Finding a Goldmine in Silver City

Last night I aired a report about a kickback scheme allegedly involving a state employee, more than half-a-million dollars, and 16 of her friends. You can see the report here.

I found the story thanks to an anonymous tip. It was the perfect kind of tip--it had names and dates and was well written. The tip sounded so outrageous, as I was reading through it, I thought this story must have already been broken by a reporter somewhere, at least in Silver City. The anonymous tipster even wondered why the case hasn't made headlines. I wondered too, considering the number of suspects involved, and the amount of money allegedly stolen.

So I did some simple checking to see if this was all true. I connected to various government websites and found the court case numbers that seemed to be the nuggets of info that would be a goldmine for this story. After about three minutes of checking, my instincts told me something was there.

I called the courthouse in Silver City and managed, after several phone calls, to get some of the documents in the case faxed to me in Albuquerque for a fee of 17 dollars. For the price, I received eight pages, and bingo, there it was: shocking details of a state employee who used her position to steal tax-dollars from her office.

Friends of hers, according to the documents, were made to appear as babysitters to be paid with tax dollars to take care of children from families in need.

Documents describe how the 16 "babysitters" then gave half their checks back to Andrea Munoz, the state employee.

Wow. 16 people with a state employee at the center. Why hasn't this hit the news? The documents even show criminal charges were filed in late April--and here it is...already May.

I called CYFD, and they even wondered why a reporter hasn't called them yet. CYFD seemed to already have been preparing for a phone call from someone in the media. They confirmed everything that was in the court record.

I then went to my news director and we both decided a trip to Silver City was in order. So photographer Jeremy Fine and I left early one morning and spent hours driving until we arrived in town.

We worked fast and hard, driving all over Silver City, knocking on doors, visiting government buildings, and digging up the documents. The story felt so big for us at the time, it seemed we were about to get scooped. I was sure another reporter in the state or somewhere in Silver City was about to publish this online. But we got lucky....and got all the elements we needed to spell this one out.

By the way, I have to say the Silver Cafe in Silver City has the best enchiladas in southwest New Mexico. It's a place that feels like a home kitchen--and the food tastes like it was made in one too.

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