Know Thy Landlord: Peepholes are passé in the digital age.
That's one conclusion to be drawn from a lawsuit filed this month in New Mexico's First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe.
Maria Lujan claims her ex-landlord and roommate, Andrew Griego of Firerock Place in Rancho Viejo, spied on her with a covert camera. Lujan thought Griego was trustworthy, as both her mother and a female friend worked with him at the New Mexico Department of Transportation. But one day in 2007, Lujan was changing after taking a shower when she spotted something odd in her laundry pile.
"She noticed cords leading from the pile of clothes that connected to a plug in her wall jack," the complaint says. "She followed the wires into the pile of clothes and found a small camera and a black box."
Lujan's complaint says Griego admitted to police investigators that he'd electronically spied on his roommate. Griego's lawyer, Marc Edwards, doesn't know if that's true, but says "if the allegations hold water, we'll try to work it out." (Lujan wants punitive damages.) A NMDOT spokesman could not confirm by press time whether Griego still works for the agency.
Hellish Accounting: State tax officials are going after Garson & Sons, a purveyor of Catholic books, church supplies and knickknacks, with a store in Santa Fe and two in Albuquerque.
According to papers filed in New Mexico's First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, state Taxation & Revenue Department officials claim Garson "is now and has chronically been a delinquent taxpayer." After years of failing to file reports, the state claims the store now owes nearly $300,000 in gross receipts taxes.
Churches are generally exempt from income and property taxes on First Amendment grounds; such exemptions don't apply to sellers of religious articles.
"We had some bookkeeper errors over the past few years. All is fine now as we are entering a repayment plan with the State. Should be business as usual in the future," store owner Paul Garson writes in an email response to SFR.
The state claims the store failed to file tax reports beginning in 1985, a year before Garson obtained his bachelor's degree in California. Among the store's quirkier offerings: A "Jesus is My Coach" series of $24.95 wood and resin statuettes depicting the Lord as an instructor in everything from basketball and hockey to ballet and martial arts.
