PED faces whistleblower suit
Former official says he was pressured to fire worker over unfounded allegations, then forced out of his job
A former state education official has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging he was dismissed from his position in 2018 for not firing a recently hired worker who had been the subject of sexual harassment accusations at another agency.
Adrian Apodaca, the former director of the New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, claimed in his lawsuit, filed in the state’s First Judicial District Court, that former Public Education Secretary Chris Ruszkowski and legal counsel Aaron Rodriguez had fired him in retaliation for his refusal to terminate Richard Martinez, whom he had hired as the division’s general services manager.
According to the complaint, Martinez had been disciplined in 2018 by the state Department of Transportation in response to claims of sexual harassment by two women and was demoted from his job as that agency’s director of procurement and facilities management when he applied for the opening in Apodaca’s division.
The complaint said Ruszkowski and Rodriguez used uncorroborated claims of sexual harassment against Apodoca to justify his firing.
The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, under the umbrella of the Public Education Department, operates a state and federally funded program that helps people with disabilities find suitable employment.
The complaint names the state, the Public Education Department, Ruszkowski and Rodriguez as defendants, and claims they violated the state Whistleblower Act. The lawsuit seeks punitive, compensatory, liquidated and double damages.
Public Education Department spokeswoman Judy Robinson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Ruszkowski, who headed the department for the last year and a half of former Gov. Susana Martinez’s term, also declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleged Ruszkowski pressured Apodaca to fire Martinez in response to a KRQE-TV story about the allegations against him. The story said Martinez had been hired by the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation despite allegations by three women that he had sexually harassed them and that two felt pressured into having a sexual relationship with him.
Apodaca refused to fire Martinez, according to the lawsuit, saying there was no legal basis to do so because Martinez had disclosed the allegations during his job interview and the division’s human resources division had investigated the matter before approving his hire.
Martinez was terminated for résumé fraud in early November 2018, according to the complaint.
Ruszkowski placed Apodaca on leave that month and fired him a month later, when allegations of sexual harassment against Apodaca surfaced, according to the lawsuit.
Rodriguez and Ruszkowski directed the investigation into the sexual harassment allegations against Apodaca, the complaint claimed, which led to his dismissal — not his refusal to fire Martinez.
Wayne Suggett, Apodaca’s attorney, said Apodaca was never disciplined for hiring Martinez. The sexual harassment investigation focused on a photo purported to be Apodaca’s genitalia that was shared between a couple of female employees, Suggett said, adding no one could confirm it was of Apodaca and no witness ever corroborated Apodaca had harassed anyone.
“Mr. Apodaca didn’t introduce that [picture] in the workplace,” Suggett said. “It came through some bizarre third party.”