Mayoral hopeful threatens city with lawsuit
Motion for restraining order violates rights, attorney says
The city of Albuquerque has been put on notice that it may be hit with a federal lawsuit for seeking a restraining order against members of Stella Padilla’s campaign organization.
Attorneys for the city allege in a motion that Padilla’s daughter Vanessa Benavidez has engaged in aggressive and harassing behavior against City Clerk Natalie Howard. The motion for “protective order against harassment” was filed last month on Howard’s behalf.
But Albuquerque attorney A. Blair Dunn, who is representing Padilla and Benavidez, calls the city’s motion a violation of his clients’ First Amendment rights to free speech and to petition their government.
He notified the city in an email last week that Padilla and Benavidez may sue Howard, City Attorney Jessica Hernandez and Assistant City Attorney William Zarr for violation of those rights.
“The First Amendment does include the right to petition your government,” Dunn told the Journal. “What they’re doing is essentially saying to Vanessa and to Stella, ‘You can’t petition your government.’ ”
Not so, says the city’s legal department.
“The city’s motion for protective order does not ask the court to limit anyone’s ability to meet with public officials to discuss public business; we welcome those interactions,” the city’s legal department said in a statement.
“Ms. Padilla and her campaign have full access to petition the government and exercise free speech. However, it crosses a line when someone begins
to physically intimidate a public employee. The motion was necessary to alert the court that this type of harassment and intimidation were occurring.”
Padilla, a retired Old Town resident, was one of 16 candidates who filed to run for mayor. She submitted a nominating petition with more than the required 3,000 signatures, but the City Clerk’s Office rejected many of them, leaving her 171 signatures short.
Padilla filed a lawsuit against Howard, contending that many of the signatures she collected were thrown out erroneously and that she has enough valid signatures to qualify to have her name on the ballot. The case is still pending. The city filed its motion for the restraining order as part of that case. In an accompanying affidavit, Howard states that Padilla’s daughter “has engaged in conduct which I perceive to be meant to harass and intimidate me.” The city’s motion and Howard’s affidavit misidentify Padilla’s daughter, referring to her as Vanessa Padilla when her name is actually Vanessa Benavidez.
Howard said she is concerned for her safety.
The city’s motion seeks a protective order against harassment by anyone associated with Padilla’s campaign.
Dunn states in a response filed last week that the city’s motion was filed in bad faith and that the court has no jurisdiction over Benavidez or any other members of the Stella for Mayor campaign because they aren’t a party to the suit.
He also argues that the city is asking the court “for the extraordinary relief of depriving non-party persons of their 1st Amendment rights to petition the government and to free speech.”