Months after stepping down amid a spending scandal and controversy over an exit package that included $1.9 million in severance, former Western New Mexico University president Joseph Shepard is suing WNMU , its board chair and lawmakers, accusing them of a political vendetta.

Shepard resigned late last year after facing withering scrutiny from the public and state politicians following a report from Searchlight New Mexico that found he spent lavishly on international travel and furniture for his on-campus home. The Office of the State Auditor subsequently found he “engaged in the waste of public funds” and his travel appeared, at times, to be “unrelated to official university business.”

Fury over Shepard’s golden parachute prompted WNMU regents to resign en masse and an effor

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