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Victim’s father comes to Martinez’s defense
Susana Martinez
The father of a victim whose case is featured in Diane Denish’s newest attack ad on Susana Martinez is coming to Martinez’s defense after Democrats asked him to denounce the way Martinez’s district attorney office handled the case.
Joe Novak’s daughter was the victim in the Hector Montes case, one of two cases featured in the ad from the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. I wrote in a commentary published Wednesday that the ad makes an unsubstantiated leap in claiming that Martinez, Denish’s GOP opponent, “allowed” child predators to avoid the sex offender registry.
In that case, Montes was charged with one count of molesting a girl at Las Cruces High School but agreed in 2007 to a plea bargain in which he instead admitted to contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The conviction didn’t require him to register as a sex offender.
Novak, in a statement released by Martinez’s campaign, said he did not want his daughter to testify in the case and the plea agreement was in his daughter’s best interest. Here’s his full statement:
“My daughter was the victim in the Montes case. I was contacted yesterday by the Denish campaign and asked to say that I felt I was done wrong by the Doña Ana County DA’s office. I told the Denish campaign that is not true and that the prosecutor did what was in the best interest of my daughter. In that case, I had moved my daughter to Nevada to a rehabilitation school to help her recover from her issues. I did not want to take her back to New Mexico and drag her through a trial and communicated that to the DA’s office when we discussed how to proceed. The plea agreement was in my daughter’s best interest.”
What Cervini failed to mention was that Novak had been contacted by the state Democratic Party – a fact that was confirmed by the party’s spokesman, James Hallinan. Hallinan also said the party “has been contacted by, and has contacted, individuals in Doña Ana County who have been on the wrong side of Ms. Martinez’s 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office.”
“Ms. Martinez opened the door by putting victims on TV. It is only fair that individuals who have been failed by Ms. Martinez have the same opportunity to tell their story,” Hallinan said. “We will certainly respect everyone’s privacy and we expect the same from Ms. Martinez.”
Victims supporting Martinez’s handling of cases
Hallinan provided no information about specific victims who have “been failed” by Martinez’s office. By contrast, Novak is the third victim or family member of a victim to speak positively during the gubernatorial campaign about the way Martinez’s office handled a case.
Last week, the Martinez campaign responded to Denish’s attack ad with its own ad featuring Jessica, a victim in another sexual abuse case. And during the primary, the Martinez campaign came out with an ad featuring the family of Carly Martinez, a New Mexico State University student who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 1998.
Novak is also not the only parent of a victim whose case is featured in Denish’s ad to speak in favor of plea bargaining his child’s case. The mother of one of three victims in the other case featured in the ad – involving defendant Shawn Bohannon – said during a plea bargain hearing that she was “very thankful” for the plea agreement because she did not want her daughter to have to “relive all of this stuff again,” according to audio from the hearing provided by the Martinez campaign.
The Martinez campaign has maintained that, in the cases featured in Denish’s ad and other sexual abuse cases from that time, Martinez “fought for the maximum penalty in each case that the facts and circumstances would allow.” The Martinez campaign said it “doesn’t seem Denish understands all of the circumstances that surround these cases, such as the toll a criminal trial and testifying can take on a sexual abuse victim.”
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Poor Jessica! I can’t believe that Martinez would use a child victim for political gain. She won’t put a child victim through a trial; however, she will exploit a child victim, so she can become the Governor of Texas. I mean the State of New Mexico.
Martinez can’t have it both ways. Either families of victims are fair game for campaigns – or they’re not. Martinez has now put two victim families on TV -
This raises an interesting point. Maybe instead of contacting this father, the Democratic Party should have contacted the thousands of Las Cruces area families who now are left wondering whether this creep lives next door.
This is all a distraction to a very simple point: These men should be on the sex offender registry – plain and simple. That’s why the registry exists.
Sorry, “primary” should read “pre-primary convention.”
I have been disappointed by the handling of the DPNM ever since Brian Colón resigned as executive director to run for Lt. Governor. This was very bad handling on their part. Gonzales should never have fired Josh Geise, that was his first mistake. Holding the primary at a gambling casino, in an inadequate sized conference room, was another. Now we have this heavy-handed trampling on the feelings of molestation victims, which is doing harm to the Denish campaign.
