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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Friday, July 30, 2010
Paving Firm May Sue Sheriff
By Kiera Hay
Journal Staff Writer
Advantage Asphalt and Seal Coating has added Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano to the growing list of people it says it may sue.
The paving company, at the center of a criminal investigation of Santa Fe County road works operations, said in a tort claim notice sent Thursday that the Sheriff's Office illegally took computers, cash and other items during a raid of Advantage properties earlier this month.
Solano also "made defamatory and derogatory public statements regarding Advantage" and "published statements made against Advantage by speaking publicly and confidentially to members of the local and television media," according to the notice.
"The Sheriff made these statements, not to inform the public and not in service of a legitimate law enforcement purpose, but to advance the interests of his office," said the notice, which was written by Advantage Asphalt's attorney, Santa Fe City Councilor Matthew Ortiz.
A tort claim notice was also sent Thursday to Santa Fe County Sheriff Detective James Yeager, who filed the search warrant affidavits for Montoya's properties.
Advantage Asphalt has already sent tort claim notices to the Santa Fe County Commission, former County Manager Roman Abeyta and current Public Works Director Robert Martinez.
Solano declined to comment. He did say, "We're not going to be distracted by things like this, and we're going to continue our current investigation."
Tort claim notices are used to signal an intent to file a lawsuit. Ortiz said Advantage is considering filing claims against Solano and Yeager that include defamation of character, malicious prosecution, violation of property rights and negligence.
Detectives with the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office searched Advantage's office in Rancho Viejo and two homes owned by the Montoyas about three weeks ago.
Advantage Asphalt requested soon after that the search warrants used for the raids be quashed, arguing that some of the items seized by investigators weren't authorized by the warrant. A District Court judge ruled last week that the Sheriff's Office was within its bounds, and Ortiz issued a statement soon after announcing that the company intended to pursue litigation.
Ortiz, in Thursday's tort claim notice, said Solano and Yeager "illegally confiscated documents, materials, currency and computers from the Montoyas' home and from Advantage's office."
Notably, the Montoyas are missing a laptop computer, Ortiz said. He also said that $400 has gone missing from the around $111,000 in cash investigators took from a safe in Montoya's bedroom.
The Sheriff's Office has acknowledged the cash discrepancy, saying the money was found in bundles and that investigators, during the initial count, mistakenly relied on Montoya to tell them how much cash was in each bundle. They say the laptop was never taken.
Also on Thursday, Ortiz filed three public records requests with Santa Fe County. Ortiz said he wants: documentation related to payroll, overtime and other information for Sheriff's Office employees working on the Advantage case; information on contracts and payments made to consultants and contractors "that relates in any way" to Sheriff's Office employees working on the case; and information on "chain of custody," custody of property, execution of search warrants, seizure of property, and public statements concerning ongoing investigations.
Advantage's road work contracts with the county — worth about $7 million — are part of a Sheriff's Office probe. Investigators are checking allegations of poor work, the county being billed for its own materials and manpower, procurement irregularities, and possible collusion of county employees.
The Montoyas have donated thousands of dollars to elected officials at the county and city and have close ties to some.
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