Home Care In Anthony, NM

A group of residents in Anthony, New Mexico, filed a lawsuit on Nov. 2 seeking to remove the elected mayor after alleging she illegally used a company vehicle for personal use, violated state transparency laws, and took steps to prevent the public from participating in government.

The lawsuit is the second involving Diana Murillo, the mayor of Anthony and commissioner of Doña Ana County, involving allegations of misuse of public resources. Murillo filed the first in April against Anthony Trustee Gabriel Holguin, alleging Holguin removed agenda items and used a city-owned printer for personal reasons. Holguin argued that he used the printer to create flyers to inform the public about city happenings.

Now, former Mayor Pro Temp and current trustee candidate Fernando Herrera, alongside a group of 14 residents, have filed to have Murillo removed from office.

"We think a lot of damage is being done to the city of Anthony, where the people of Anthony are not being heard, money is being spent in inappropriate ways," said Yvonne Quintana, an attorney representing the 15 plaintiffs during a news conference on Nov. 4 announcing the lawsuit. "We think that it's appropriate not to wait for an election because it's egregious."

Murillo has been Mayor of Anthony since 2016, a city of less than 9,000 pressed against the Texas border and adjacent to a Texas town with the same name. Anthony, New Mexico, was incorporated in 2010. But recent years have seen the newborn city struggle with internal strife.

In the lawsuit, the 15 plaintiffs allege that Murillo regularly uses a city-owned vehicle as a personal vehicle, transporting family members and driving it between work and home.

The 15 plaintiffs also said Murillo has forced out groups of residents from participating in public meetings, held votes in quasi-closed sessions (a violation of the state's laws governing public meetings), and prevented Spanish speakers from understanding the meeting by removing translation services.

The 15 plaintiffs also said Murillo is being investigated by the State Attorney General and hired a cousin without disclosing the family relationship.

Murillo could not be reached for comment before this article was published.

Quintana, who also represents Holguin in the lawsuit between Holguin and Murillo, acknowledged that removing an elected official from office via lawsuit would be a difficult task. The law favors allowing the voters to decide, Quintana said.

"I, as a lawyer, thought that these allegations were serious enough that they supported the cause of action that I filed. Whether or not I can prevail, that will you know, that's beyond my control. That is up to a judge," Quintana said.

Murillo has 30 days to file a response to the lawsuit before a judge can determine if she'll be removed.

On Saturday, a press conference was held in the law offices of Yvonne K. Quintana in Las Cruces, attended by some of the fifteen plaintiffs in the lawsuit to remove Anthony, New Mexico Mayor Diana Murillo. Attorney Quintana explained the contents of the lawsuit.

“The community (of Anthony) is seeking redress for the silencing of their votes—not votes, (but) their voices, basically. They’ve been experiencing a situation in the city of Anthony where oftentimes there’s not an interpreter available. There’s a need for interpreters at the meetings so that they can fully participate in the process. As of late last year or so, the mayor amended the Open Meetings Act policy. One of the things that occurred is that there is no longer public participation permitted in the city of Anthony. The Open Meetings Act that sets forth how they’re going to comply with the law, the City of Anthony, under the direction of Mayor Murillo, who directed the city attorney to amend the policy, have chosen to remove public participation.”

When contacted to comment about the recent lawsuit filed against her, Mayor Murillo had this to say.

“There’s no merit to the allegations at all. I mean, this has been going on since 2011. It’s just a personal attack from some of the individuals since 2011 until now. So there’s no merit at this time for any of the allegations.”

Mayor Murillo was asked if public comments would be reinstated in City Council meetings anytime soon.

“We’re planning to reinstate, but we need to have law and order. You know, I have to have law and order in the chambers when we have meetings and that hasn’t been happening. We’ll be bringing it back, but until we’re able to have everything situated and moving forward with that, we will.”

The mayor was asked about the alleged lack of interpreters at the meetings.

“That’s not true. We’ve had interpreters. The last time, there was just a miscommunication, and we because we had a meeting on a Monday instead of our usual Wednesday, our interpreter wasn’t able to attend, and there was just a miscommunication. But we’ve never prevented anyone from getting a translator there.”

Fernando Herrera, former Mayor Pro Tem for the city of Anthony and one of the fifteen residents filing the latest lawsuit against Mayor Murillo, had this to say about the mayor’s removal of public comments during last Saturday’s press conference.

