The state Human Services Department missed a Friday deadline to file an internal report investigating allegations of falsifying food aid applications to deny emergency benefits to the needy with a federal court.
Earlier this week, Federal Magistrate Judge Carmen Garza ordered the department’s report unsealed and sent to court by 5pm Friday evening. But HSD attorneys cited technical problems with filing the report on the federal court database where the public can access it online.
Related: Incomplete SNAP report finds possible internal falsifications
Instead, HSD attorney Natalie Bruce filed a notice to court Friday evening after 5pm “to let the Court and all interested parties know that I … attempted to timely file the redacted [Office of the Inspector General] report and corresponding exhibits and was unable to accomplish this task.”
While Bruce was unable to file the report online, the attorney noted that she sent all the documents to attorneys for plaintiffs in the Hatten-Gonzales case, who are accusing HSD of improperly processing benefits for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
She also wrote that the department is sharing the documents “with any interested reporter.”
NM Political Report eventually obtained the internal report at 7:40 pm Friday evening from HSD spokesman Kyler Nerison. Nerison wrote in an email that he wouldn’t be able to send all attachments to the report until next Monday because they are “too big to send by email.”
NM Political Report, however, obtained some of these redacted attachments Friday evening via email with an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case. As of 9pm Friday evening, HSD had still not sent over 20 attachments to plaintiff attorneys.
We publish the investigation and all attachments we have below for the public to see, with names redacted as ordered by the court.
NM Political Report will have a story on the contents of the documents once we are finished reviewing them.
Interim ROI.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 1 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 2 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 3 – MOIA by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 4 – MOIA by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 5 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 6 – MOIA by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 7b – MOIA by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 8 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 9 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 10 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
Attachment 31 – MOIA.pdf by New Mexico Political Report on Scribd
