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Montoya defends self, accuses Vanzi of racism, sexism
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.”
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I do not live in New Mexico, but I did live there for twenty-five years and I have known Dennis Montoya for almost twenty years. When I lived in New Mexico, Dennis and I worked on cases together representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service. When I needed an attorney to help me with an IRS case, I called Dennis on cases other attorneys were scared to touch. I think that is typical of Mr. Montoya’s style and why he is the target of a vicious smear campaign. As John Wayne said, when you are scared and saddle up anyway that is a sign of real courage. Dennis Montoya has always been a courageous attorney.
The last time I saw Dennis was a few years ago for breakfast in Colorado. Dennis was in town because he had enjoyed a major success at the Appelate level and our law school had invited him to speak. Does that sound like an attorney who is “a danger to the public”? Why doesn’t the Albuquerque Journal print that bit of information about Dennis Montoya. Has anyone looked at Linda Vanzi in the case that led her to file charges against Mr. Montoya. The Albuquerque Journal reminds me of my high school during the height of the Vietnam War where the discussion of any controverisal issue was banned from campus. When asked for a definition of “controversial”, the arch-conservative principal replied to laughter from the assembled student body, “any issue with two sides.” The Albuquerque Journal only believes there is one-side to this election.
The “public” should be questioning why certain vested interests are so terrified of Dennis Montoya being elected, they think nothing of attempting to destroy a decent and honest man. To paraphrase the philosopher Jerry Fodor, if the hornets are flying and someone gets stung, it is the hornets nest that needs to be investigated not the one getting stung.
Get out
Mr Montoya doesn’t get to be a public danger over an alleged anything. Especially not an alleged anything as abstract as “ethical concern”, where the allegation has to do with the details of how states recognize each other’s marriages.
I have no idea how that works and neither do you. I dunno if you are being paid to post about this, but I am not and I need to go work for a living.
But if you check the Associated Press newsfeed, you’ll see that the hearing on whether Mr Montoya should get public financing has been scheduled. June 2nd. The day after the primary.
Sheer happenstance of course. Of course it is.
Montoya is a danger to the public, Dana, because of his alleged lack of ethical concern. His claims of racism are unfounded, and hurdled at anyone who might oppose him. He feels that everyone in New Mexico is out to get the Hispanics. He is hurting his own campaign by making these claims, so that tells you about his lack of judgment. And who wants a judge that has poor judgment?
Read it, New Mexico. Believe it.
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Political-Hitman-Corruption-Hypocrisy/dp/1402208545
Confessions of a Political Hitman: My Secret Life of Scandal, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Dirty Attacks That Decide Who Gets Elected (and Who Doesn’t)
Personally, I would love to know who thinks this race is important enough to spend all this money on mudslinging and negative advertising. There must be some big case coming through the court system.
I think there is a reason why you are still confused — the allegations don’t make sense and only the allegations are getting any coverage. There’s definitely an inequity there.
As for the deeply cynical response of the incumbent, you know what, let’s go there.
“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 danger to the public???
Be for real. They need to go think up something that passes the giggle test. I’ve met the man.
What public would that be, do you think?
The public that likes the status quo? Or the public that gets arrested for contempt of cop? When the system decides to eat you for lunch, a lot of people consider Montoya the guy to call. Notice that when a fellow attorney was cited for contempt of court, it was Montoya he called and that Montoya went to bat for him even though he got himself in some hot water doing it. Who *you* gonna call, hmm?
“A hearing has been set. ”
Yeah — about that.
Ever notice that in recent elections somebody always gets investigated, and it’s usually somebody who is trying to look out for the little guy? And then the investigation just sort of goes nowhere. Once the election is over, of course.
“He wasn’t able to follow basic public financing rules… ”
You mean the one that said he could not spend his own money on this campaign?
“…that numerous other candidates have done…”
I want to know how you do a rule. And who in New Mexico has successfully followed the rules for public financing.
According to him, he’s the first to try, and the rules are badly flawed. The coverage of this race has had nothing to say on this subject, nor about the HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS the incumbent has raised from people whose livelihoods depend on her goodwill.
“… is possibly facing very serious consequences…”
sure. Talk to me about it after six months after the votes are counted. It will have oozed off into the sewers where these allegations belong.
” ..for repeated unethical acts…”
Yeah, he raised his voice at a judge who was committing an injustice. Maybe not nice, but many people *like* a lack of apathy in the guy that’s defending them. Next.
“… that have been widely publicized in the press…”
Yeah, the incumbent’s campaign staff has made sure of that, has they not. Of course, a hundred thousand dollars buys plenty of attention and lots of teabagger flacks and “opposition researchers”.
“…and now wants to divert attention away from his self-inflicted controversies…”
They don’t look real self-inflicted from here. They look to have been inflicted by a hundred thousand dollars in campaign contributions from lawyers who practice before the incumbent’s bench.
From Mr Montoya’s website:
How would you feel if you were in court and knew that the opposing lawyer had contributed money to the judge’s campaign fund? This is not an improbable hypothetical question, but could be a commonplace occurrence in the 21 states (including New Mexico) where judges must raise money to campaign for their seats— often from people with business before the court. Watch the Bill Moyers Journal episode entitled “Justice for Sale,” originally aired February 19th, 2010, and then join Dennis W. Montoya, New Mexico’s first publicly financed statewide and first publicly financed judicial candidate in telling your friends and family about Public Campaign Financing for Judges. Keep our courts and our judicial campaigns clean!
http://www.denniswmontoya.com/
PS — I am not affiliated with the Montoya campaign, which has been so systematically starved of funds that it couldn’t afford to hire me if it had thought to do so. Nobody asked me to make this post and its contents are my own.
I am a sometime journalist and student of the American political scene who has spoken out of sheer flipping outrage at the state of journalism, which used to an honorable check and balance to prevent exactly this kind of perversion of the truth.
Somewhere out there George Orwell does not know whether to laugh or to cry
I would LOVE to know they inside reason for all of this hatred. Is this the only reason that Montoya got in the race? What actually happened with that case?
As for the claims of racism it reminds me of the Ben Lujan’s rant against John Arthur Smith. In order for us to get rid of racism in our society, it needs to be eliminated from EVERYONE’s vocabulary. It shouldn’t be tolerated just because someone is Hispanic.