Court schedules trial in New Mexico AG’s case against former WNMU president

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s case against former Western New Mexico University President Joseph Shepard is set to go to trial next summer, according to court documents filed Friday.

Torrez filed the case in early 2025 after news reports and the Office of the State Auditor detailed how Shepard and other university executives used taxpayer money for international travel and luxury home furnishings. In late 2024, Shepard resigned as president and the Board of Regents gave him a $1.9 million severance payout and a teaching contract — both of which prompted outcry and have since been undone.

“The level of greed and self-dealing and arrogance that has been exhibited throughout this process, and frankly throughout the last year and a half, has only been amplified by the actions and mismanagement of the board of regents at Western New Mexico and the actions of Dr. Shepard,” Torrez said when announcing his lawsuit in early 2025.

A bench trial, meaning there are no jurors, is set to begin on Aug. 16, 2027, and run for five days, District Court Judge Jarod Hofacket wrote in Friday’s order.

Hofacket’s order gives the parties until April 30, 2027, to complete mediation. Involved parties can file a notice before then, though, if they deem it “to be fruitless.”

John C. Anderson, a former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico who is representing Shepard in the case, declined to comment on anything “beyond what’s on the docket” when reached by Source NM.

Torrez’s case has already been before mediators. A joint report, filed in April, said that lawyers for the New Mexico Department of Justice, Shepard and the university participated in a full-day mediation session overseen by former New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Judith Nakamura and former Albuquerque Journal editor Kent Walz but noted that it “produced no resolution.”

The New Mexico Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. 

After Torrez filed suit, two other cases — from the New Mexico State Ethics Commission and from a former WNMU employee — followed.

The State Ethics Commission alleged last summer that Shepard took money intended for ADA-compliant projects and used it instead to build a patio where he hosted events related to his daughter’s wedding. And Sunil Otto Khera, the university’s former director of grants and rural initiatives, alleged that university leaders wrongfully terminated him in 2023 after he raised concerns over whether proper procurement policies were followed when the Democratic Party of New Mexico hosted an event on the Silver City campus.

Both suits also have trials scheduled.

The State Ethics Commission’s suit is scheduled for a jury trial beginning June 28, 2027, if the parties cannot complete mediation by the end of this year. Khera’s suit is scheduled to have a jury trial begin Oct. 25, 2027.

Shepard sued the university last October and accused the state auditor and several lawmakers of conspiring to harm his reputation and oust him from leading the university after he raised questions about funding in the state budget. A judge subsequently dismissed the state auditor and the lawmakers after finding that they were acting within the scopes of their jobs.

Shepard’s lawsuit is still pending.