The Pride of the Patriarchs

The Revenge of the Matriarchs

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."--Proverbs

July 15, 2005

Sex-Ed 101 for Adults
When Patsy Cisneros, wife of the redoubtable Carlos, recently hammered her straying husband for spending time with another woman at a Moly Mine sugar shack, the event became the stuff of the tabloid press. Local, state, and national media reporters signed up for the Hardware Digest hammerfest. Time magazine quoted the outraged wife as saying, “It was for a damn good reason that I attacked him. He was found with another woman.” Women in Taos cheered Patsy’s response to the senator’s alleged dalliance. Though Senator Cisneros pointed out that he and his wife were separated, the general public didn’t buy his defense and defeated his bid for re-election to the board of Kit Carson Electric Coop. Both Patsy and Carlos filed for divorce.

The Albuquerque Journal North’s sex-ed reporter Martin Salazar frequently writes stories about the peccadilloes of Taos politicos, police, and public servants. While each case needs to be evaluated on its merits, some cases, as all the defendants will tell you, have been filed by plaintiffs who may be more interested in the deep pockets of government risk-management insurance providers than in the principles of justice. According to an investigator who has consulted on matters of risk management, local elected officials in Northern New Mexico are loath to participate in sexual-harassment workshops. During the last decade or so, several women have successfully sued and won settlements from the County, Town, and D.A.’s office for a variety of harassment claims in Taos.

It is not uncommon for women in Northern New Mexico to experience repression at the hands of the patriarchy in public, the workplace, or at home. Regardless of fact, motive, or character—or whether or not aided by the press corps in taking revenge via the hammer and tongs of gossip and smear—the women below symbolize mythic Clytemnestras or Medeas, whose tragic acts of revenge focused attention on social injustice in ancient Greece. While the occasional Patsy Cisneros cuts to the chase and grabs a handy hammer, today more and more women have turned to the state and federal courts to redress injustice.

Whether the men are goats or scapegoats, the stories of sexual harassment and worse suggest social mores in Northern New Mexico are in need of analysis and change. Some of the accused mentioned below are professional friends, whom the writer respects and likes. It’s as painful to write about as it is to read. These examples are meant to underscore a deeper problem in a community where politicians give lip service to public health, safety, and welfare but act otherwise—or in some cases have refused to confront abusive conditions and prosecute perpetrators.

Schools
Journal North reporter Salazar reported that at the Mesa Vista Schools in Ojo Caliente, part of Taos County, a 28-year-old male schoolteacher formed a relationship with a 15-year-old female student, eventually marrying her. In this case, he had the approval of her family, who claimed they preferred an educated adult as companion for their daughter to a gang-banger or a dope addict from the valley. He was arrested, arraigned, and released, pending a DNA test to determine whether he is the father of the child of his 16-year-old wife, whom he married in Las Vegas, Nevada—after she became pregnant. Initially, school officials covered up the case, but eventually some were forced to resign.

On Monday, June 6, 2005, a Journal North story (“Sex Abuse of Girl Ignored, Suit Says”) by ace sex reporter Salazar tells of “three Questa Junior High students [who] repeatedly humiliated a female classmate by molesting and sexually harassing her at school for two years while school officials sat back and did nothing.” Salazar writes that a civil lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of the child. According to the Salazar story, “the principal, counselor and teachers failed to act even after the student—in the seventh and eighth grades when the abuse was taking place—pleaded for help.”

Defendants in the federal lawsuit include the Questa Independent School District, former superintendents Pauline Anaya and Nelson Lopez, teachers Paul Chavez and Tina Cisneros, counselor Felipe Blea, and Benjamin Gurule, who was principal of the school until about July of 2004.

Law Enforcement
On Feb. 24, 2005, former Town of Taos cop Joel Cordova was indicted on 44 counts of child rape, which occurred while he was a policeman during the mid-to-late ’90s, according to Salazar’s Feb. 26, 2005, report. Cordova was investigated by Taos Police Department Detective Barry Holfelder and the New Mexico Attorney General’s office. Back in the early ’90s, according to news reports, Cordova was allegedly involved in a domestic-violence incident. After Congress passed the Brady Bill in the mid-’90s, Cordova, because of the domestic violence charge, was eventually forbidden to carry a gun and was assigned to the Taos Recycling Department, where he worked for a few months until he resigned, according to reports.

