Ex corrections employee drops appeal

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - A former New Mexico Corrections Department employee who claimed he was wrongfully terminated has dropped an appeal of his firing.

Larry Flynn was fired several months after an incident in which he allegedly shot at rattlesnakes outside the house on state penitentiary grounds in which he and his fiancee, then-Corrections Secretary Lupe Martinez, lived.

Flynn claimed Gov. Susana Martinez's office wrongly influenced his firing.

His attorney, Sam Bregman, tells The Albuquerque Journal Flynn dropped his appeal based on personal matters.

The case played a role in fueling a controversy over the use of private email accounts by officials.

One of Martinez's deputy chiefs of staff forwarded a State Police report on Flynn to the governor's personal account.

Martinez claimed she never received the message because the account was hijacked.