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Sixth Person Accuses Former Santa Fe Mayor, Boys & Girls Club Official of Abuse

By Amanda Martinez
Santa Fe New Mexican
March 18, 2020

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/sixth-person-accuses-former-santa-fe-mayor-boys-girls-club/article_6a7355ae-6932-11ea-b0ea-c3aeb825fddd.html

A sixth lawsuit has been filed against the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe, accusing former executive director and onetime Santa Fe Mayor Louis Montano of sexually assaulting a boy in the 1970s and ’80s.

The man is the sixth person to accuse Montano of sexually grooming, abusing and manipulating individuals since April 2019. The group includes five men and one woman who say Montano abused them during his tenure at what was then called the Boys Club of Santa Fe.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Albuquerque-based law firm Hall & Monagle LLC, which specializes in representing survivors of child sex abuse and has brought cases against Catholic organizations and the Boy Scouts of America.

Attorney Brad Hall said Wednesday that lawyers have yet to take depositions or conduct discovery in any of the six cases.

“We have a situation where we are in discussions with representatives with the Boys Club and Boys Club regional and national [offices] and those discussions have kind of been interrupted by coronavirus,” Hall said.

Montano, who died in 2008, began working for the club in the 1950s after leaving a Catholic seminary, according to the lawsuit. He was the organization’s executive director for 27 years as well as being involved in Catholic organizations and the Boys Scouts of America.

The lawsuit states the plaintiff spent a great deal of time at the Boys Club as a child, teenager and young adult, and that Montano began grooming, manipulating and abusing him around 1972, when he was 6 years old.

The abuse went on until about 1988, or when the man was 22, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, Santa Fe city councilor and chief professional officer at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Fe, could not be reached for comment.

 

 

 

 

 




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