September 26 – An Española school board member says a misdemeanor charge filed against him Wednesday by Española police is “political,” and he provided video footage that appears to support his claim.
Ruben Archuleta, 51, a member of the Española Public Schools board and the Northern New Mexico University Board of Regents, is charged with a minor misdemeanor charge of “making a false report of a criminal code violation.” according to a filed criminal complaint. in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court.
Archuleta told police that another man threatened him and his wife after a school board meeting in June. After reviewing surveillance footage, police said Archuleta made it up.
But Archuleta provided surveillance footage that appears to contradict the charges against him.
“It’s all political,” Archuleta said in an interview Thursday.
Police charged Lucas Montoya, 46, of Española, in July with two counts of assault, based on allegations by Archuleta and his wife that Montoya threatened them both after the June 6 school board meeting.
Archuleta told police that Montoya told him, “You can run, but you can’t hide.” [expletive]’, and that Montoya later approached Archuleta’s wife as she sat in her car in the school parking lot and said, ‘I’m going to get you, [expletive],” police wrote in a complaint against Montoya.
Archuleta said Thursday that he also remembered Montoya saying, “You better pay attention [expletive] back.”
But the charges against Montoya were dismissed by police in early August.
Española Police Department Detective Dwayne Epling — who subsequently filed charges against Archuleta — wrote in that complaint that Montoya’s wife met with Epling and Española Police Chief Mizel Garcia and showed them the surveillance video of the school board meeting.
“Upon reviewing the surveillance video of the school board meeting, I, along with Chief Garcia, have determined that at NO time did any type of assault occur by Lucas Montoya toward Ruben Archuleta or his wife,” Epling wrote.
Epling wrote that surveillance video showed Montoya never followed Archuleta into the parking lot or knelt by his wife’s car as she had said.
Archuleta said the video “couldn’t show that he’s not threatening me” because there is no audio. He provided The New Mexican’s surveillance video of the June 6 meeting with the timestamps officers reference in the criminal complaints. The video shows Archuleta leaving the building around 6:15 p.m., followed shortly after by a man in a black shirt who he said is Lucas Montoya. The man walks up to a white car that Archuleta said was his wife’s car and appears to pause next to the driver.
The meeting took place following the resignation of the district’s superintendent, Holly Martinez. The board voted that evening to appoint Deputy Superintendent Myra Martinez as acting superintendent.
Garcia did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, I just wanted to document it,” Archuleta said of the alleged threats. “Nobody told me it was ever rejected.”
He said Española police did not contact him before charges were filed against him on Wednesday.