The Carly Martinez ad was produced and paid for by the Susana Martinez campaign for political gain.
@ sugar….
Let’s see….who is using victims here…Martinez or Denish? Did Diane Denish call the victims involved in the two cases she used in her ad to find out if they wanted to be part of her political campaign?
Sounds like in the Montes case that Mr. Novak, father of one of the victims, said NO.
But Denish used the case anyway. I guess it didn’t matter what the victim’s family thinks.
Now let’s look at Martinez. The Carly Martinez family comes forward and wants to do a pro-Martinez ad. The family of Jessica also agrees to do a pro-Martinez ad. Then Mr. Novak exposes the NM Democratic Party for trying to get a victim’s family to say negative things, but instead it backfires on Denish and he comes out in strong defense of Martinez.
So sugar, exactly who is using victims for political reasons?!
Sounds like you’re just upset that victims and their families are grateful to Susana Martinez for DOING HER JOB!
sugar, I do believe that Susana has had ALL of those victims and their families permission because they, more than anyone know about her integrity, drive, compassion, and ability to get a job done.
.Shame on Martinez for using a victim’s family for political reasons.
Thank you Ramirez for finally pointing out that the Denish Campaign has taken more out of state and questionable donations throughout her tenure (which includes non-election years) than Susanna could possibly hope to raise in this election cycle. You would think that Democrats would not so easily point fingers at a candidate accepting a large donation from Texas, with all of the donations that both Richardson and Denish have accepted over the years from numerous individuals and corporations with ties to investment bond scandals to say the least. If these voters were really concerned about campaign contributions ruining state government, why don’t they investigate donors for to their own party?
DontTaxMeBro!, you’re exactly right. I just deleted the comment. Occasionally one slips through that should not be published. My mistake.
Shame on the Denish for dragging this family through the mud for political reasons, then denying even contacting them! Denish is running scared!
And you know what? I seriously don’t think Perry’s money can even be compared to the money that Denish has in her account. In order to have a competitive race, Susana has to do whatever she can to battle the bulging coffers of Denish and the Democratic “pay-to-play” machine. She has been filling her account for quite some time now, even before her sudden break with Gov. Richardson. It would be interesting to know how much of that money was raised by him alone.
Heath, I’m really surprised you would publish Chimayo’s comment because he’s suggesting that Susana paid the victim’s father. Isn’t this a violation of your policy against personal attacks and libel? When I read that, it sounds more like the Topix forum on the Sun-News which does not have your high standards.
The only ones who are “being failed” here are New Mexicans who want an honest debate about the future of our state. It’s too bad that Diane Denish is playing the same games as she did back in 2002 when her back was against the wall against Jerry Sandel in her Lt. Governor’s race. The people of Farmington will tell you to this day how ugly she got against a good and decent man, and fellow Democrat I might add. She’s already proved she will do anything and say anything to win.
Cervini should explain more what he means when he says that Martinez has “opened the door by putting victims on TV”. I have worked with victims of crime and I know that victims want to speak when they want justice. These victims see an injustice being perpetrated against Susana Martinez by the Democrats! They are speaking out because they WANT to.
It doesn’t take much to find people that have “been failed” by Diane Denish. Just look around you and ask “What has Diane done for YOU lately”?! The silence is deafening!
I LOVE it!!! The Denish campaign and the state Democratic Party are SO desperate for an issue that they are shooting themselves in the head trying to CREATE an issue. At this rate, Susana just needs to keep positive yet, defending her great record. Now, Susana needs to talk about cutting taxes, giving tax breaks to small businesses that hire people out of work, rewarding educators whose students achieve higher test scores, penalizing or firing those whose students score poorly, and creating a right to work state and getting rid of so much, or all of the union control throughout the state and in the city governments.
We have Diane and the Dems against the ropes, now we do the “rope a dope.”
Given the complex set of circumstances, personal and legal, associated with these type of cases, using them to advance a political campaign insults the intelligence of people trying to make informed choices. Please Dianne take the high road, stick with associating Martinez with homophobes in Texas, evil environment wrecking oil companies and intolerant theocrats, but leave victims of child abuse alone.