedly part of a identity theft and check cashing scheme. The Las Cruces Sun-News reported that the county employee Maria L. Ceniceros arrested Friday has been charged with 113 counts of forgery, identity theft, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit forgery, according to county officials. The arrests are said to be part of a broader investigation by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Dona Ana plagued with corruption
Dona Ana County has been plagued with corruption charge after corruption charge. Over the past five years many allegations of voter fraud, especially from the area east of Las Cruces made national news. Just three years ago Sunland Park had quite the voter fraud scandal break– there were a dozen arrests and the sensational story was the “gift that kept on giving.”
“It started with extortion charges,” said then-Dona Ana Third Judicial District Attorney Amy Orlando, “And from that it then led us to the voter fraud cases.”
Speaking of Sunland Park voter fraud Sunland Park resident Gerardo Hernandez, a mayoral candidate who lost his race for mayor to the new mayor arrested on voter fraud charges said, “They pressured the poor, old people, the people who don’t know English. They were forced to sign without knowing what they were signing. It’s incredible, it’s disgusting.” Similarly in many instances, the poor and less educated are those who suffer the most from fraud and cheating…
In 2014 Representative Democrat Mary Helen Garcia lost the Democrat primary to a hard-Left progressive who targeted her for reaching across the aisle. Though she staunchly opposed voter ID measures while chairing the House Voters and Elections Committee, even Rep. Garcia brought up “high number of absentee votes from Sunland Park” when she narrowly lost the primary. What? Hinting at fraud?! Ya gotta be kidding!
What next?!
With something that ended up sweeping Sunland Park starting little, it demands the question– where will this incident end? And can County Clerk Lynn Ellins really have all this going on under his nose and not know what is going on?! What kind of “leadership” has he demonstrated– apparently Ellins would rather focus on redefining marriage than enforcing the law and running his office in accordance with the law.
Political Fireball 
You should also ask why Lorri Munoz resigned so abruptly. The official story is never the truth. Same thing happened with Mario Jimenez in October. He had been there for over 20 years stealing elections. Mario’s official story is not at all what happened. And Lorri moved up. Now she quit yesterday afternoon.
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Lorrie was forced to resign due to her tampering with her financial records in order to steal state benefits by receiving food stamps and Medicaid. Mario Jimenez was terminated because of his relationship with a young female employee. However, once again Lynn Ellins never knew of the year long relationship between his chief deputy and a clerk from his office. Mario Jimenez and Scott Krahling were rarely in the office as they both abused their authority and Scott Krahling falsified his time stating he was present in the office. Both Jimenez and Krahling would spend weekends with various females in Ruidoso, San Francisco and Santa Fe with females other than his office girlfriend and Ms. Krahling. At time they were joined with their partners and county credit cards were used to provide for their fun. Of course this will all be denied as Lynn Ellins will again claim his innocent. I will be bringing forth many surprises for Scott Krahling during the 2016 primary. I will not provide any allegation with out proof to back it. Let’s play honestly and fairly.
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I have to ask..how is it that a rabid Democrat politician from Colorado became a rabid Democrat politician in NM?
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