Councilor provides conflicting information about recordings

BOSQUE FARMS — A village of Bosque Farms councilor is telling conflicting stories about who made a recording of a phone call between her and a village resident.

In late September, Bosque Farms police officer John Gordon was dispatched to a home on Del Norte Court for a report of stalking and harassment.

Village resident Eric Granzberg played a recording of a phone call between Village Councilor Erica De Smet and Dolly Wallace, who was a candidate for a vacant village council seat at the time.

That race is still subject to a recount by the New Mexico Secretary of State and Wallace could potentially win one of the two seats. Wallace is also a former village councilor and municipal judge.

Granzberg told the officer what was said in the call was “inaccurate and derogatory in nature about him.” In the report, Gordon notes while the nature of the recording most likely didn’t constitute stalking or harassment as defined by statute, Granzberg might have a civil case for libel.

In an effort to authenticate the recording, Gordon interviewed both De Smet and Wallace.

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De Smet told the officer she recalled the conversation with Wallace, but not an exact date, according to the report.

“She says she does record all her phone conversations and does keep them, along with distributing them to several unidentified people, including her attorney,” Gordon wrote in the report. “She does not know who may have gotten that recording or how it got transmitted to Eric Granzberg.”

With the disclosure the councilor recorded “all her phone conversations,” the News-Bulletin filed an Inspection of Public Records Act request through the village on Oct. 27, asking for all recordings of phone calls made and held by De Smet from Jan. 1, 2024 — the beginning of her term — to present pertaining to village of Bosque Farms business.

The request noted the calls “may have been made and received on the councilor’s personal phone(s) and are subject to IPRA if they regard the public business of the village and she was acting in her capacity as an elected official.”

When asked if such recordings would be considered public records subject to IPRA, Amanda Lavin, the legal director for the New Mexico Foundation on Open Government, said via email, “Recorded phone calls by public officials that relate to public business are definitely public record, even if made on a private phone.”

In response to the News-Bulletin’s records request for any phone recordings, De Smet responded, “I have no recordings regarding public business of the village where I was acting in my capacity as an elected official per your request.”

The News-Bulletin spoke to De Smet on Friday, Nov. 21, asking her to explain the seeming conflict between what she told Gordon — that she recorded “all” her phone conversations — versus her response to the newspaper’s records request.

The News-Bulletin specifically asked if she was indicating she hadn’t had any phone conversations with village employees or other elected officials in the nearly two years she’s been a councilor.

“Obviously, I have to talk to people,” De Smet said, explaining that when she said she recorded all her conversations, she “didn’t mean all the God forsaken calls I make to everyone.”

The councilor said she does record some calls, such as ones to her accountant and the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.

When asked about the call between her and Wallace, De Smet said she did not record that conversation.

“I don’t know how that was recorded. Maybe there was someone in my phone,” she said. “I don’t record my conversations between me and Dolly. That’s news to me.”

That directly contradicts what she told Gordon during their Oct. 2 interview, which was captured by the officer’s body-worn camera.

In the video, Gordon appears to be sitting at a work station at the Bosque Farms police station when he initiates his call with De Smet. After he explains the situation to the councilor, Gordon asks if she knows how Granzberg got the recording or if she knows anybody who could have given it to him.

“Yeah, possibly ... I record all of my phone conversations,” De Smet said.

She asks the officer what the call was about and he explains it was Wallace “complaining about Eric Granzberg.”

The councilor replies, “Well that’s why I recorded it, yes. I don’t want to be involved in it.”

Gordon asks if she remembers when the call was and De Smet responds she didn’t know because, “I talk to Dolly a lot.”

He then asks, “So you have no idea how someone else could have got your recording?”

De Smet said she doesn’t know.

“I sent it to a few people,” she replied.

In both the report and the recording of the interview with De Smet, Gordon says Granzberg wouldn’t disclose who gave him the recording, only saying he got it from a third party.

The councilor says she doesn’t know what was said in the conversation, adding “I didn’t say anything about Eric.”

Later in the interview with Gordon she says she doesn’t know anything about Granzberg and barely knows anything about Wallace.

During the rest of the conversation, De Smet states at least three more times that she records all her conversations. She also says she sent the recording “to a few people, just cause I was like I don’t want to be involved at all ... I sent it to a lawyer, too. I don’t want to be involved in any of that.”

Gordon says he’s just trying to authenticate the call and clarify where it came from.

“I’m sure it was mine,” De Smet said. “... to be honest with you, I don’t trust anyone. I sent it to a few people that I guess I thought I trusted around the community, but hell if I know.”

At one point, the councilor refers to the recording as “public information,” again saying she records all her phone conversations.

“I guess it came from me,” she said.

As the conversation wraps up, De Smet tells Gordon, “If you need anything more from me I’m always here to cooperate. (Part of the recording is unintelligible due to noise in the background.) ... record all of my phone conversations, so (unintelligible) came from my phone.”