The attorney representing Northern New Mexico College is asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit a former employee filed, seeking damages.
Mark Komer, from Santa Fe’s Long, Komer & Associates, P.A., requested on Dec. 12, that a federal court judge dismiss the 10-count complaint for damages lawsuit. The suit was filed Nov. 3 in state district court, by adjunct professor Annette Rodriguez’s Santa Fe attorney Brian Harris.
Shortly after the suit was filed, Komer moved the case to federal court because he contends the lawsuit represents a civil action that would be best litigated under federal jurisdiction. However, Rodriguez believes Northern’s attorney moved the case in hopes of getting it tossed on a technicality.
“I think they thought they had a better chance in federal (court) because federal (court) will throw out cases on technicalities, whereas district (court) is a little more lenient with small errors and issues,” she wrote in a Jan. 9 email.
Her lawsuit names six former employees: Ricky Serna, Nancy Barceló, Pedro Martinez, Anthony Sena, Mario Caetano, John Waters and current employees: Brandi Cordova, Patricia Trujillo, Richard Bailey, Matthew Martinez, Ryan Cordova, Andy Romero and the Northern New Mexico Board of Regents, individually.
The suit doesn’t specify if Harris is referring to the current regents or the group of regents that governed the school in 2014, when his client was let go. He did not respond to a request for clarification as of presstime.
Rodriguez said she filed the lawsuit because the former and current employees violated her United States Constitution First Amendment protections to free speech and free association, when they took down a website she hosted that criticized the administration. They also banned her from the school.
Her attorney, Brian Harris, also believes school officials breached the contract in which they entered with Rodriguez, to teach during the 2014 summer semester, when school administrators abruptly withdrew the contract for undisclosed reasons. Furthermore, she alleges school officials defamed her character with libelous and slanderous statements meant to damage her academic career.
Rounding out her complaints are allegations that school officials violated the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act and committed assault and battery against her.
She said the assault and battery took place during a scheduled visit to records custodian Brandi Cordova’s office, to inspect the requested records.
“Four males appeared and loitered at the door outside of the office,” the complaint states. “These State employees and NNMC (Northern New Mexico College) staff were: Defendants Mario Caetano (assistant basketball coach), Defendant (Ryan) Cordova (basketball coach), Defendant (Anthony) Romero and Defendant (John) Waters. As she exited the office, the four large men surrounded her and partially blocked her path. She was jostled and prodded as she tried to proceed to the exit of the building.”
Rodriguez filed several records inspection requests before and after her tenure with the school, in an effort to shine a light on some of the perceived dysfunction, such as misuse of grant funds.
Harris and Rodriguez are asking the court for pre- and post-judgment interest on the compensatory damages they are seeking for economic loss, emotional distress and the injuries to her person and reputation.
However, Komer believes the case should be dismissed for several reasons, including lack of service. State law requires those who believe they were wronged to file a notice in accordance with the state’s Tort Claim Act.
The Act, when it applies, gives those with complaints, up to 90 days to give the offending governmental agency or institution notice of the alleged infraction. Failure to do so could result in one losing his or her right to seek recourse.
Komer also cites the long-established doctrine of immunity that states government officials aren’t liable for civil claims “insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”
However, for Harris, it is clear the defendants were aware that their actions violated his client’s civil rights.
A court date has not been set in that case.
Velasquez, Northern
appeal court’s decision
The New Mexico Court of Appeals has granted attorneys representing parties in Melissa Velasquez v. Northern New Mexico College, an extension to file docketing statements in the appeals both parties filed.
The appeals are in response to District Court Judge Francis Mathew’s Sept. 27 decision.
Northern’s attorney is appealing the court’s order to reinstate Velasquez as a school employee and the $475,664 amended judgment.
Mathew’s order called for Northern to find a comparable position for Velasquez, who served as the El Rito Campus director.
However, at the time of the decision, Bailey would not speculate what role Velasquez could assume at the school, pursuant to the court’s order.
“The reinstatement is part of the appeal, so it is premature to talk about where we would put her or what we would do,” he said. “I will say at the end of the litigation, if that is the result, it would be on the College to find a commensurate role. We don’t have a vibrant El Rito Campus, but we will.”
Velasquez’s Albuquerque attorney Christopher Moody is appealing the judge’s decision because he believes the court erred when Mathew cut her monetary award from $676,402 to $475,664.
“He reduced the emotional distress damages from $180,000 to $90,000 and he didn’t give a reason for that,” Moody said in a phone interview, shortly after the verdict. “The jury awarded two years and 10 months, which under the law, is doubled. He cut it to one year because he said it was too speculative beyond that.”