AG Gary King's bogus story about animal cruelty task force abuses will sink his third try for governor

New Mexico Attorney General Gary King will say just about anything to save his long-shot campaign for governor. King, a Democrat, concocted an unbelievable story and then last month submitted it to a federal judge in hopes of extricating himself from a civil lawsuit that could strangle his political career. In his court affidavit, King professes ignorance about the workings of the Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task Force. As the organization's name suggests, King created and chaired this task force. He even put an assistant attorney general in charge of its day-to-day supervision. But King says in the affidavit that he did not know his task force raided ranches across New Mexico and killed thousands of birds without any proof of wrongdoing or threat to public safety. Reyes and Mario Marin, father and son ranchers from Bloomfield in San Juan County, are suing King because of the monster he created. The Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task Force killed about 730 of the Marins' roosters, hens and chicks. It also stomped 1,000 eggs belonging to the ranchers. Police officers armed with guns and even a helicopter bullied the Marins after storming their ranch. King said in his affidavit that any alleged abuses against the Marins were committed because of a task force member named Heather Ferguson, commanding general of the raids. "I never delegated any authority of the attorney general's office to Ms. Ferguson," King wrote. We examined his claim by checking emails that Ferguson sent to him and his aides. Writing King from a raid in Dona Ana County in April 2009, Ferguson said: "Over 300 roosters have been seized, and coverage should be on all 3 stations tonight starting at 5." In another email about the AG's raiders, she said: "I am flying in some personnel from the Humane Society of the United States to assist, and it's likely that they are going to bring the camera crew from Animal Planet to film our work." While in San Juan County for the raid on the Marins' ranch, Ferguson kept King informed. "Today's raid has us continuing to make history. So far, it's estimated that there are at least 1,000 birds at the location and evidence that will lead to felony charges." The Marins, we should point out, never were charged with any crime by the San Juan district attorney, Rick Tedrow. No matter, the Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task force destroyed $300,000 of their poultry and eggs anyway...more