The children knew Martinez as Jay.
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Gov. Susana Martinez has ordered an immediate review of whether New Mexico school districts are conducting timely criminal background checks of new employees in light of revelations that a high-level Albuquerque district administrator was hired despite facing child sex abuse charges in Colorado.
As of now, Valentino’s future with the school district is unclear, though calls for his resignation grow louder each day. He previous worked as a technology administrator for Denver Public Schools.
“This allegation is so false and over-the-top that we will be filing a complaint with the state bar against the lawyer and challenge her partner – who is an elected official – to agree to resign from office when he is unable to substantiate this absurd claim about the governor”, Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez said.
By taking the job in Albuquerque, Martinez violated terms in his pretrial release, which required him to receive permission from the court before traveling outside of Colorado, let alone moving permanently to take a high profile public job. One of the children told police that “Jay [Martinez] has been touching people”, according to an affidavit quoted in part by NBC.
The Denver sex abuse case does not involve children related to his employment with Denver Public Schools, district attorney’s spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said. But she said there’s been no word as to whether Martinez will turn himself in today.
The Governor’s office says the departments will provide a joint report and analysis on their findings once the district policy analysis and compliance review effort are complete. He was not required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet after his 2013 arrest, a standard practice prior to trial.
Reportedly, the interim assistant superintendent for human resources for Albuquerque Public Schools had warned Valentino on several occasions that Martinez’s background check was still incomplete.
Martinez shouldn’t have even been in New Mexico, according to terms of a bail agreement that forbade him from leaving Colorado, where he’s scheduled to stand trial on the sex abuse charges October. 9.
No phone listing could be found for Martinez, and a message seeking comment from his attorney, Michael Meaux, was not immediately returned.
Martinez has tasked compliance investigators from the state education and public safety departments with launching the across-the-board review of personnel policies.
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Valentino, the Albuquerque superintendent, was selected for the superintendent post in June, and the school board plans to vote Thursday on whether he should be dismissed.
