ALBUQUERQUE — Right after being sworn in last summer as New Mexico's top federal law-enforcement official, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzales was busy.

First, he shuffled his staff of 72 seasoned prosecutors to focus on crimes on Indian lands and other top issues. He also began visiting New Mexico communities, cautioning middle-school students about bad outcomes that often result from involvement with illegal drugs.

Taking control of one of the busiest caseloads among the nation's 93 federal judicial districts, Gonzales was thrown into high-profile cases — an alleged hate crime against a Navajo man in Farmington, the deaths of an Oklahoma couple near Santa Rosa and a spying case involving a former Los Alamos physicist.

It's been a bustling six months on the job.

Gonzales rates the results as strong so far, and one of the ways he has tried to inform New Mexico residents about what his office is doing has been through his appointment of a staffer to work with the news media to publicize developments on a range of cases.

"The public expects us to do a job. Unless we're telling them what it is we're doing, I think there's going to be questions about what they're paying for," he said. "As public servants, that's a responsibility we have. That's been important for me."

Gonzales reorganized the office, appointing special squads of attorneys to focus on Indian crimes, border issues, major crimes and public corruption.

And as part of an innovative Justice Department program, he's forming a so-called "community prosecuting team" that will place a prosecutor and an advocate for victims and witnesses in Gallup, where the hope is they'll get a more intimate understanding of community issues.

Gonzales said the initiative — occurring only in New Mexico, South Dakota and Wisconsin — is modeled after community policing efforts. It seeks to help prosecutors learn about issues affecting tribal law enforcement, health care, social services and other matters.

The team should be working in Gallup by next summer. Gonzales said it will mark the first time a federal prosecutor in New Mexico has been permanently based outside Albuquerque or Las Cruces.

"What we're trying to do is help develop trust in the justice system within communities," Gonzales explained. "By having people on the ground closest to where the problems are, I think we'll be able to do that a little better."

From his staff of about 80 attorneys, Gonzales established an 11-member team to address Indian country issues. He said their work focuses on "whatever's most important to tribes" but mostly involves violent crimes, white-collar cases and cultural issues such as artifact looting.

"I don't know of any other U.S. Attorney's Office in the country that has a section specifically dedicated to this area," Gonzales said.

It's not strictly desk work. Attorneys assigned to the Indian-crimes unit were matched with a pueblo or reservation in New Mexico, then sent to visit.

"Their job is not only to prosecute crimes that occur in Indian country, but to get into their assigned communities and get to know the leaders, the police and law-enforcement elements and get to know the people," Gonzales said.

Gonzales, appointed to his current job by President Barack Obama, grew up in Pojoaque. He joined the U.S. Attorney's Office staff in 1999 and prosecuted large drug-trafficking cases along with cases involving firearms, immigration and violent crimes.

From his years as a line prosecutor, Gonzales said he learned up close how drugs can harm families and communities through violent crimes related to trafficking and the difficulties people face when a relative is sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

That's why since taking over as U.S. attorney, he has addressed middle-school students in Artesia and Albuquerque about staying away from drugs.

"There are things they can identify with," Gonzales said. "They all have families. They all can understand the effect on parents, on their brothers and sisters. When the message is sent to them that way, my hope is that it does some good."

Gonzales plans to visit other New Mexico towns, calling outreach part of his role as a public servant. He said it's unrealistic to expect arrests and seizures alone to stop drug trafficking, and if he can reach youth before they try drugs, maybe it will curb demand.

"There is a way for even prosecutors to have an effect on demand reduction," Gonzales said. "I'm excited about doing that, and I think it starts in the schools."




© Copyright Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.