Only on ABC-7: Details of Dona Ana County treasurer sex scandal

A Dona Ana County public official is the subject of a sex scandal investigation.

ABC-7 is the only media to get the official report of what happened between county Treasurer David Gutierrez and a subordinate, female employee last August.

ABC-7 first reported Sunday, an employee accuses Gutierrez of offering her a $1,000 for sex. The report from Universal Investigation Services begins with a story.

A document examiner at the Gutierrez’s County office, titled “Employee #1,” said in the report she was headed to the post office when her boss, Gutierrez told her he was tagging along.

The report says she drove there, he drove back, choosing to take side roads back to the office. She told the investigator, “I thought this was odd.”

At that point, the report said, Employee #1 and Gutierrez, who was also interviewed by the investigator, both admit that’s when he offered her $1,000 if she would spend a couple of hours with him in a motel, implying sex.

“I didn’t know what to do,” the employee told ABC-7. “I was ready to jump from the truck. I was really afraid to lose my job it was his words against mine. He was my boss.”

Getting his side of the story, Gutierrez told the investigator, “I know I screwed up. I thought it was a compliment to her because she was an attractive girl.”

The reports said Gutierrez apologized, then offered to remove a write-up Employee #1 had previously received.

Employee #1 said she was affected by the whole thing. She was crying at work, hiding in the bathroom, calling in sick. She decided to go to her supervisor and Deputy Treasurer Rene Barba and report what happened.

The report said Gutierrez came into the office, insisting he talk to her in private. She refused, Barba sent her home for the day.

In the report, Employee #1 claims Gutierrez would look at her all the time. After she got divorced, the comments became more direct, at one point saying, “You shouldn’t wear that dress because it makes me…” and he would make a weird face, the employee said in the report.

Gutierrez says, he “just wanted her to feel better”.

Employee #1 ended up going to HR and filing an official complaint.

“I don’t trust him, I don’t think the public trusts him,” the employee told ABC-7.

But he does. Gutierrez wouldn’t comment on this report, but he did talk to the Las Cruces Bulletin last week saying, “The citizens of Dona Ana County trust me and approve of my job performance. I have done nothing over my 14 years in office to violate their trust.”

He publicly maintains he didn’t do anything wrong. The employee hasn’t filed a criminal complaint. The district attorney’s office has forwarded the report to a law enforcement agency.