A First Judicial District Court judge extended a city employee’s temporary order of protection against Española Mayor John Ramon Vigil in a hearing on Wednesday.
The employee filed a petition for a restraining order on June 27, after a report she made alleging Vigil sexually assaulted her was publicly released. According to the report, the assault occurred in October 2024 at a restaurant in Santa Fe.
In a telephone interview, Vigil’s attorney Elden Pennington said the judge extended the temporary order because the mayor was served the order to appear the same morning as the hearing.
“All we did was ask for clarification from the judge on how certain situations are to be dealt with, such as council meetings and executive meetings,” he said.
In these cases, the employee will attend the meetings virtually, and both parties will conduct in-person work in separate buildings.
All parties were in agreement with this, Pennington said.
Vigil denies the allegations, he said.
The next hearing in the civil case is scheduled for August.
Pennington said Vigil did not receive proper notice of the hearing due to incomplete service.
An incomplete order was given to someone at the city, but not to Vigil, he said.
Neither Vigil or the victim attended a special council meeting convened by Mayor Pro Tem Peggy Sue Martinez on Wednesday night.
The only item listed on the agenda was for the council to enter executive session to discuss an employee complaint, according to the document posted on the city’s website.
Martinez said this was done in error and she requested for an action item to be included on the agenda, which would have allowed councilors to make a public vote based on their executive session discussion.
“What we’re faced with right now is we cannot act on this, this evening, but we can go into executive session to discuss the complaint,” Martinez said to the other councilors. “Now, that would require 72 hours from this evening to create another agenda and come back and take any action on this executive session.”
The council agreed to continue the meeting, but promptly adjourned when they reconvened from executive session.
As of Thursday morning, the city has not posted an official notice of another special session. The next regularly scheduled council meeting will be Tuesday.
No one at the meeting said who would be discussed during the executive session.
District 3 Councilor Felicia Archuleta-Toya did not participate in the discussion and appeared at the meeting virtually.
According to the police report filed by the victim, Vigil was on the telephone with someone referred to as “Fishy” when the assault occurred. Later that evening, the report states, Archuleta-Toya met the victim, Vigil and then-city manager Eric Lujan outside the restaurant.
Archuleta-Toya helped Lujan physically move Vigil away from the victim after he continued to touch her, the report states.
Archuleta-Toya gave Vigil a ride home, according to the report.
“I wanted to just let you guys know that I will be excusing myself from this meeting before you go into executive session, being that I provided a statement to the police on this matter,” Archuleta-Toya said during the Council meeting. “I do not feel that it is the right thing for me to enter into executive session with the rest of you.”
The victim filed the police report with New Mexico State Police on May 30. The original report released to the SUN did not contain any notes of an interview conducted with Archuleta-Toya.
According to online court records, no criminal charges have been filed against Vigil regarding these allegations.