Ex-supervisor takes deal in workplace abuse case

Battery charge dropped in exchange for plea to charge of interfering with communication

A former state Human Services Department supervisor is serving a one-year sentence of unsupervised probation, the result of a plea deal in a case in which he was accused of punching a subordinate in the face and preventing her from phoning for help during a workplace dispute over her job performance.

A Santa Fe police officer agreed to drop a battery charge against Donald Ortega of Las Vegas, N.M., in exchange for his “no contest” plea to a charge of interfering with communication. The plea bargain allows Ortega to have the conviction removed from his record if he completes probation without violations.

Ortega, 51, told The New Mexican in October that he didn’t punch Ursula Montano, 25, during the August confrontation but admitted taking her cellphone from her and hanging up a desk phone when she tried to call his supervisor.

A police report says Montano told an investigator that Ortega unplugged wires to her computer when she tried to send an email to his supervisor, repeatedly hung up another office phone that she tried to use, took away her cellphone, blocked her path when she tried to leave, punched her in the

face and then fled the office building after she was able to dial 911 behind her back from a conference room phone.

The report states that she also said Ortega held her wrists and threatened her while she was trying to call 911, saying “I’m going to hurt you if you do it.”

An investigating officer noted that Montano had red scratch marks on the inside of her wrists and a bruise under her left eye when he arrived to take her report, and the officer noted that Ortega later said by phone that he might have inadvertently scratched Montano when they both reached for her cellphone.

Since the incident, Montano has obtained a restraining order against Ortega, who oversaw employees in the Human Services Department’s Central Field Office in Santa Fe.

Ortega was placed on paid leave immediately following the incident. According to court records, he is no longer employed by the state, but it wasn’t clear Thursday when or how he left the department, where Montano still works.

Montano’s attorney, Linda Hemphill, said Thursday she finds the state’s handling of the case “appalling.”

“It’s disgusting, in the present climate of women being attacked or abused, that we have people turning a blind eye to it or not being that sympathetic,” Hemphill said, “and that a plea deal would be made without even contacting her.”

Santa Fe Police Department spokesman Greg Gurulé said in an email Tuesday the plea deal was hastily arranged to avoid having the case dismissed altogether after the victim failed to attend a pretrial conference.

“If the victim is not present for trial the case will be dismissed,” Gurulé wrote. “In this case, instead of losing the case completely the officer under [district attorney] guidance “secured at minimum a no contest on the case.”

But Hemphill said her client was never notified of the hearing. Online court records indicate notice of pretrial hearing was sent to the defendant and his attorney, as well as the prosecuting police officer, but not to the victim or her attorney.

Gurulé said Santa Fe police Officer Brandon Deets, who made the deal, consulted with an assistant district attorney who happened to be working in the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court on the day of the hearing. But Gurulé said the officer could not remember the name of the assistant district attorney.

District Attorney Marco Serna said Thursday he could not comment on the case because he was not familiar with the details.

Serna said New Mexico law does require victim notification in certain types of cases. Serna said simple battery — a petty misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of six months in jail — is not one of the crimes that requires victim notification by law.

But, Serna said, notifying the victim before entering into a plea deal is “good practice.”

Gurulé said Deets “was advised to consult with the victims in future cases and plea agreements.”