Like outgoing chief, chosen successor has faced charges of battery
Gallant cleared in ’09 after judge ordered counseling
Eric Gallant, who became Española’s acting police chief this week after the former chief was indicted on domestic abuse charges, has faced similar problems himself.
Court records show Gallant in 2008 received a suspended jail sentence and was ordered to attend counseling in a case in which Santa Fe police booked him into jail on two counts of aggravated battery against a household member and a charge of interference with communications.
Española Mayor Alice Lucero said Saturday that Gallant, who was second in command at the Española Police Department, will lead the department while a criminal case proceeds against Matthew Vigil, who had held the chief ’s job since May.
Vigil retired this week after a Taos County grand jury charged him with abuse of a household member and interference with communications. A misdemeanor battery charge accuses Vigil of throwing a pair of shoes at his 13-year-old daughter and a misdemeanor charge of interference with communications accuses him of preventing her from
using a telephone after an argument at a shoe store in Taos. No pleas have been entered to the charges.
Mayor Lucero on Tuesday did not return phone messages and an email seeking comment on Gallant’s record. The New Mexican on Tuesday afternoon left a message on Gallant’s work voicemail but did not receive a response. Nobody picked up a call to another number listed for him in public records.
Legal problems surrounding leaders of law enforcement agencies are not new to the community. Former Rio Arriba County Sheriff Tommy Rodella, an Española Valley resident, is serving an approximately 10-year term in federal prison for violating the civil rights of a motorist by terrorizing the man with a pistol in a case of road rage and then having him arrested.
The Rio Grande Sun in 2014 reported that the Española Police Department had hired Gallant after he had worked for the city’s fire department for six years. Prior to that, he worked for eight years at the New Mexico State Police Department, according to the newspaper.
According to a court filing by his former wife, state police in 2005 terminated Gallant “for excessive use of force on a female civilian during an arrest.”
The statement was part of an emergency motion the ex-wife filed in December 2015 seeking sole custody of their two children, then ages 18 and 11, saying the 11-year-old daughter had “discussed in detail her concerns for her emotional and physical wellbeing while she is in custody of her father.”
“Mr. Gallant has established a history of physical and emotional abuse,” stated the motion, which said Gallant in the spring of 2014 “spanked and rough-handled” his daughter, who was 10 years old at the time.
In a response written without an attorney, Gallant disputed the allegations and said he has been nothing but a “loving and caring father, supporter and mentor” to his daughter.
Gallant wrote that the Children Youth and Families Department did not issue findings of abuse and closed the case on a complaint his former wife made in May 2014. Gallant admitted in the motion that he disciplined his daughter by spanking her.
The former wife’s motion also cited Gallant’s 2007 arrest in a Santa Fe case in which online records show he initially pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of aggravated battery against a household member and one misdemeanor count of interference with communications. He was also charged with two petty misdemeanor battery charges, the records show.
Gallant in May 2008 pleaded no contest to the petty misdemeanor battery charges, records show, while the counts of aggravated battery against a household member and interference with communications were dismissed.
Santa Fe County Magistrate David Segura sentenced Gallant to 360 days in jail — 180 days each for two battery charges — but suspended all prison time in lieu of a conditional discharge on a probation plan, records state. Segura ordered Gallant to attend counseling, saying all charges would be dismissed if he successfully completed probation. All charges against Gallant were dismissed in February 2009, according to court records.
A state district judge did not grant the ex-wife’s emergency request for sole custody of their children; Gallant was ordered to attend counseling for anger management issues in a revised custody plan.
Gallant’s pastor testified Gallant was an honest parent who was not a threat to his daughter, according to a revised order issued in April 2016.