“In America, you can speak your mind, even if there might be a little rudeness in it or whatever. But that is accepted in America. What was spoken in Anthony that triggered this silencing were just true facts that we were telling the board and telling the mayor. And she didn’t like that. How did she respond? By cutting our voice off.”

Attorney Quintana also cited the Mayor’s alleged misuse of public funds and property.

“The City of Anthony has a vehicle use policy. That policy says that every vehicle is supposed to be labeled with an emblem marking it as an official vehicle. That’s a piece of public property. I have photographs and video of this vehicle at the local church. What’s wrong is when a city vehicle is used for that purpose, or used for that purpose, or being used to transport people on non-related city business, that church being at church on a Sunday, that’s not City of Anthony business.”

When asked about that allegation, Mayor Murillo explained why the vehicle in question was being used.

“Well, the thing is, the vehicle had been assigned to me because I am paraplegic, I’m in a wheelchair. And we were doing a community service with the city vehicle. And so it happened to be that the vehicle broke down right in front of the parish hall where the church is at, and I was getting an assistant to help me fix the door. And that’s why I was stuck there. So they say that is a place of worship, and I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Attorney Quintana said that Mayor Murillo has thirty days to respond to the lawsuit.

ANTHONY, N.M. — A vacant property in Anthony, New Mexico was finally getting a new purpose.

Construction was set to begin on a new urgent care at a former golf course, Dos Lagos.

CBS4 on your side spoke with people in Anthony to said this urgent care was really needed because they said, currently, the closest urgent care were in Las Cruces and El Paso.

"It’s awesome to have new opportunities close to the Anthony area," said Florencia Romero, who lived in Anthony, New Mexico.

"I’m for it. If that’s what the people want and need then why not," said Maritza Aguilar.

RECOMMENDED: New Mexico funds to help plan 2 fishing lakes, amphitheater in former Anthony golf course

Diana Murillo, the mayor of Anthony told CBS4 they were able to obtain over $2 million in state and federal funding for the urgent care.

"In 2018 we met with representative Gallegos and we gave her our vision and it was similar to our vision so we got together and we said ‘what can we do to provide resources for our kids here and the surrounding areas," said Diana Murillo, the mayor of Anthony, New Mexico.

The urgent care was part of a bigger city project for Dos Lagos.

The project also included a multigenerational facility, that people of all ages could use, the building of two lacks where people could fish and an amphitheater to be used for different events.

"We’re trying to bring a safe space for youth and families here in Anthony cause we haven’t had the commodities or the recreational resources for our children," said Murillo.

Murillo said the next step was opening a medical campus in partnership with Memorial Medical Center on the vacant Dos Lagos.

She said they were estimating that could open within two to three years.

"They’re bringing a campus to dos Lagos and hopefully that will have for two or four year college degrees for anybody that wants to be part of the health services," said Murillo.

One person CBS4 spoke with said she would be taking advantage of this upcoming opportunity.

"I’m a CNA and I’m trying to go back to school to get my nurse so that's awesome," said Romero.

The mayor of Anthony said the grand opening for the urgent care could be within one to two years.

People could make suggestions by reaching out to the mayor and the board of trustees on how they would like the city to use the Dos Lagos property.

For their contact information click here.

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The civil complaint filed by City of Anthony Mayor Murillo comes nearly nine months after City of Anthony Trustee Holguin filed thirteen ethics violations against the mayor with several entities, including the New Mexico State Ethics Commission and the State Attorney General’s Office. It also comes three months after the mayor removed public comment input from all council meetings. Mayor Murillo explains why she filed the civil complaint against Trustee Holguin.

“Due to the malfeasance and chaos that he’s been causing at the city” she said. “There’s been a negative impact towards staff and towards a lot of us, so I decided to do that. The way he treats the staff and others with malintent as well…he’s just caused a lot of harm to the city instead of good.”

Holguin is represented by Las Cruces Attorney Yvonne Quintana, who held a press conference Monday morning with Trustee Holguin in attendance.

“We are actively working to defend that litigation,” Quintana said. “I think that it’s an important factor that they mayor is trying to squelch the voice of the people in terms of removing a trustee who was elected to represent the community. I also think it’s an important factor that it’s based on allegations of malfeasance or misconduct in office. And I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe any such behavior exists, and that it’s a smokescreen to quiet the voices of Anthony.”

