Dennis W. Montoya
Embattled appellate judge candidate Dennis W. Montoya is defending himself against formal allegations of misconduct in a posting on his Web site and accusing the judge he’s trying to unseat, Linda Vanzi, of having sexist and racist motives for bringing charges against him.
The state Supreme Court’s disciplinary board has asked the high court to immediately suspend Montoya from practicing law. The board accused Montoya of misconduct including fraud, deceit, lying to the court, having a conflict of interest, failing to adequately represent a client and failing to adequately account for and distinguish client funds from his own – allegations that stem from a 2008 complaint filed by Vanzi, who Montoya is trying to unseat in the June 1 Democratic primary.
Montoya now faces nine additional complaints, according to the disciplinary board’s Friday filing seeking Montoya’s immediate suspension.
The posting on Montoya’s Web site calls him a “respected Civil Rights lawyer in New Mexico” and states that he “faces racist and sexist attacks from Vanzi, who obviously has the support of New Mexico’s Chief Disciplinary Counsel.”
Calling himself more experienced than Vanzi, Montoya says the judge’s “only recourse, it seems, is to throw mud in a series of hate mails in which she talks trash about Montoya but says little or nothing about herself.” Vanzi has sent out two mailers (here and here) and put up a Web site highlighting the allegations against Montoya.
The charges against Montoya
The charges that stem from the complaint filed by Vanzi relate to a case Vanzi heard when she was a district judge in Albuquerque.
The case followed the 2002 automobile accident death of Cody Utley, an oil rig worker in the Four Corners area. Montoya represented Utley’s girlfriend, their son and the girlfriend’s daughter from another relationship, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Vanzi, who oversaw a settlement between Utley’s family members and the manufacturer of the tires on Utley’s vehicle, appointed a guardian for Utley’s son after questions arose about who was Utley’s legal heir, the Journal reported.
Montoya ultimately settled claims in the wrongful-death lawsuit without ensuring that money was set aside for Utley’s son.
Among the charges brought by the disciplinary board are that Montoya lied to Probate and Worker’s Compensation courts in claiming that Utley and his girlfriend were married and that the girlfriend’s daughter was also Utley’s daughter; that he lied to the guardian Vanzi appointed to represent Utley’s son; that, in representing both Utley’s girlfriend and their son, he had a conflict of interest; and that he failed to account for and safeguard clients’ money.
Montoya’s defense
In the Web site posting, the Montoya campaign states that Utley and the boy’s mother lived in Utah “for a sufficient time to form a common-law marriage,” and that a probate judge in Farmington signed an order upholding their marriage – but a judge later determined that the marriage “was not sufficiently solemnized.”
“Whether the marriage was sufficiently solemnized remains disputed in the Court,” the posting states. “However, it is clear from the Court record that Mr. Montoya did not simply make up the idea that Tresa Kosec was the lawful wife of Cody Utley.”
In addition, the posting states, if the judge was right that their marriage wasn’t sufficiently solemnized, “then the bulk of the money that Dennis W. Montoya got from the people who caused Cody Utley’s death should go to Mr. Utley’s child.”
Addressing a charge related to the fee agreements in the case, the Montoya campaign acknowledged that “there was some confusion during the execution of the fee agreements.” He said they “could have been drawn up better, to be sure, but the fact is that no one lost any money.”
A hard-hitting allegation
Montoya concludes with a hard-hitting allegation.
“Vanzi’s tactics, are disgraceful, hate-filled, racist and sexist, designed to denigrate and punish Mr. Montoya for engaging in the democratic process, and to rob the Hispanic community of a candidate, and completely unworthy of an individual who professes to be of judicial caliber,” the posting on Montoya’s Web site states.
Montoya did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation of how he backs up his claims of racism and sexism against Vanzi. I’ve also asked Vanzi’s campaign for comment.
If I get comment from either, you’ll read it here.
Update, 2:50 p.m.
Vanzi’s campaign manager, Sandra Wechsler, said this:
“The Disciplinary Board just recommended to the Supreme Court that Dennis Montoya be suspended immediately from practicing law because he could be a danger to the public. A hearing has been set. He wasn’t able to follow basic public financing rules that numerous other candidates have done, is possibly facing very serious consequences for repeated unethical acts that have been widely publicized in the press, and now wants to divert attention away from his self-inflicted controversies by accusing Judge Vanzi of being racist and sexist. We’re even more disappointed in Mr. Montoya now.”