Waiver-gate?

New Mexico’s Governor is holding back information relative to the reported abuse and a full throated account of her administration’s efforts to conduct background checks and monitor caregivers.

This will be the fourth week since the Department of Health (DOH) was “notified of a potential abuse case.”

At her press conference last week Governor Lujan Grisham told reporters, “On March 1st, we were notified of a potential abuse case and we’ve provided information about that and you can ask some questions.”

But in the very next breath she said, “That particular case is still under investigation and you can see that we have our FBI partners here, the details of that case and the state police are not available because we are still involved in a very specific investigation…”

That was after knowing about and investigating the abuse for three weeks.

Now, after another week, the Governor continues to ignore questions about basic details such as whether or not the victim of life-threatening abuse is a young woman.

Nor will she acknowledge or deny whether the young woman was sexually assaulted and possibly a target for sex-trafficking.

Despite the Governor’s silence, The Candle has confirmed through a reliable source that the victim is a young woman.

In addition, for more than two weeks, The Candle has received accounts indicating the perpetrator, and/or conspirator, of the abuse was transporting the young woman across the border into Mexico as part of a sex-trafficking enterprise.

Since March 12, 2023, The Candle has sent questions more than once asking the Governor’s and DOH information officers if they would confirm or deny those accounts. They refuse to provide a response.

Most law enforcement agencies will release such basic information within hours, or at most within days.

Neither acknowledging the fact the victim is a young woman or answering the questions whether she was sexually assaulted, or a target of sex-traffickers, would interfere with any ongoing investigation – certainly not after almost a month has lapsed since the Governor was made aware of the abuse.

(The Candle has not asked the Governor or DOH for the identity of the young woman nor about any information that would compromise her identity or violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act – HIPAA.)

In emails sent on March 12, 2023, March 23, 2022, and on March 26, 2023, The Candle submitted more than twenty questions to the Department of Health and the Office of the Governor seeking information about the horrific abuse of this young woman, such as:

1. Have any employees of the department of health been dismissed, placed on leave on any type, or in any way disciplined and or implicated in the alleged misconduct resulting in injury to the unnamed client?
2. Were appropriate background checks performed of the caretakers of the young woman?
3. Why did the Governor, not share much of the information with legislators and the public until two days after the legislature adjourned for the year?
4. Who is conducting the “independent, third-party investigation” the Governor announced in her press release of March 20, 2023?
5. Would the Governor’s office or DOH confirm or deny that the young woman who suffered life-threatening injuries was also the victim of sex trafficking and/or any sex related violence?

The Governor and her multiple spokespeople have remained silent to all of the above questions.

Besides answers to these questions, what else is New Mexico’s Governor withholding regarding this “horrific” abuse?

(This is an ongoing investigative report.)

Earlier reporting related to this story:

House GOP Seeks “Truly Independent Investigation,” DEMS Quiet, After Governor Keeps Legislators in Dark During Session On Full Extent of Abuse of DD Waiver Clients