Second suit brought against state police chief
New Mexico State Police Chief Pete Kassetas — recently accused in a lawsuit of sexual harassment and other misconduct — has been named a defendant in a new suit, this one filed by a former state police officer who is engaged to a plaintiff in the first case.
The latest lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the state District Court in Santa Fe by former state police Officer Jessica Turner, was filed under seal, so the spe-
cific allegations she is leveling against Kassetas are unclear.
But online records show Turner is accusing Kassetas of violating three state laws: the Human Rights Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Fraud Against Taxpayers Act.
Some Fraud Against Taxpayers Act cases may be filed under seal, but other types of cases usually require an order from a judge to be sealed.
District Judge David Thomson, who is assigned to the case, told The New Mexican on Thursday he’d have to look into the matter further before he could say whether the rules regarding a seal were followed in the case.
“The court, after consultation with the clerk’s office, needs to determine whether the case was correctly filed under seal because of potential commingling of the claims,” Thompson said.
Turner’s attorney, Timothy L. Butler, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday evening.
Turner is a former state police officer who resigned in April after an investigation was launched into whether she had received special treatment in February from Otero County sheriff ’s deputies who gave her a ride home instead of arresting her after pulling her over on suspicion of DWI.
She’s also the fiancée of former state police Deputy Chief Ryan Suggs, one of the three plaintiffs — along with former state police Lt. Julia Armendariz and state police Sgt. Monica Martinez-Jones — who filed a lawsuit in June accusing Kassetas of having “mooned” staff members, referring to female employees as “bitches” and sending a photo of a man’s testicles to a top-ranking female official at the Department of Public Safety.
That lawsuit mentions the investigation into Turner’s DWI incident, saying Kassetas used the episode to strike back against Suggs for challenging Kassetas in other instances.
Kassetas put Turner on leave, released inappropriate information about her to the media and failed to follow standard procedure in investigating the incident, Suggs alleged in the lawsuit.
“Kassetas, who had shown great leniency towards male officers and non-whistleblowers, threw the book at Suggs’ fiance and ultimately moved to terminate her employment,” the suit says.
New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Lt. Elizabeth Armijo said Thursday the agency had not seen Turner’s lawsuit and does not comment on pending litigation.