Nonprofit group discloses hefty trial lawyer contributions after settlement agreement — Dan Boyd, Albuquerque Journal
A nonprofit group that has advocated against changes to New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws disclosed nearly $1.3 million in contributions Monday after reaching a settlement agreement with the State Ethics Commission.
The list of donors to the group, called New Mexico Safety Over Profit, is made up almost entirely of trial lawyers, according to a Journal review. Most of the more than 50 contributors are from New Mexico, though a smaller number are from out of state.
That includes the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, which gave $245,000 over the last four-plus years, and Iowa-based trial lawyer Nicholas Rowley, who gave $425,000 during the same time period.
The settlement was announced about two months after the State Ethics Commission filed a lawsuit against New Mexico Safety Over Profit, arguing the group had violated state lobbying laws by refusing to register with the Secretary of State’s Office and disclose both its donors and expenditures.
Under the terms of the settlement, which resolves the lawsuit, the group agreed to pay a $5,000 fine — the maximum allowable under state law. It also agreed to disclose its expenditures and contributions made during an advertising campaign in the run-up to this year’s legislative session that included full-page newspaper ads and social media posts.
In addition, the group released its full list of donors going back to 2021, a step that exceeded the settlement agreement’s disclosure requirements.
Feliz Rael, an Albuquerque attorney and president of the group’s board, said Monday the group remains confident it did not violate the state’s Lobbyist Reporting Act and pointed out the settlement includes no admission of wrongdoing.
While a spokesman previously insisted the group did not need to disclose the names of its members, Rael sounded a different tone Monday, saying, “We have nothing to hide and are proud to disclose our donors.” A list of donors was also added to the group’s website.
She also said the group chose not to litigate the case to avoid a protracted legal battle.
“Litigating would have been an unnecessary use of time and resources for both our organization and for taxpayers,” Rael said in a statement.
Amelia Bierle, the State Ethics Commission’s deputy director, described the settlement as a “significant outcome” for state residents whose trust in the legislative process depends on transparency and fairness.
“The people of New Mexico have a right to know who is trying to shape public policy in our state, and this case demonstrates the Lobbyist Regulation Act working as intended — requiring organizations that conduct lobbying-related advertising campaigns to register and disclose their spending and funding sources,” Bierle said in a statement.
New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws have emerged in recent years as a hot-button political issue amid a longstanding health care provider shortage, especially in rural parts of the state.
Critics argue the state’s current laws, which were overhauled during the 2021 legislative session and later tweaked, have led to skyrocketing legal insurance costs and have prompted some providers to leave the state.
Those concerns have prompted proposals to change the law, primarily by limiting attorney fees in medical malpractice case. A bill proposed during this year’s 60-day session was thwarted on a 5-4 vote in its first assigned Senate committee amid opposition from trial lawyers and patients harmed in medical malpractice cases.
Fred Nathan, the executive director of Think New Mexico, a Santa Fe-based think tank that has pushed for changes to the medical malpractice laws, said the settlement agreement sheds more light on New Mexico Safety Over Profit’s mission and background.
“Thanks to the New Mexico Ethics Commission, the public now knows that this dark money group, calling itself Safety over Profits and posing as a group of regular New Mexicans who oppose medical malpractice reform, is entirely funded by trial lawyers, their law firms and is actually nothing more than a front group for the trial lawyers,” Nathan said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Safety Over Profit said in a Monday statement it planned to continue fighting for the rights of New Mexicans and demanding accountability from “negligent corporations.”
The group describes itself on its website as a “network of individuals and families harmed by big corporations, institutions and profit-driven systems.”
State’s new broadband boss says satellite is ‘significant’ in getting New Mexico 100% connected — Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Even with federal changes to a huge funding stream for New Mexico, 90% of the state has access to high-speed internet, and contracts will be in place for the last 10% by the end of next year, the new leader of a state broadband office said Monday.
And to get over the finish line, satellite internet is a “significant part of the picture,” said Jeff Lopez, who is beginning his eighth week in charge of the New Mexico Broadband Access and Expansion Office. Lopez was speaking to state lawmakers on the interim Economic and Rural Development committee.
“We are still ‘fiber first,” Lopez said. “We’re focusing on areas that are financially prudent for that fiber connectivity, but low-Earth orbit satellites are going to be part of the picture, again, of meeting that commitment by the end of 2026.”
Roughly 90,000 New Mexico locations are “unserved” or “underserved” in terms of broadband access, according to Lopez’s presentation. “Unserved” households have download speeds of less than 25 megabits a second, while “underserved” have download speeds between 25 megabits a second and 100 megabits a second. A household of four with a 100-megabit download speed could stream videos, work remotely and have video calls like for telemedicine, “but not necessarily all at once,” Lopez said. The extent to which New Mexico’s internet connectivity plans include satellite, has been an open question amid federal changes to an infrastructure spending bill passed during President Joe Biden’s term.