Attorney Quintana detailed the allegations of malfeasance and misconduct against Holguin in office.

“Well, it’s my understanding that an allegation that he improperly used a copying machine at City Hall. That seems to be the most egregious of the allegations, and it’s my understanding that the copies that were made so that information could be disseminated to members of the public. There’s also an allegation that a group credit card was used to charge diesel fuel. Mr. Holguin doesn’t drive a diesel vehicle. He drives a gas-operated vehicle and would have had no vehicle to pump diesel into.

“It’s interesting, however, that the complaint was filed pro se by the mayor. She now has an attorney, and it’s actually quite difficult to extract what he is being accused of in that complaint, because of the way the complaint was drafted. And there is currently a motion to dismiss because of the nature of how it was drafted, and it’s really quite hard to tell what he is being accused of. It's hard to defend yourself if you don’t know what you’re being accused of.”

Trustee Holguin was asked what he felt the Mayor’s civil complaint was really about.

“One, I’m challenging the status quo that has been placed with the city of Anthony,” Holguin said. “When you challenge the status quo, it doesn’t go well, right? And I took the city government on that had already been established, and I have no doubt that I will remain on the council after this court hearing.”

Holguin alleges he’s being bullied by the mayor.

“Absolutely, of course. This removal came after the fact that I filed ethics complaints that came after the fact that I questioned the removal of public comment. It didn’t come at the beginning of my term. It came after I started questioning our city government, why we weren’t doing certain things that we were supposed to. So I do think that I’m being bullied.”

Mayor Murillo responded to Holguin’s allegations of bullying.

“No. As a matter of fact, it’s the other way around—the way he uses people to bully others. This has been a bullying tactic on his part. We have a positive environment in our city. Now, he refuses to have it that way. And you can see all the minutes and all the reports: anything that comes up from the city council meetings, you can see the negativity. And every meeting ever since he started as a city trustee, it’s been negative.”

A pretrial conference is set for December 19^th.

ANTHONY, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) — Turmoil in the city of Anthony, New Mexico continued as the mayor, Diana Murillo, sued a board trustee, Gabriel Holguin, to remove him from office.

Holguin's attorney, Yvonne Quintana said they filed a motion to dismiss the complaint filed against him by the mayor.

Holguin said he did nothing wrong and is being bullied out of office because he spoke up against some of the mayor's decisions.

All the allegations are clearly a form of retaliation, I would say, for voicing the constituent's concerns," said Gabriel Holguin, and Anthony, New Mexico trustee, "This removal came after the fact I filed ethics complaints it came after the fact that I questioned the removal of public comment.

Quintana said Holguin was being bullied out of office after speaking out against the removal of public comment at meetings, filing 13 ethics complaints against Murillo and asking for her resignation.

The mayor previously said she removed public comment because most comments were direct attacks against her.

RECOMMENDED: Mayor of Anthony, New Mexico removes public comment from upcoming City Council meeting

Quintana added they filed a motion to dismiss the complaint.

"He is young he’s inexperienced but he’s motivated and he’s got a pretty loud voice because he speaks up so I definitely think he’s being bullied, he’s being bullied to be quieted," said Yvonne Quintana, Holguin’s attorney.

The lawsuit accused Holguin of intentionally and repeatedly removing items from the agenda and using city resources for his personal use.

The lawsuit mentioned Holguin used the city's copier to print over 700 pages, which he said he made to inform residents about a raise in their property taxes.

RECOMMENDED: City of Anthony sets property tax rate to 7.65; money to be used to hire public workers

"It’s my understanding that the copies that were made were made so that information could be disseminated to members of the public," said Quintana, "I don’t believe such behavior exists and it is a spokes screen to quiet the voices of Anthony that have voiced opposition to the current city government."

Quintana said Holguin had to pay his legal fees and said she was working to find out how the mayor paid for hers.

"I know that there is an attorney representing the mayor but I don’t know if she is paying for that privately or if it’s being paid for by the city of Anthony," said Quintana.

KFOX14 reached out to the mayor of Anthony for comment, but we have yet to receive a response.

Holguin's attorney said a hearing was coming up in November and a trial was scheduled in January.

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