By Dan Boyd
Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Corrections Secretary Lupe Martinez, the first woman to head the department that runs the state prison system, resigned abruptly Friday.
The move came just days after Gov. Susana Martinez asked State Police to look into whether any laws were broken during an incident in which the secretary’s live-in fiance, also an agency employee, fired a weapon at rattlesnakes on the state penitentiary grounds.
Lupe Martinez, who is not related to the governor, had previously served as the warden of state-run prisons in Grants and Hagerman. The governor immediately appointed Roswell Police Chief Alfonso Solis, the former U.S. marshal for the district of New Mexico, to serve as the agency’s acting secretary. Solis and the department’s new acting deputy secretary, Gregg Marcantel will head up a national search for a new secretary, according to the Governor’s Office.
In a statement sent out late Friday, the Governor’s Office didn’t address the investigation into the actions of Lupe Martinez’s fiance, Larry Flynn. However, a Corrections Department spokesman confirmed earlier Friday that Flynn was under investigation after allegedly firing a handgun at a rattlesnake nest outside the couple’s residence on the state penitentiary grounds.
Flynn already had been on paid leave from his job as a coordinator with the agency’s Probation and Parole Division since May due to an internal probe into whether he falsified time cards, said Corrections Department spokesman Shannon McReynolds.
Flynn has said he was offduty and doing yardwork when he discovered the snakes under a doghouse. He then shot between 7 and 14 rounds at the snakes, depending on accounts of the incident, McReynolds said.
While the gunshots triggered an automatic internal probe, Gov. Martinez also requested that State Police look into the incident.
A number of prison officials and employees live on the penitentiary grounds, just south of Santa Fe. The residential area is about a half-mile from the closest building housing prisoners, McReynolds said.
After her resignation, Lupe Martinez, 49, plans to move to Las Cruces to be closer to her family and son, according to the Governor’s Office.
She intends to apply for a warden position at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces, Martinez’s office added.
“Ms. Martinez has my gratitude for 26 years of service to the state,” Gov. Martinez said Friday. “Though we are in a time of transition, I am confident that the future of the department is in good hands under the direction of Mr. Solis and Mr. Marcantel. The safety and security of New Mexicans remains a top priority for this administration.”
Lupe Martinez had been earning $106,000 in her Cabinet position. She declined to comment Friday evening on her resignation through a Corrections Department spokesman.
Meanwhile, Solis and Marcantel will serve in their acting positions for up to 12 weeks, the Governor’s Office said.
“I fully believe that the nationwide search led by Mr. Solis and Mr. Marcantel will yield an extremely talented and competent individual to serve in a permanent leadership position as the department’s next Cabinet secretary,” Martinez said.
Lupe Martinez’s resignation was the latest of several shifts in the governor’s Cabinet since Martinez took office in January.
Finance and Administration Secretary Rick May stepped down in late August to take a new position at the helm of the New Mexico Finance Authority.
Earlier this year, Martinez’s pick to serve as Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources secretary, former NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt, withdrew his nomination in February, before confirmation hearings, following a disagreement with the Legislature over background checks.
Copyright 2011 Albuquerque Journal