Also, during the legislative session earlier this year, as Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency was firing federal workers and dismantling federal programs, state lawmakers removed $70 million for satellite internet in the state budget that the previous broadband director said would likely have gone directly to Musk’s company satellite internet company Starlink. That funding cut does not affect the office’s timeline.
Satellite internet companies can provide access in rural areas and those where overlapping jurisdictions or topographical features make it difficult and expensive to bury fiber lines Lopez said. But he also said fiber is “future proof” because it’s a largely permanent installation safely underground
“We still believe that [fiber] is the best connectivity that money can buy, but it’s often much more expensive than alternatives,” he said.
Satellite, on the other hand, is not as resilient to natural disasters, he said, and the technology isn’t “fully fleshed out yet.”
“It makes sense in areas with open skies, but we also have a lot of community communities along waterways and valleys, along bosques, whether it’s tree coverage or just a mesa or a mountain in the way, that can also impede some of the access,” he said.
Biden’s infrastructure bill created the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program to oversee billions of dollars in internet connectivity spending. The state broadband office successfully qualified for $675 million of it and, Lopez said, was in the final steps last month of awarding sub-grantees the funding.
But in early June, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced rule changes to the program that leaders said were aimed at reducing regulatory burdens and ensuring that all broadband technologies had equal footing when competing for the funds.
The change toward “technology neutrality” meant the removal of “previous restrictions that favored fiber deployments,” according to a news release from the broadband office in early July. In addition to giving satellite a better shot at the funding, the rule change required all potential recipients of the funding to submit a new round of applications “regardless of where the state was in its sub-grantee selection process,” according to the news release.
Two satellite companies have put in bids for the federal broadband funding, Lopez said Monday. He declined to name which companies are seeking the funding.
“But you might be able to guess,” Lopez told lawmakers.
According to the state Broadband Office’s application page for the federal money, SpaceX, which provides Starlink, is one of a handful of “prequalified applicants” that provides internet access. It appears to be the only satellite internet provider on the list.
Jury awards Bernalillo family $1.8 million in school bullying, assault case — NM.news
A Bernalillo High School student’s family received a $1.8 million jury verdict this week after proving school officials failed to prevent a violent assault despite receiving evidence of persistent bullying and threats.
The verdict, delivered late last month in Sandoval County’s 13th Judicial District Court, found Bernalillo Public Schools liable for failing to follow New Mexico’s mandatory bullying prevention laws before a brutal October 2023 attack that left a 15-year-old student with a concussion and lasting injuries.
Court evidence showed the victim’s parents, Richard and Valerie Ortiz, repeatedly warned Bernalillo High School Principal Alyssa Sanchez-Padilla about escalating threats from two other students through social media messages. The threatening communications, which included promises of violence and graphic language, were provided to school officials weeks before the assault occurred.
Court filings state that Sanchez-Padilla was “notified by the student’s mother of bullying on social media and provided text messages of it.”
However, the principal failed to follow New Mexico’s Safe Schools for All Students Act, which requires school administrators to investigate bullying reports within two days, notify parents of all involved students, and develop safety support plans for targeted students.
Instead, according to court documents, Sanchez-Padilla advised the victim “to seek protection at school by walking with the BHS’ male, student-athletes.”
On October 11, 2023, an 18-year-old student violently attacked the victim in a first-floor hallway at Bernalillo High School during school hours.
Court documents detail how the attacker pulled the victim to the ground by her hair and proceeded to kick and punch her head while she lost consciousness. Multiple school employees witnessed the assault but did not intervene, according to the lawsuit. Only another student, not staff members, eventually stopped the attack.
The victim was transported by ambulance to Sandoval County Regional Medical Center with head and neck injuries. She suffered from migraines and PTSD, and was out of school for two months due to her injuries.
In response to the verdict, Bernalillo Public Schools issued a statement expressing sympathy and commitment to student safety.
“First and foremost, we want to express our deepest sympathy to the Ortiz family. The well-being and safety of every student is, and must always be, our highest priority,” said JoAnn Beuerle, communications coordinator for Bernalillo Public Schools. “As a district, we take the jury’s verdict seriously. While we are still reviewing the details of the decision with our legal counsel, we remain committed to fostering safe, respectful learning environments where all students feel supported and protected.”
The $1.8 million judgment will be paid by Bernalillo Public Schools, impacting the district’s budget and potentially affecting local taxpayers. The award covers the victim’s medical expenses, ongoing treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and damages for pain and suffering.
New Mexico’s Safe Schools for All Students Act, enacted in 2020, mandates specific actions schools must take when bullying is reported:
– Investigate all reports within two school days
– Notify parents of both the accused and targeted students
– Develop safety support plans for victims
– Maintain detailed records for at least four years
– Provide annual anti-bullying training for all staff
The state allocated $25 million for public school safety improvements in 2023 specifically to help districts meet these requirements