Lawsuit questions state settlement
Complaint: Gambling agent who got $200K owed governor, who denies claim
The state paid at least $200,000 in a settlement with a former member of Gov. Susana Martinez’s security detail, but a new lawsuit filed by current and retired law enforcement officers alleges the agent had been removed from the job after he was caught gambling on duty.
It also suggests the payout was ostensibly to allow him to reimburse Martinez, who the officers claim loaned him thousands of dollars. The allegations are just one part of the lawsuit filed this week against State Police Chief Pete Kassetas claiming he harassed and discriminated against employees while enjoying protection from the governor.
A spokesman for Martinez, Ben Cloutier, said Thursday there is an ongoing investigation into allegations at the state Department of Public Safety, but that Kassetas’ status as head of the police force had not changed.
Cloutier has denied that Martinez wrote a check to the former member of her security detail, Ruben
Maynes, to cover gambling debts.
And he said the governor had never received any payment at any time from Maynes.
Maynes’ attorney, Sam Bregman, declined to comment when asked whether Maynes had ever borrowed money from Martinez.
The claims are one of the stranger parts of the lawsuit, which was filed this week in a state District Court in Santa Fe and has sent politically charged allegations flying in depicting broader problems in the culture of the state police agency. Citing an anonymous official at the Department of Public Safety, the lawsuit alleges it is Kassetas’ “knowledge of the governor’s secrets, in general, and the Maynes situation, in particular, that has kept the governor from allowing [the department] to take disciplinary actions against him.”
Maynes, now 44, resigned from the state police in September 2013. The Martinez administration told the Albuquerque Journal at the time that he had left in good standing. But he faced mounting scrutiny as one of two state police officers who racked up overtime, holiday pay and other expenses while accompanying the governor’s husband, Chuck Franco, on a hunting trip to Louisiana.
One of the former law enforcement officers who filed the lawsuit, Julia Armendariz, took command of the security detail later that year.
The lawsuit says Martinez repeatedly told Kassetas she wanted Maynes back on the detail. “Kassetas questioned Armendariz about why the governor was insisting on bringing back Maynes and whether they were having an inappropriate relationship,” the lawsuit stated.
According to the lawsuit, Martinez told Armendariz that she had loaned Maynes at least $20,000 she received from her father’s death to help him and his family.
By March 2014, Maynes was back on the job, according to the lawsuit, which says Armendariz complained “his reported on-duty gambling and failure to live within his means were in violation of [state police] policy.”
The lawsuit said that Maynes was later caught gambling at the Route 66 Casino while on duty and removed from the detail around the end of May 2014 “despite the governor’s protests.”
Court records show Maynes filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection in New Mexico last year.
In his bankruptcy filing, Maynes reported receiving a $200,000 settlement from the state of New Mexico in 2015, the year after he was allegedly removed from the governor’s security detail.
Reached by phone Thursday, Maynes said he would have to speak with his attorney before answering questions.
Bregman declined to comment on the former officer’s relationship with Martinez or the governor’s relationship with his family. Some of Maynes’ relatives, including his wife, have worked for the Martinez administration. And he declined to comment, too, on the allegations regarding Maynes’ gambling.
Cloutier, the governor’s spokesman, did not answer questions Thursday about whether Martinez had ever loaned money to Maynes or his family. He also did not respond to a question about how she knew his family.
When news of the lawsuit broke, though, Cloutier said the administration takes allegations of misconduct seriously while also suggesting that some of the claims in the lawsuit were “outlandish” and “made of whole cloth.”
A spokeswoman for the state police said Wednesday that the agency typically does not comment on pending litigation. Beyond the allegations involving Maynes, the lawsuit charged Kassetas engaged in lewd behavior, such as “mooning” officers on one occasion, and that he discriminated against some officers such as Armendariz by unfairly passing them over for promotion while purportedly taking little action on misconduct by other personnel.
Armendariz, for example, claimed she was involuntarily transferred from the governor’s security detail and replaced by a less-experienced male officer. She retired last year after 20 years in the department.
Monica Martinez-Jones, a state police sergeant in Roswell who also joined the lawsuit, alleged she was retaliated against in part for reporting a lieutenant for time card fraud. And Michael Ryan Suggs, who had been deputy chief before retiring in February and is the third plaintiff in the lawsuit, said he raised concerns about allegations that Kassetas had discriminated against women.
But the lawsuit alleges that “any attempts to thwart Kassestas’ objectionable conduct were squelched by the governor.”
According to the lawsuit, Martinez said she had loaned Maynes at least $20,000.