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Manny Aragon leaves U.S. District Court in Albuquerque this morning after pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges. Aragon, the former state Senate president, is accused of taking part in a scheme to pad bids in the construction of Metro Courthouse.

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After pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges today in Albuquerque, former state Senate President Manny Aragon had only one comment for reporters.

"I'm completely innocent of these charges," he said, then left the Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse surrounded by family members and an attorney.

Aragon and three others were arraigned early today in what federal prosecutors say was a kickback scheme during construction of the Metro Courthouse building Downtown. Prosecutors allege the four, along with three others who pleaded guilty earlier, padded bids and submitted false invoices that cheated New Mexico taxpayers out of more than $4 million.

Aragon, subcontractor Raul Parra, former Metro Court Administrator Toby Martinez and Martinez' wife, Sandra Martinez, pleaded not guilty today to all charges before U.S. District Magistrate Alan Torgerson.

All four face charges of conspiracy and mail fraud. Money laundering charges were also filed against Parra, Aragon and Sandra Martinez.

Former Albuquerque Mayor Ken Schultz and two others - architect Marc Schiff of Design Collaborative Southwest and Manuel Guara, who worked for the now-defunct company P2RS - have taken deals with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque.

After the arraignment, Parra's attorney, Bob Gorence, urged the community to keep an open mind about his client.

"Much like the Duke (University) lacrosse team, often the community can forge perceptions early on, and they are wrong," he told reporters.

Gorence said he is looking forward to getting the facts before a jury.

"I think you'll be writing a different story at the end of this case," he said.

People packed the courthouse to catch a glimpse of the four arraigned today.

But it could be months until the defendants are seen again, when the case goes to trial.

It will take time for the prosecution and defense to gather evidence and conduct interviews.

But one of the most complicated tasks might be to seat a fair, impartial jury.

In Albuquerque, it might not be easy, said pollster Brian Sanderoff.

"They might find themselves in the same situation (as in other trials) where they have to open up the pool statewide," he said.

Jurors in the corruption case of former state Treasurer Robert Vigil came from across the state after Sam Bregman, a lawyer who represented Vigil, tried to get the case moved out of Albuquerque.

"I think it would be easier than getting a jury from the Albuquerque-Santa Fe area," Sanderoff said.

Bregman recently said that getting an impartial jury for the case against Aragon and three others will be at least as difficult as it was in the Vigil case.

"At the bare minimum, these particular defendants are going to need jury pools drawn from the entire state," Bregman said. "We sent out extensive questionnaires (in the Vigil trial), and I'd expect nothing less in this case."

Although Vigil's case and this one both involve public officials, the media coverage doesn't compare, suggesting it could be more difficult to find an impartial jury in the Metro Courthouse case.

The charges against Vigil received a mountain of news coverage, but in the 15 months before, Vigil appeared in only a handful of stories. And none related to a corruption probe.

In contrast, by the time Aragon was indicted March 29 he'd been the subject of at least seven stories in Albuquerque newspapers detailing a federal corruption probe involving him and the construction of several public buildings in Downtown Albuquerque.

About 50 other stories in the past 18 months dealt with Aragon's controversial tenure as president of New Mexico Highlands University. Aragon resigned from NMHU last year amid an uproar over his management style and his use of a murky "president's fund."

Sanderoff said only part of the coverage really matters.

"It's the amount of publicity before the trial that counts," he said.

Aside from coverage of their scandals, Aragon has had a far higher profile than Vigil ever had.

A search for "Manny Aragon" in a Tribune archive going back to 1995 returns 1,583 stories. The same archive returns 354 results for "Robert Vigil," some of which were about a high school athlete. More than half the stories came after Vigil was indicted.

During the run-up to Vigil's first trial, his lawyers repeatedly argued that the trial should be moved out of state, or at least out of Albuquerque, because heavy media coverage made it impossible to get an impartial jury.

Bregman said a questionnaire sent to 1,200 potential jurors ahead of Vigil's second trial substantiates that concern. Of the 630 who returned the questionnaire, 73 percent said they were familiar with the case, and half of those said they'd made up their mind that Vigil was guilty, Bregman said at the time.

Ultimately, Vigil's two trials were in Albuquerque, but jurors from southern New Mexico were brought in. After the first ended in a mistrial, Vigil was acquitted on 23 of 24 counts and was sentenced to three years in prison. He began serving that term Monday.