County employee files motion seeking protective order from Undersheriff Ken Roberts
A Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department employee filed a motion seeking a protective order from Undersheriff Ken Roberts, records obtained by ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom state.
The employee’s filing, made January 26, 2018, made multiple allegations of sexual harassment against Roberts.
In June of 2017, the woman said Ken Roberts walked into her office and sat on her lap, according to the report.
“He wiggled on me as if to settle on my lap,” the woman wrote. “He got up and turned towards me and said, ‘Ok, that’s all I wanted to do,’ and walked out.”
The woman wrote she felt “uncomfortable” and worried Roberts would “try something else” behind closed doors.
She said that day, the undersheriff was “extremely nice,” which she said made her “suspicious and uncomfortable.” In the filing, she wrote that she lost sleep and became “severely emotionally distressed.”
Later in the filing, the woman wrote the undersheriff started calling her “pumpkin.” She said he “could never tell (her) no” and that she could anything she wanted. The employee said she feared she would lose her job for speaking out against him.
ABC-7 will not reveal the name of the female employee or the name of her department, so as to protect her identity.
In the filing, both the employee and Undersheriff Roberts are ordered to appear in the Third Judicial District Court on February 9th. ABC-7 will be in attendance.
ABC-7 has also left messages with Undersheriff Roberts, Sheriff Enrique “Kiki” Vigil and the sheriff’s secretary. We have not yet heard back.
Last week, Vigil emailed ABC-7 a letter stating he reviewed the results of an independent investigation and decided Roberts would continue to serve his department.
Vigil said Roberts has been removed from all supervisory duties until he completes additional training and has been issued a corrective action plan. Roberts had previously been on administrative leave.
