Chief of Española police on paid leave
Grand jury charges officer with felony counts of child abuse, witness intimidation
The mayor of Española on Saturday said she put the city’s police chief on paid administrative leave after a grand jury in Taos handed down two indictments charging Matthew Vigil with felony counts of child abuse and witness intimidation.
The criminal charges — which followed newspaper reports of police in Taos questioning Vigil about allegations of domestic abuse — do not mean Vigil is out of a job. Mayor Alice Lucero, in a telephone interview, called the criminal charges a “personal” matter.
“I still don’t really know what he’s been indicted for,” Lucero said. “But you know, he’s just going to be on leave until further notice.”
Deputy Chief Eric Gallant will serve as acting chief, Lucero said.
The mayor praised Vigil, a resident of Taos who has worked for the Española department since May 2016 and took over as chief in April after former Chief Richard Gallegos announced his retirement. Vigil has been working in law enforcement for 20 years and in 2014 was a candidate in the Taos County sheriff ’s race. Lucero said Vigil has “excellent credentials.”
“As far as a police officer, he was very well trained,” she said. “He did an excellent job as far as bringing new programs to the police department. And he had never really been charged with anything. And I believe a person is innocent until proven guilty. And he hasn’t yet been proven guilty. So I hired him based on his ability as a police officer; all this is personal, and it’s not on a professional level.”
The grand jury handed down the indictments Thursday in a state District Court in Taos. The Rio Grande Sun first reported the indictments in an online story Friday evening. Online court records do not show Vigil entering any pleas to the charges. The records also do not show any attorneys representing Vigil. Attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful Saturday.
One indictment references an Oct. 30 incident in which police responded to a report from his stepdaughter, who told police Vigil was “very intoxicated and had a gun” during an argument with her mother. Police made no arrests during the call after finding no indications of physical abuse on his wife, according to police reports.
Taos police officers asked Vigil where the teenage stepdaughter was located when they arrived at the home, the report says.
“The [expletive] psycho that calls 911 every time, I don’t know where she’s at,” Vigil replied, according to the police report.
Police had to separate Vigil and
Taos County Sheriff ’s Deputy Jake Cordova after Vigil started an argument accusing Cordova of “talking with his wife,” the report says.
One count in the indictment charges Vigil with intimidating or threatening his wife to keep her from reporting truthfully to law enforcement during a criminal investigation. Another count accuses him of intimidating a person likely to become a witness in judicial proceedings, alleging he had asked his stepdaughter to testify falsely or to abstain from testifying. Another accuses him of child abuse for allegedly putting three minor children in a situation that endangered their life or health.
Those counts are all thirddegree felonies.
The indictment also charges Vigil with misdemeanor battery against a household member, accusing him of unlawfully touching his wife “in a rude, insolent or angry manner.”
The second grand jury indictment refers to a March 31 incident in which Vigil allegedly threw a pair of shoes at his daughter at a store in Taos.
In that indictment, Vigil faces a third-degree felony charge of child abuse. He also is charged with interference with communications, a misdemeanor, for attempting to obstruct the 13-yearold girl from using a phone.
In June, Vigil’s former wife filed a motion for sole custody of their two children, ages 13 and 17, saying Vigil “has shown a pattern of anger as well as physical abuse in the past.”
On March 31, the motion says, Vigil was at the Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Taos, shopping for shoes with his 13-year-old daughter. The two got into an argument over which shoes the daughter wanted, and Vigil became angry, the motion says, and threw a pair of shoes at her, “striking her in the eye.”
“On footage obtained from the store, the minor child is seen covering her eye after the incident,” the motion says.
The girl later jumped out of Vigil’s truck and returned to the store and called her mother, ask- ing for a ride. The mother called police, according to the motion, and officers “observed swelling on the minor child’s eye.”
Vigil issued a blanket denial of the claims in a response.
Prosecutors typically have little trouble convincing grand jurors in the secret proceedings that there is enough evidence of a crime to take a case to trial. That’s a lower standard than “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” required for a conviction.
It’s unclear whether Vigil received a target letter notifying him of a grand jury hearing or if he notified city officials about the proceeding. Also unclear is whether Vigil testified before the grand jury, a practice defense attorneys typically advise against because a grand jury testimony, taken under oath, may be used as evidence against defendants at trial.
Vigil began working in law enforcement as a state police officer in 1997 but left the agency in 2011 after being arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. He wasn’t convicted and denied the charges, but still chose to resign. He later worked in the Rio Arriba County Sheriff ’s Office and in 2014 lost a crowded Democratic primary race for Taos County sheriff.