In addition to staying at five-star resorts, buying luxury furniture and traveling the world on the taxpayers’ dime, former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard also took money intended for building an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant walkway and ramp and used it to build a patio near his house where he could host a welcome event and dancing for his daughter’s wedding, a new lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, filed quietly by the New Mexico State Ethics Commission on June 27, alleges that Shepard violated the state Governmental Conduct Act, which regulates how employees at all levels of New Mexico government comport themselves. It raises concerns about many of the expenditures first reported in 2023 by Searchlight New Mexico, including nearly $28,000 on exotic furniture from Seret and Sons in Santa Fe.
“As WNMU President, Shepard had a practice of authorizing university expenditures from which he benefited that were only loosely connected to university purposes,” the 106-page lawsuit alleges. “While a university president has wide latitude to authorize university expenditures for university purposes, the Governmental Conduct Act places a limit on the expenditure of public funds for a private purpose. Shepard transgressed that limit.”
But it also reveals previously undisclosed spending by alleging that he took “at least $177,404.83” in funding meant for an ADA-compliant ramp and walkway and instead spent it on a patio to host events that were part of his daughter’s wedding in May of that year. It accuses him of directing employees to say that the flowers he bought for the wedding were actually meant for use during graduation ceremonies and that “no one will know the difference.”
“As WNMU President, Shepard had a practice of authorizing university expenditures from which he benefited that were only loosely connected to university purposes,” the 106-page lawsuit alleges. “While a university president has wide latitude to authorize university expenditures for university purposes, the Governmental Conduct Act places a limit on the expenditure of public funds for a private purpose. Shepard transgressed that limit.”
In early November 2022, then-WNMU Capital Projects Director Joseph Holguin was in communication with a contractor about the ADA-compliant ramp project, the lawsuit states. On Nov. 12, 2022, Shepard learned that his daughter was engaged; within weeks, the lawsuit alleges, he began sending her videos of the campus, touting it as a potential wedding venue.
“In one video, Shepard walks through phase one of the capital project, saying that a patio expansion near to the … property would be done in time for the wedding, suggesting the area as a potential venue for wedding related events, and conveying that hosting the wedding at WNMU would cost his daughter nothing,” the lawsuit says. “It would cost WNMU and the public, however.”
In early December 2022, the Shepard family “canceled wedding-related reservations in Arizona, and Shepard planned that WNMU would be the venue for at least some wedding-related events,” the lawsuit alleges.
That same month, Holguin learned that the contractor working on the walkway and ramp couldn’t complete the final phase of the project for less than $300,000.
“The $300,000 threshold is significant, because the staff of New Mexico’s Higher Education Department must approve any alterations to university capital projects or site improvements costing over $300,000,” the State Ethics Commission said in its court filing.
Holguin was then “directed to reduce the scope of the project to the sidewalk connecting a driveway to the extant patio and a retaining wall to protect the sidewalk from erosion. Yet, not long after that direction, the scope of the capital project grew to include not only a walkway but also an extended patio adjacent to the … property for the purpose of hosting wedding-related events.”
Email correspondence at the time shows Holguin raising concerns that the contractor’s quoted price for the ADA-compliant ramp had increased along with the scope of the job. “Add of change order for irrigation and added electrical scope,” he wrote in a 2022 email to Shepard. “Over 300K … I am not confident we are in a good place to move forward with the number of revised proposals.”
Not long after, Shepard began calling Holguin nearly every day. At one point, the lawsuit says, Shepard insisted that this project be hurried up “because he [Shepard] only had one daughter.”
“On several occasions I personally saw or experienced Dr. Joseph Shepard, then-president of the university, misusing the resources of the university, including employee time,” Holguin is quoted as saying in the lawsuit.
As university president, Shepard lived in an on-campus house. The construction project connected his home to an adjacent building with a large brick walkway and patio. On June 28, the lushly landscaped patio was decorated with overhead bistro lights, fire pits, umbrellas and cushioned patio furniture.
The patio Shepard's daughter used for her wedding reception. As the project progressed, Shepard allegedly “micromanaged” the construction, “including grading changes, utility line adjustments, custom landscaping, and new brickwork — all of which incurred additional costs and further departed from the original ADA-focused plan.” All of this allegedly led to several “sewer breaks” and depleted the university’s inventory of bricks, leading to more purchase orders and more strain on public coffers, the State Ethics Commission claimed.
Despite the delays allegedly caused by micromanagement, the construction was completed in time for the wedding. Emails between Holguin and Kelly Riddle, the university vice president of business and finance, show him fretting about the timeline.
“The site grading changes he made earlier in the day resulted in numerous sewer breaks; this morning, our team is onsite making repairs and lowering the gas line. Additionally, I am concerned that we cannot get the additional concrete. Other jobs are pulling trucks from Deming and Las Cruces,” Holguin wrote to Riddle in April 2023. “There is the possibility we may not have this work done by graduation. However, I am confident everything will be completed for the wedding reception.”
All of this, the State Ethics Commission argues, fits a pattern of Shepard using public dollars for private enjoyment — while finding tenuous connections to the university’s betterment to justify the purchases.
“With respect to the wedding and the patio, Shepard continued the practice of identifying ostensible WNMU purposes to justify expenditures of public funds that were, in fact, intended for a private benefit,” the filing says. “During a meeting with WNMU staff about the wedding, Shepard told WNMU staff members that if anything Shepard purchased for the wedding could be used for university fundraising, he should not have to pay for it.”
His daughter’s wedding invitation and schedule — which features a photo of the couple in front of what appears to be the base of the Superstition Mountains as seen at Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Arizona — directs guests to park near Shepard’s residence for the festivities. “Yes,” the invitation reads, “it does show as ‘President’s Residence’ on Google Maps haha.”
The itinerary shows the patio would get a lot of use over the course of the weekend. "This event will be outdoors so bring layers if it gets chilly!" it instructed guests. "We're planning for a food truck dinner, fire pit and dancing/casual hanging out. If you own cowboy boots, this maaaay be a fantastic time to plan an outfit around them."
Shepard did not respond to a request for comment.
After Shepard resigned from his post in December, Searchlight reported, he and his wife, former CIA agent-turned-author Valerie Plame, bought a former wedding venue in Embudo, between Santa Fe and Taos. The terms of Shepard’s departure granted him a $1.9 million severance payment and a new teaching job as a tenured professor with an annual salary of $200,000.
The State Ethics Commission’s suit is the latest action taken against the former WNMU president. In January, Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a civil suit against him and the university Board of Regents — all of whom have since left their posts — and seeks to claw back the $1.9 million severance payment Shepard received upon leaving the job. Shepard has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, but Judge Jarod K. Hofacket has not yet issued a ruling.
The commission opened its investigation into Shepard in November, after the Office of the State Auditor released a scathing report that accused WNMU leaders of improperly spending more than $360,000. Its lawsuit seeks a $250 payment from Shepard for each confirmed violation of the Governmental Conduct Act (capped at $5,000) and for him to pay restitution to WNMU for the construction of the patio.
As for the ramp that was supposed to be built in compliance with the ADA, a law that’s been on the books since 1990, authorities say it’s still nowhere to be found.
“Upon information and belief, WNMU has yet to construct an ADA-compliant ramp for the … property, as originally intended in phase two of the construction project,” Friday’s lawsuit says.
This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.