Former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano came clean to years of selling county property on eBay only after a buyer alerted him that state police were on to him, court records show.

Seven search warrants for computer-related records were unsealed Wednesday, shedding more light on the scandal that led the two-term sheriff to resign on Thanksgiving eve.

New Mexico State Police agent Jesse Williams began investigating Solano on Sept. 1 after a reserve sheriff's deputy in Texas alerted authorities that a bulletproof vest he purchased from Solano was likely stolen. Williams wrote in one warrant that he contacted buyers of at least 49 vests sold by Solano, all originally purchased with Santa Fe County funds.

"I asked that the buyers not contact Mr. Solano about the sensitive investigation," Williams wrote in one search-warrant affidavit.

State police contacted the eBay buyers Nov. 18.

On Nov. 21, Solano contacted state police for the first time on the matter and asked to speak with Williams. When the two met the following day, Solano confessed "that he sold county property on eBay in order to supplement his income" and that he called state police "because he received an e-mail from one of the buyers of a vest, which ... contained the e-mail I had sent to the buyers," Williams wrote.

Solano publicly announced his resignation Nov. 24 after he sent a letter to co-workers, county officials and news media. He claimed to be caught up in financial difficulties and was selling old, discarded and used department equipment online.

State police and eBay records obtained by The New Mexican have confirmed that some — if not most — of the county-owned items sold through Solano's "sfbnews" eBay account were new, not used, items. Some items identified include bulletproof vests, digital recorders, ink cartridges, handcuffs, at least 89 blank CD or DVR discs in 25- and 35-pack bundles, police scanners, gun holsters, cellular telephones and at least two external hard drives owned by the Sheriff's Department.

Williams wrote in an affidavit that "the link between the seller 'sfbnews' and the SFCSO is apparent."

Solano's eBay account was deactivated Nov. 23 after having been open for more than 11 years. Most transactions on the account were personal items Solano sold through the years, including hundreds of campaign buttons and other political memorabilia.

Williams writes in one search-warrant affidavit that Bowie County, Texas, Reserve Deputy Randall Baggett paid $150.50 for a vest. Baggett told The New Mexican last week that he believed he had paid $235 for the Galls vest, which was identified as one of 19 from a $10,108 purchase order the county made in September 2009. That would make the county's average cost per vest $532, at least in that purchase order.

When told by a reporter that the seller of the vest was a county sheriff, Baggett was shocked. "Are you kidding me?" Baggett said. "Wow. I'm glad to hear it looks like it's over now."

Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia, who was Solano's undersheriff before Garcia was sworn in Nov. 24, told The New Mexican last week that the department has tracked down one purchase order from the 2009-10 fiscal year for 10 Galls vests believed to have been stolen by Solano. That purchase order was for a total of $3,500, according to Garcia.

However, state police records show the purchase order indicates the county paid $320 apiece for the vests.

Williams wrote in one warrant that he believes Solano sold most vests for an average of $175.

Garcia said Solano, when questioned by property custodians about items he took, told them he planned to make charitable donations.

State police have said they don't believe anyone else at the county was aware of what Solano was doing.

The county has hired an outside firm to conduct an audit of the department. No audit results have been released.

Solano has not been charged, and Clovis-based District Attorney Matt Chandler has said he hasn't decided if Solano's case will be presented behind closed doors to a grand jury or if he will present evidence publicly at a preliminary hearing before a judge.

"Due to the voluminous records recovered at this point, the investigation could take approximately three to four weeks before it's concluded," Chandler wrote in a prepared statement Wednesday.

Court documents show Solano used PayPal for money transfers when conducting eBay transactions.

"Since April 2009, 49 bulletproof vests have been sold by this seller online," one search warrant states. "The PayPal account information ... (shows) Mr. Solano has been enrolled in PayPal since March 12, 2000, and since that time has received over $40,000 in payments for items sold online. $13,000 of that has been received since April 2009 when the first bulletproof vest was sold by 'sfbnews.' "

The search warrants don't indicate which sales were personal transactions and which ones involved county-owned items.

While state police seem to have narrowed the scope of their review of eBay transactions to a period from January 2009 to the present — according to the search warrants made public thus far — The New Mexican found sales of handcuffs and other county-owned items dating back to 2007.

Chandler has said investigators are digging back to as far as 2004 to see if some sales by Solano on eBay may have involved county-owned items.

District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco of Santa Fe transferred the case to Chandler, the district attorney in Curry and Roosevelt counties, to avoid any appearance of impropriety since her office has worked closely with Solano.

In Solano's resignation letter, he wrote what he did "was wrong, illegal, unethical and dishonest."

Since then, neither Solano nor defense attorney Brooke Gamble has commented on the case.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.