Senator says he was impersonated
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – A woman who runs a program for people down on their luck said a state senator stiffed her $1,600 after she did him a favor.
But the senator told News 13 he has no idea what the woman is talking about and believes someone has been impersonating him.
Either way, it’s a bizarre story.
Tani Gallup said she first came into contact with a man who identified himself as Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, several months ago. That’s when Gallup – who runs an Albuquerque residential program for people with drug and alcohol problems or have had brushes with the law – received a phone call from the director of a halfway house in Albuquerque.
Gallup said the director told her that a man named Billy Sanchez, who was on probation for fraud and tax evasion, had been recently kicked out of his halfway house and needed a place to live. The director also said Sanchez was Griego’s nephew and that the senator would be grateful if she’d accept him, Gallup said.
Gallup agreed to take Sanchez, and assigned him to one of the houses she runs in northwest Albuquerque. over the course of about a dozen phone calls, Gallup said Griego promised her he’d pay for his nephew’s tab.
“He would take care of all expenses, and then he would start calling us asking us to give him cash loans so he could see his kids in Rio Rancho for the weekend,” she said. “We never do that. We trusted him. We trusted him because he was a senator.”
Two and a half months later, Sanchez left the Casa de Amigos house unannounced. At that time, his bill was nearly $1,600, Gallup said.
Gallup and her business partner then became concerned that they might not receive the money they were owed, so they recorded several phone calls with the man they insist is Sen. Griego. After that, the man who identified himself as Griego suddenly began denying he had a nephew by the name of Billy Sanchez, Gallup said.
“After Billy moved out it was like he didn’t even know us,” she said.
(Click on sidebar link to listen for yourself as the voice on the phone explains what happened to Billy Sanchez.)
Griego first referred News 13 to his attorney, but when a reporter caught up with him at a recent meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee, he was outspoken. he told New 13 he doesn’t have a relative named Billy Sanchez and that someone is misusing his name.
“I don’t even know who these people are,” Griego said. “I don’t even know who this association is. I don’t know who this Billy Sanchez (is).
“I’m willing to do whatever I need to do, take a lie detector test, do whatever needs to (be done to) prove that it’s not me.”
News 13 also played a portion of the recording for Griego.
“I don’t know who this guy is,” he said afterward. “This is not me. it is the strangest thing. it is not me.”
Gallup conceded she never met Griego in person and only contacted him through a cell phone that has since been disconnected. Griego’s lawyer, Diego Zamora, told News 13 the cell phone number Gallup had has never been associated with his client.
Still, Gallup said she believes she was talking to the real senator, and she’s filed a lawsuit to try and recoup her money. she also said she will never take someone’s word again to get a family member into one of her houses.
“Never,” she said. “I don’t care if it’s the president.”
Meanwhile, Sanchez was recently arrested for breaking his probation and is currently sitting in prison in Los Lunas.
