Trujillo touts polygraph results
Legislator accused of sexual harassment continues to lose support
State Rep. Carl Trujillo said Friday he had passed a polygraph test about accusations that he sexually harassed a lobbyist several years ago, offering the report as vindication while he campaigns in a contested primary election.
“The test came back conclusively that I am telling the truth,” Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, told radio station KSWV. But the claim also echoes past sex scandals. “I recall Roy Moore taking a polygraph test and touting that as proof positive,” said Levi Monagle, the lawyer for Trujillo’s accuser, Laura Bonar.
Monagle referred to the Alabama Republican Senate candidate accused of sexually assaulting girls years ago. Moore lost his election, the first time in 20 years that Alabamians sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.
Trujillo’s polygraph test seems unlikely to bring an end to the controversy surrounding him.
Experts, such as those with the American Psychological Association, have long been skeptical of the science behind so-called lie-detector tests.
Trujillo said he would share the results of his test after they were verified by more experts.
He said the test was administered by a veteran polygraph examiner, but it was not part of the Legislature’s investigation into the allegations against him.
In an open letter last week, Bonar said Trujillo had sexually harassed her on multiple occasions while she was lobbying for Animal Protection Voters. She wrote that Trujillo had touched her inappropriately and propositioned her.
Bonar contends that, after she rebuffed his advances, Trujillo proceeded to cut off communication with her organization as it worked on a bill during the 2014 legislative session.
Trujillo said she is lying. He said he never harassed Bonar or anyone else.
Elected in 2012, Trujillo has been a staunch advocate for animal welfare legislation and continued to work with Bonar’s group.
He carried a bill for Animal Protection Voters this year to charge fees to pet food companies as a way to spay and neuter more dogs and cats. Trujillo’s measure cleared the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez.
Animal Protection Voters supported Bonar after she made her charges public. Its leaders said they believed her account and called on Trujillo to resign. Two colleagues then said Bonar had told them of the allegations years earlier.
In the ensuing days, Trujillo has faced a slowly mounting backlash.
On Thursday, the New Mexico Building Trades Council — a coalition of labor unions — pulled its endorsement of him.
And on Friday, the political action committee for a major teachers union followed suit. NEA-New Mexico’s EdPAC said “attacks by powerful people on individuals who raise allegations of misconduct create a hostile environment inhibiting individuals from speaking out.”
Both the trades council and the education committee said they are not endorsing either Trujillo or his primary opponent, Andrea Romero.
Four fellow Democrats in the House have called on the legislator to step down, including Rep. Deborah Armstrong, who said two other unidentified women have made claims to her of being sexually harassed by Trujillo. Neither woman has made a formal complaint to the Legislature about Trujillo. And one woman who works around the Legislature told
The New Mexican that Trujillo touched her inappropriately, grabbed her and made a vulgar statement about her body at a social event during the 2016 session.
Trujillo said the claims are lies and has argued that the allegations are a political attack tied to Romero.
“Every single person injecting themselves into Andrea Romero’s campaign are all from out of district,” Trujillo told KSWV.
The District 46 race has become something of a proxy in a bigger battle over statewide issues and local concerns.
Trujillo, for example, has drawn opposition from some liberal groups over his vote in 2015 to ban most abortions after a pregnancy has progressed past a certain point.
And Romero argues that his stance on water rights in the Pojoaque Valley has only worsened divisions between Native American and non-Native residents.
Earlier in the week, leaders from the state House of Representatives tasked a committee of four legislators with investigating Bonar’s allegations. Whether the group will finish its work before the primary election on June 5 is unclear.