At the Taos County Sheriff’s Office, Lt. Eddie Martinez was accused of sexual harassment by a former female deputy and a former female office worker, according to news reports. Eddie’s brother, Charlie, the sheriff, has been accused of retaliation against both women. One of the women, former deputy Lori Garcia, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Lt. Martinez, saying, according to reports, that she suspects unknown parties of taking a shot at her during a traffic stop while she was still a deputy. The state police have yet to complete an investigation of the incident, according to Sheriff Martinez. Apparently, Garcia did not get a license-plate number or issue a call for backup during the alleged attack. Melissa Romero, former Sheriff’s Department employee, filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department, saying Lt. Martinez made sexual innuendos to her. Romero has accused the sheriff of retaliating by not hiring her for a deputy’s job. The sheriff has pointed out that Romero wasn’t hired as a deputy because she misrepresented her work record to the County’s hiring team. That complaint is being heard by the federal government’s EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) adjudicator.

In late 2004, a claim previously filed against former Town cop Eddie Lucero was reportedly settled for a high five-figure sum, estimated at $90,000, according to Horse Fly sources. Lucero allegedly manhandled the mother of a murder victim in the fall of 2002, who was then taken to a local hospital. Lucero was advised to resign or be subjected to an internal affairs investigation by the Town’s (now former) Chief of Police, Tom Lorenzen. Today, Lucero works as a code enforcement officer for the Town’s Planning Department.

Town of Taos
On Feb. 6, 2004, Planning Director Sarah Backus resigned. The much praised and dedicated employee said at the time, “I loved my job.” After settling a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Town and collecting $33,000 in damages, Backus still was willing to continue working for the Town but asked for some “flexibility in my conditions of employment” regarding compensatory time for late-night-meeting attendance. But “flex time” is not part of the Town’s personnel policy and procedures, so she left.

On Jan. 31, 2005, former Town employee Elaine Sandoval, through her attorney Alan H. Maestas, filed a 17-page, 12-count Complaint for Damages in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Named as defendants were Assistant Town of Taos Manager Tomas Benavidez; Town of Taos Director of Human Resources Patricia Trujillo; John Wentz, Town of Taos Police Department officer; and the Town of Taos.

Public Defender’s Office
Martin Salazar in his Journal North article of June 25, 2005, writes that the state’s Public Defender’s Department settled a sexual harassment complaint for $50,000 in the spring of 2003. The complaint was filed against Alan Maestas, when he worked as an attorney for the Public Defender in Taos, by a former department employee, Sylvia Martinez (who was not a lawyer as stated in the Journal). According to Salazar, Martinez filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Public Defender’s office in August 2004, alleging retaliation and civil-rights violations because she was dismissed shortly after filing the sexual harassment claim. Ironically, Maestas—who denies Martinez’s claims and who left the office in late 2002, long before the settlement or alleged retaliation by the Public Defender—represents a number of Taoseños in federal court, both men and women, who are seeking redress for alleged civil-rights violations perpetrated by the Town of Taos, including sexual harassment.

What Leadership?
If you look at the Town, County, and schools as a whole from the perspective of the federal court and risk-management insurance providers, the pattern of behavior suggests an atmosphere of social and sexual relations with a disproportionate amount of unacceptable behavior. Regardless of the claimants’ motives, whether crass or righteous, the local battle of the sexes among adults is not the best role model for families and children. Regardless of “he said, she said” testimony, members of our community might consider using these very public claims as a jumping-off point to discuss deeper, more hidden problems that begin in the home with domestic violence and child abuse.

At a school-board meeting a few years ago, the now former school superintendent in Taos couldn’t bring himself to say the word “sex” in public while discussing a teen clinic. Yet, in what can be characterized as a progressive program, Taos High School already had instituted a day-care center for teen mothers. How did those girls get pregnant? Can you say, “Sex?”

A plethora of local non-profit groups, organized primarily by women, like Community Wellness and Community Against Violence, recognize and confront deviant sexual and violent behavior daily. Some women, however, like some men, including politicians, have internalized the male paradigm of patriarchy and are guilty of defending or covering up sexual harassment, child abuse, and domestic violence by husbands, boyfriends, uncles, fathers, and sons.

After the murderous summer of 2003, community leaders held well-publicized meetings that raised our consciousness about the violence within our community—even as some politicians whitewashed the problems and turned sessions into campaign opportunities. Despite the grand claims of law enforcement and the D.A.’s office, no gang task force was ever established. No local leader—then or since—has actually stood up in public and spoken plainly about the problem. Somebody needs to say simply, “Hey guys, don’t shoot your brother, don’t insult your sister, don’t have sex with children. Ladies, don’t cover up for your male relatives and friends.” Our community, unlike the public-relations-oriented Bush administration, needs to engage in honest conversation and reality-based politics at home and in public.