Judge: Ex-teacher to be tried separately in sex abuse cases
The attorney for a former schoolteacher accused in several criminal cases of molesting multiple students in both the Santa Fe and Española school districts wants to keep two Rio Arriba County cases separate so jurors can consider the credibility of each witness without knowing the man faces multiple accusations.
Shelby Bradley argued Tuesday during a motions hearing that the Rio Arriba County cases against Gary Gregor — in which two young women allege they were molested by him more than a decade ago when they were fourth-graders in his class in an Española school — should not be joined, saying if jurors know there are multiple accusers, they’ll be more likely to judge Gregor on his character rather than on the credibility of the witnesses.
District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed, ruling that the cases should not be joined, as proposed by state prosecutors.
But the judge decided that in one of the cases, jurors will be allowed to know about both sets of allegations and hear testimony from both witnesses.
In that case, a prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office argued, it’s important for jurors to know that Gregor is accused of the same alleged grooming behavior with both girls because the state needs to prove his actions were intentional and for the purpose of sexual gratification.
Otherwise, the state argued, it would be too easy for Gregor to claim the contact he is alleged to have had with the students was accidental.
Gregor has similar criminal charges pending against him in Santa Fe County, where he is accused of molesting two girls at the former Agua Fría Elementary School during the 2003-04 school year.
Gregor has also faced civil lawsuits over the alleged abuse. The New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority has paid $7.5 million to settle two suits brought on behalf of women who say Gregor molested them at Fairview Elementary, a school in the Española district.
In September, three new plaintiffs filed a third civil complaint alleging they, too, were abused as children in his classroom at Fairview.
In all three suits, the former students accuse Gregor of abusing them physically, sexually, mentally and emotionally between 2006-09.