SANTA FE (NM)
Santa Fe New Mexican [Santa Fe NM]
July 27, 2024
By Gabrielle Porter
Two of the most prominent law firms involved in suing the Archdiocese of Santa Fe on behalf of victims of clergy sex abuse over the years announced new lawsuits in Southern New Mexico earlier this month.
The new civil suits involve allegations of sexual abuse of a young boy and a young girl by two priests in separate incidents in the 1980s. One of the accused priests was defrocked in 2007, and the other is deceased.
The suits were jointly filed earlier this month in state 3rd Judicial District court by Huffman Wallace & Monagle and The Davis Kelin Law Firm against the Dioceses of El Paso and Las Cruces, respectively, as well as against individual congregations. Until the early 1980s, when the Diocese of Las Cruces was founded, the Diocese of El Paso oversaw some territory in Southern New Mexico.
Lawyers at both Albuquerque-based firms said while it’s not their first time filing cases on behalf of victims in Southern New Mexico, the vast majority of their cases have been in the northern half of the state and have named the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which in 2019 filed for bankruptcy to allow it to settle a multitude of child sex abuse claims.
Attorney Levi Monagle told The New Mexican the presence of the infamous Servants of the Paraclete facility in Jemez Springs — a retreat center that offered treatment to priests with problems ranging from alcoholism to pedophilia, before releasing many to serve in parishes around the state — suggests it’s logical that Northern New Mexico might have more victims than other regions.
But Monagle said he believes there’s also another factor at play: a lower level of public consciousness about predatory priests in Southern New Mexico compared to the rest of the state.
“I think that there are probably still a lot of victims carrying things in secret in Southern New Mexico,” said Monagle, who estimates he’s represented about 250 sex abuse survivors, about 25 of whom have claims against the Diocese of Las Cruces or of El Paso. “People just don’t know as much about this problem down south as they do in Northern or Central New Mexico, because there was, over the course of decades, a lot of attention paid to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.”
Ellen Geske, an attorney at The Davis Kelin Law Firm, agreed.
“That’s what we’ve noticed,” Geske said. “Whenever the case has happened in Santa Fe, there was this flood of information. … Everybody found out about it.”
The bankruptcy proceedings in particular, Geske said, seemed to spur a large response from the community.
“I think it caused a lot of people to come forward who didn’t realize that they had redress for things that had happened years ago, and then all of a sudden had this knowledge that they could come forward and get some type of recovery,” she said.
Monagle’s and Geske’s firms aren’t the only ones branching out from Santa Fe clergy sex abuse cases. Attorney Paul Linnenburger, known in Santa Fe for his involvement in the case involving former Catholic school health aide and convicted predator Robert Apodaca, is representing a plaintiff in a clergy sex abuse case against the Archdiocese of Denver.
Linnenburger agrees Northern New Mexico probably does have a relatively higher concentration of cases, both for historic reasons, like the presence of the Servants of the Paraclete, and for cultural ones.
“I don’t think it’s a mistake that the hotbeds, so to speak, are Irish Catholic Boston and Hispanic Catholic New Mexico,” he said. “They are deeply, deeply Catholic and revere their local Catholic leaders. … There [are] definitely deference issues at play, and I think the church can really get away with things.”
But Linnenburger said in New Mexico the legal landscape is also “significantly friendlier to survivors” of clergy sex abuse.
While some states have passed “window statutes” — laws that allow for sex abuse claims to be filed during a time window when the statute of limitations for those claims would typically have passed — New Mexico never has, Linnenburger said, “because they don’t have to.
“There are ways under our current laws to bring these claims,” said Linnenburger, adding he credits both the legal framework and aggressive attorneys who have advocated for victims over the years. “There have been concerted efforts to push the boundaries.”
In Colorado, by contrast, lawmakers passed a window statute in 2021, but it was later struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court. Texas is a challenge for plaintiffs in clergy sex abuse cases as well because of its much stricter statute of limitations, Linnenburger said. That matters here because the Diocese of El Paso oversaw some territory in Southern New Mexico until the early 1980s, when the Diocese of Las Cruces was founded.
“The Archdiocese of Santa Fe constantly has to worry about debt and ultimately declared bankruptcy,” Linnenburger said. “I don’t think El Paso is ever going to declare bankruptcy because their claims are going to be limited to Southern New Mexico.”
The suit against the Diocese of Las Cruces and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Hobbs alleges the Rev. Dennis Tejada sexually abused a young Hobbs girl over a period of about four years, starting when she was about 11 or 12 in 1984 or 1985. The girl is not named in the complaint.
Tejada was defrocked in 2007, five years after being accused of abuse in incidents in 1973 and 1989.
The Diocese of Las Cruces did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The suit against the Diocese of El Paso and the Las Cruces-based Shrine and Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe — which was part of the Diocese of El Paso at the time — alleges the Rev. Joseph Angeli on multiple occasions around 1980 sexually abused an altar server, a boy of about 10 years old from the community of Tortugas.
“Fr. Angeli used his status and substantial power and authority as a priest to groom Plaintiff for sexual abuse, and to convince Plaintiff that the abuse was ‘God’s secret,'” the filing said.
The young boy is also not named in the complaint. Angeli retired in 1981 and died in 1993, according to Fernie Ceniceros, a spokesman for the Diocese of El Paso.
Both lawsuits allege the respective dioceses and parishes had a duty to enforce policies to protect vulnerable parishioners and their negligence allowed the priests to victimize the plaintiffs.
Ceniceros said in an email Friday the church is aware of the lawsuit.
“The Diocese takes all claims of alleged sexual abuse seriously and will work diligently to cooperate with all parties involved in the lawsuit and ensure that justice is served in the lawsuit,” Ceniceros wrote.
Ceniceros added that diocese leaders encourage people to go to law enforcement if they know about any crime or misconduct by clergy, church employees or volunteers.
“Historically, the Diocese has worked diligently to implement and train clergy, employees, and volunteers on safe environment practices to ensure the protection of children at parishes and youth programs in the Diocese,” he wrote. “All who work in any ministry involving children in the Diocese must attend and be certified in safe environment training as part of the Diocese’s child protection protocols.”
Both priests are included in the Diocese of Las Cruces’ list of priests the church has deemed “credibly accused” of abuse.
Angeli was accused in 2015 of abuse involving incidents that took place from 1960 to 1963, according to the list.