New Mexico State Ethics Commission asks judge to toss much of former WNMU president’s lawsuit

Attorneys for the New Mexico State Ethics Commission last week asked a federal judge to toss much of a new lawsuit from former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard.

News reports in late 2023 detailed how Shepard and his wife, former CIA agent and congressional candidate Valerie Plame, used taxpayer money on international travel, five-star resort stays and exotic home furnishings. State Auditor Joseph Maestas in 2024 issued a report detailing nearly $364,000 in “wasteful” spending, including a trip to a Ritz-Carlton resort in California. And the State Ethics Commission in 2025 filed a lawsuit against Shepard, alleging that he used American with Disabilities Act money intended for campus projects to instead build a patio where he hosted events for his daughter’s wedding.

Shepard left his post as president in early 2025, and the New Mexico Department of Justice subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking to recoup his “golden parachute” severance payment. That case is scheduled to go to trial next year.

In August, Shepard filed a suit of his own against the State Ethics Commission and Executive Director Jeremy Farris in U.S. District Court, accusing them of violating his civil rights with the 2025 lawsuit.

The lawsuit repeats many of the claims he made in a late 2025 lawsuit against WNMU and several current and former state lawmakers. In both suits, Shepard alleges that in 2023 he sought to blow the whistle on state lawmakers who appropriated taxpayer money to improperly benefit their families, and they subsequently orchestrated a “smear campaign” against him.

The commission’s attorneys wrote that Shepard’s legal team has created “a conspiracy theory uniting” the various lawsuits he is facing.

Court sets trial in NM State Ethics Commission suit against former WNMU president

In the latest lawsuit, Shepard said that the State Ethics Commission sought to “harass and extort him.” The commission has sought to claw back the roughly $177,000 of ADA money it accused him of spending on the patio near his on-campus home. That case is also scheduled to go to trial next year.

A. Blair Dunn, the attorney representing Shepard, told Source NM Monday that the 2025 State Ethics Commission lawsuit was secretly targeting the $1.9 million severance payment Shepard received when he left his job as university president.

“He lied in why he brought that lawsuit, which is unconstitutional to do to a citizen,” Dunn said. “It’s a vindictive prosecution made up for an improper purpose. The real point of that lawsuit is to try to extort that money from the severance.”

Attorneys for the State Ethics Commission in filings of their own counter that Shepard’s federal lawsuit is “a belated reaction to the lawsuit the commission” filed against him over the patio allegations in 2025, and that Farris has immunity from litigation as he was acting on behalf of a state agency.