SANTA FE, NM (KRQE) – A candidate for Santa Fe city council was caught lying. KRQE News 13 has revealed that Rebecca Romero hid her criminal history and then lied about it before finally admitting that her campaign was based on deception. Of course, as a convicted felon, she will not be able to hold any public office.
The civil servant hoped no one would know that she had committed a crime under a different name. When Romero and News 13 first spoke to each other on Tuesday, she doubled the deception.
“My past is my past. I was young, ”said Rebecca Romero.
It’s been a rocky road for the District 4 city council candidate, but voters didn’t know about it. News 13 dug up her long criminal record after finding her maiden name Ridgeway.
News 13 matched the dates of birth; her campaign address on a 2013 probation violation; and her mug shot from her arrest to her new campaign photo that reveals the identifiable tattoo on her ring finger.
“People make mistakes all the time and you see people changing their lives everywhere,” said Romero.
Online court records show multiple convictions a decade and a half ago for everything from stealing and selling company vacuum cleaners to stealing credit cards to forging checks.
Romero still blames other people for their beliefs.
“The owner who was selling wanted to meet a quota meant for his boss or owner and put my name on contracts and they were fraudulent contracts,” Romero said.
She was sentenced to probation and suspended sentences for her crimes.
“The probation violation is because I got married,” she explained.
It’s a long criminal history that she completely denied when News 13 called her Tuesday morning. Then 20 minutes later, she called back to come clean, claiming she had changed over the years.
“I knew I had to talk about it at some point, and I just didn’t know. You know, I’m a new person, a new face in District 4, how some of my constituents or parishioners would react to me, ”Romero said. “I wanted people to get to know me first before they automatically assume that I am a terrible person.”
There could be even more trouble for Romero, however. State law prohibits anyone with a criminal background from holding office unless they receive a pardon from the governor. She hopes she will get one.
“I finished probation, I did what I had to, and I am now a law-abiding citizen,” said Romero.
So would anyone have caught Romero’s criminal history? The Santa Fe County Clerk’s office said it is not doing criminal background checks.
Below is the statement made by the clerk:
“We can only use the candidacy declaration form and voter registration of the candidate at the time of the [Secretary of State] Announcement for this election. Other documents cannot be accepted or taken into account [unless] this particular breed requires petition signatures to be nominated, which in this case were in the correct order. Because we [shall] put the candidate on the ballot, since her papers and petitions were in order, we put her on the ballot. “
Romero said she had been with the state for six years. News 13 reached out to officers to ask if they knew of her criminal history under her maiden name when she was hired. State officials say they are investigating.
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