Former Grants art director faces 101 years in prison

By Tom Purdom
Staff Writer

GRANTS — Former Cibola Arts Council Director Gayle McIntyre, who left her job here under allegations of embezzlement in 2002 though charges were never filed in the case now faces charges which could put her in prison for 101 years and/or empty her bank accounts of $356,000 in fines.

She went from working in Cibola County to working in Santa Fe for the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue, the agency charged with accepting millions of state income tax returns and issuing tax refunds.

McIntyre is under a 72-count indictment handed up by the First Judicial District Grand Jury in Santa Fe for tax evasion, making false statements on tax returns and computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle.

The case involves $210,279 in state income tax refunds. McIntyre was working for the tax and revenue department as a management operations analyst when she was fired in June 2004, following a Tax Fraud Division investigation into her alleged activities. She was indicted on Nov. 18, 2004. On Nov. 20, 2004, the department issued a news release giving sketchy details of an investigation by the Tax Fraud Division into "Gayle G. McIntyre of Albuquerque." The news release failed to mention she had worked for the department.

No cover-up
Department Spokesman Kathleen Baca said there was no cover-up attempt by the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department. Baca said the law would not allow her to disclose in a news release that McIntyre worked for the department; however, if someone had asked if she worked for the tax and revenue department, Baca said she would have answered that McIntyre did, in fact, work at one time for the tax and revenue department.

It wasn't until last week that McIntyre's story finally surfaced.

Long before all of her current problems, McIntyre was hired as the Cibola County Arts Council director on Nov. 26, 2001. An arts council news letter states McIntyre resigned her position on Feb. 4, 2002. On Feb. 7, two arts council board of directors members went to the police with allegations of misuse of funds. Then detective Marty Vigil, now the Grants Police Department chief, investigated the issue saying at the time he was investigating five different cases of embezzlement and that he would go to the district attorney to discuss possible charges.

No response from Grants
Vigil was unavailable for comment Friday. Assistant District Attorney Ted Howden did not respond to an inquiry Friday and the state's judicial website does not show charges were ever filed in the case.

Fast-forward three years and Deputy First Judicial District Attorney Peggy Jeffers said McIntyre is now charged in the Santa Fe scam with 17 counts of computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle, each a fourth degree felony because the amount was between $250 and $2,500. She is also charged with 19 counts of computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle, each a third degree felony because the amount was between $2,500 and $20,000. Then there are 35 counts of making false statements and fraud, each a special tax code violation punishable by up to six months in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. Lastly, McIntyre is charged with one count of tax evasion, also a special tax code violation punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine. A third degree felony is punishable by up to three years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine and a fourth degree felony is punishable by up to 18 months in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

Under the making false statement and fraud charges the grand jury alleges in one of them that McIntyre "did file a tax return electronically under the name of Giles Janice, claiming a refund in the amount of $8,742.00, knowing the information in the return was not true and correct as to every material matter."

The computer access with intent to defraud or embezzle charges allege that on specified dates McIntyre accessed or caused to be accessed a computer, or computer system, or network, with the "intent to obtain, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses or representations a tax refund, to which she was not entitled in the amount of $8,742.00."

Twenty names used
The scam, which started almost as soon as she resigned her Cibola Arts Council Director position, involved filing multiple tax returns, each with a different name, from her own name to Giles Janice to John C. Giles.

Her last day as art director in Grants was on Feb. 4, 2002, and on Feb. 6, 2002, McIntyre filed her first electronic return seeking a refund of $1,633, the indictment shows. From Feb. 6, 2002 until July 22, 2003, the amounts stayed below $2,000. On July 28, 2003, two returns were filed, one for a refund of $2,234 and the other for $4,507.

The tax returns stayed at the $4,000 level until Feb. 10, 2004, when the returns began showing $9,000 or more dollars, but never more than $10,000, according to the indictment.

The last return was filed on June 1, 2004, and later that month she was fired.

In the first year of the scam, the amount of tax refunds was for $15,173. In the year 2003, the amount was $17,816. However, in 2004, her operation's take skyrocketed to a whopping $177,290.

McIntyre pleaded not guilty in a Dec. 20, arraignment in Santa Fe and was released on a $10,000 signature bond.

— To contact reporter Tom Purdom call 285-6184, or e-mail: writer@cia-g.com.