Las Vegas, NM, chief may take feud to court
New tort notice warns of litigation
Asimmering feud between the Las Vegas, N.M., police chief and other city officials may take a swerve into the courthouse.
In a tort claim notice letter sent Wednesday to Mayor Tonita GuruleGiron and City Manager Richard Trujillo, Las Vegas Police Chief Juan Montaño alleges that Trujillo “issued a directive restricting the claimant’s (Montaño’s) and other city employee’s (sic) First Amendment rights, and which is intended to have a chilling effect on those First Amendment rights.”
It’s the second tort notice Montaño has filed through his attorney, Las Cruces-based Raul Carrillo.
The new notice, which serves as a warning of possible litigation, arose after Trujillo would not allow several of Montaño’s officers to serve as coaches for local school sports teams. Trujillo said the police chief had not followed city policy requiring the city manager’s approval for jobs outside regular duties, like the coaching positions.
“The described limitation is a violation of the officers’ rights and is perceived to be an added action in the pattern of harassment previously complained of against Chief Juan Montaño,” the most recent tort letter read.
The first letter delivered in June claimed that Montaño and the department faced “funding issues, hostile work environment, whistleblower issues and retaliation against the chief for the performance of his legal duties and obligations.”
Montaño, a Las Vegas native who has been with department nearly 20 years and was appointed chief in 2015 by a prior city administration, last week claimed that the police department’s relations with City Hall started to sour last year when a Las Vegas officer arrested the mayor’s daughter for DWI.
Gurule-Giron categorically has denied that the coaching dispute had anything to do with the DWI.
The city has received the tort claim letters and the issue has been “referred to our selffunded insurer and the matter is under investigation,” said city spokesman Lee Einer, who declined further comment on the letters.
Einer did say, however, that, this week, Commander Eric Padilla’s request to coach the West Las Vegas girls soccer team was approved as the team prepares for its first match Sept. 5.
Requests for three additional officers to coach are pending in the city manager’s office, he said.
Deputy Chief Ken Jenkins coaches girls basketball at Memorial Middle School in the East Las Vegas Schools District, Commander Chris Lopez runs the junior wrestling for West Las Vegas schools covering elementary age to 14-year-olds, and Lt. Pam Sandoval coaches Dons softball.
City Councilor Barbara Perea-Casey said she began to notice the tension between the police and the city administration earlier this year when the police department pushed for funding for additional positions. The original city budget did not include money for the positions, she said, but the council refused to pass the budget until money was found to support the additional personnel.
“I think the city manager is retaliating against the police department for that particular issue,” PereaCasey said. “They’ve made it personal and I think that’s very unprofessional.”
Regardless of the root of the problem, the working relationship is strained at best, she said.
The latest tort letter also seeks that all “books, records, email, charts, graphs, and other data associated in any way with Chief Montaño’s employment be preserved for discovery and litigation.”
The situation has become untenable, the letter adds, as it “represents a controversy pattern of governmental misconduct. These actions reflect an arbitrary and capricious use of governmental authority intended to cause harm to Chief Montaño in retaliation for having previously spoken out on issues of public concern.”