Convicted molester Gregor faces new suit
Woman who was student in former teacher’s class in in 2004-05 in Cordova alleges abuse
Gary Gregor, who has been sentenced to 114 years in prison after being convicted of raping and abusing girls at an Española elementary school, is facing a new civil lawsuit by a former student who says he sexually abused her during the 2004-05 school year at the now-closed Mountain View Elementary School in Cordova.
Attorney Carolyn M. “Cammie” Nichols filed the lawsuit Friday in state District Court against Gregor and Española Public
Schools for civil rights violations, Title IX violations and negligence on behalf of the woman.
The lawsuit states that Gregor would hold the student, who was in Gregor’s combined third and fourth grade class, in his lap, sometimes holding a book over them to conceal their pelvic regions, as well as pulling her between his legs and rubbing her legs and back.
Gregor, 63, got his start in Española Public Schools at Mountain View Elementary, which served students in Cordova and surrounding communities like Truchas. After a teacher at the school reported Gregor’s behavior with the girl to Principal Felix Gonzales in February 2005, Gregor was put on paid administrative leave. The incident was reported to the Children, Youth and Families Department and investigated by the school counselor, according to the lawsuit.
Four older female students had reported Gregor’s behavior to the teacher who reported him, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit describes ways in which Gregor gave the girl special treatment. He had made her the class “line leader,” who was responsible for leading the other students out of class for lunch. He also allowed her to pick up papers from students and grade their work, pass out pencils and give candy to the other students, according to the lawsuit.
After he was reported, Gregor became angry and aggressive toward the girl, the lawsuit states, and no longer allowed her to have the special privileges of being the class “line leader” or handing out items to her classmates.
“[The plaintiff] was injured and has suffered and continues to suffer damages, including but not limited to: severe
emotional distress, anguish, suffering, humiliation, psychological injuries, indignities, loss of enjoyment of life, deprivation of constitutional rights, invasion of bodily integrity, and other incidental consequential damages,” the lawsuit states.
Gregor went on to teach at Fairview Elementary School in Española. He was convicted in December 2018 of molesting two of his fourth grade students there more than a decade ago and was sentenced to 108 years in prison. He was sentenced to another six years in prison earlier this month after he was found guilty of molesting a Fairview Elementary second grader in 2007.
He also is expected to stand trial later this year on charges of molesting two of his students at Agua Fría Elementary School in Santa Fe during the 2003-04 school year. Several of his former students have a civil case pending against Gregor in federal court, in which they accuse him of sexually abusing them in 2004.
Issues with Gregor’s behavior with his female students were first documented in 1994, the lawsuit states. While he was a teacher in Utah, he was accused of sexual misconduct with three of his elementary-aged students. Although he received a letter of reprimand from the Utah Professional Practices Advisory Commission, it did not explicitly say that he had been accused of sexually abusing students. Instead it stated that he lacked professional judgment, according to the lawsuit.
He went on to apply to Santa Fe Pubic Schools in 1998 and was hired in 2000.
In 2004, an employee at the Museum of International Folk Art notified the district that a museum docent had seen Gregor exhibit inappropriate behavior with a student during a field trip. Although an investigator corroborated accusations of inappropriate physical contact between Gregor and his female students, Gregor resigned and was given a neutral recommendation by the district.
He was hired by Española Public Schools for the 2004-05 school year. A Fairview Elementary School parent reported Gregor to the Española Police Department in April 2009, saying his daughter had told him Gregor sexually abused her.