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DA: State police investigating sexual assault allegations against Gonzales

The Santa Fe New Mexican - 2/17/2018

Feb. 17--New Mexico State Police are investigating sexual abuse allegations dating back more than 30 years against Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales, who vehemently denied the accusations Friday and called them part of a "disgusting political attack."

The allegations were lodged by the mayor's first cousin, a Santa Fe woman who told state police in Albuquerque last week that she was the victim of Gonzales' abuse between 1980 and 1985, or from the time she was 8 years old until she was about 14. The woman is now 45.

Mayor's rising star falls back to earth

Javier Gonzales, whose term at City Hall wraps up in less than a month, has skipped out on a pair of elections since the fall -- one of which many expected him to win, and another that many were surprised he entered in the first place.

Gonzales was born in 1966, which means he would have been about 14 years old when the alleged abuse began.

A state police spokesman said the case is currently under investigation and that officers will be interviewing any potential witnesses or victims, though the time that has passed since the alleged incidents occurred will make it more challenging to delve into.

"As with any allegations the New Mexico State Police investigates, Agents and Officers will be thorough in identifying all the pieces of the puzzle," Officer Ray Wilson said in an email. "While understandably investigating 30-year-old allegations will be a challenge to investigators, they will approach this case with the same attention as they do all of their cases."

District Attorney Marco Serna said his office received the "initial complaints" against Gonzales from state police and is in the process of reviewing them.

"They have addressed that there may be, potentially, statute of limitations issues," he said.

Wilson said the specific charges, if any, will be determined by the investigation.

"If a crime is identified to have occurred, the district attorney will be consulted at that point in time to specify a course of action," he said.

In a statement, Gonzales called the allegations against him "slanderous and hurtful to me and my family."

"They are entirely without merit or truth," he wrote.

The allegations of sexual abuse against Gonzales have been swirling for years but didn't generate much attention until his cousin filed the report last week.

The police incident report didn't identify a suspect, calling the matter only "a high-profile case involving a political entity."

Gonzales said in his statement that he has not seen a report or "even been contacted by the State Police."

"This is only meant to do one thing, drag me through the mud without due process," he wrote. "It's one part of a disgusting political attack pushed by people like Roger Rael and Santa Fe Voice."

Rael, a vocal critic of the mayor who has previously attended council meetings armed with a gun, accused Gonzales of sexually assaulting a family member during a live and televised City Council meeting last month.

"I'd like to know if these allegations are true," Rael shouted from the podium. "Yes or no? Answer the question."

Rael did not return a message seeking comment Friday.

Santa Fe Voice is a small but vocal group that first formed under a different name, Santa Fe Power, which opposed the mayor's proposal to impose a tax on sodas and other sugary beverages to fund preschool programs -- an idea that voters flatly rejected at the polls. The group rebranded itself after some of its members posted racist memes on Facebook.

A member of the group did not respond to a request for comment, but the group posted a statement Friday on Facebook claiming that "it is our understanding that there is more proof of these allegations coming out soon."

"In the meantime, Javier Gonzales can counter attack these groups of concerned citizens and individuals like Roger Rael with lies and deny the allegations all he wants," the group said in the statement. "The on going investigation will unravel the truth, hopefully soon."

The report of alleged sexual abuse was filed six days before Gonzales announced he was ending his bid to be the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, saying his heart wasn't in the race.

"At this stage in this campaign, where people are going out to counties around the state, asking delegates to show up and support them, I just felt like, without that full commitment in my heart, I really couldn't step forward in good conscience," Gonzales said last week.

His words were a far cry from what he said before he dropped off his nominating petitions at the Secretary of State's Office only a week earlier.

"Since we started, more than 100 New Mexicans every day signed our petition," Gonzales said in a Facebook video. "We're excited about the momentum that we're growing, and we're looking forward to being out in communities all over this state to talk about this new path forward, to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to elect a Democratic governor who represents our values, to have a lieutenant governor on the ticket with them who has demonstrated the courage and who's been battle tested to fight for those Democratic values, and I'm looking forward to visiting with all of you as to why I should be that person."

When asked whether the allegations factored into Gonzales' decision to drop out of the race for lieutenant governor, his longtime political adviser and friend, Scott Forrester of Albuquerque-based Bosque Strategies, replied, "Absolutely not."

Gonzales' accuser declined to comment and referred inquiries to her attorney, Blair Dunn, the son of State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn Jr.

In a statement, Blair Dunn said the woman is cooperating with law enforcement at this time.

"Until law enforcement completes their investigation, neither [the woman] nor any of her family have any public comment and respectfully requests that members of the press respect their family's privacy during the investigation," Blair Dunn said in the statement.

Allegations of improper sexual contact against Gonzales surfaced in January on a website. A link to the website, which was taken down a day or two later, was sent to several news organizations, including The New Mexican.

The website contained text messages the woman purportedly sent to Gonzales about the alleged abuse, as well as a recording between the accuser and her mother, who is Gonzales' aunt.

In the recording, the accuser's mother said she and Gonzales' mother, who is her sister, discussed the alleged abuse during a nearly two-hour conversation.

"I always felt ... like I was trying to get things from getting out of hand," the accuser's mother says in the recording. "Like I told you, the more people involved, the worse it gets."

"No, but she needed to know," responded the accuser, who claimed in the recording she had told her mother about the allegations some 20 years ago.

The allegations first appeared publicly in Gonzales' divorce documents in a 2010 report by a court clinician who interviewed Gonzales and his ex-wife, Consuelo Carrillo.

At the time, Gonzales and Carrillo, who had been married about nine years and separated in May 2009, were feuding over the parenting and custody of their two daughters.

"Mother brought up concerns pertaining to father's alleged history of sexual abuse as a teen, both as a victim and a perpetrator," the report states. "Father responded to these allegations by stating he has no knowledge where they may have originated."

The court clinician wrote that Carrillo tied her concerns to an alleged incident in which Gonzales put his arm around his oldest daughter, bit her ear and told her he loved her. Carrillo also alleged that Gonzales' oldest daughter claimed she didn't feel safe around her father.

But the court clinician raised doubts about Carrillo's claims.

"These details give the impression that mother may be preparing the 'environment' of the case for the allegation of sexual abuse of" one or both daughters, the report states. "Making such allegations often has the effect of severing all contact between a parent and the child(ren), and typically results in somewhat lengthy investigations, the casting of suspicion and doubt on the alleged perpetrator, and exposure of the child(ren) to emotionally difficult, invasive interviewing processes," he wrote.

Gonzales was eventually awarded full custody of both of his daughters, who often accompany him to public events and appear in pictures with Gonzales looking happy.

Contact Daniel J. Chacón at 505-986-3089 or dchacon@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @danieljchacon.

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