Ex-bodyguard for former Gov. Martinez files suit

One of Susana Martinez’s former bodyguards has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Public Safety that at times reads more like a soap opera script when describing the inner workings of the former governor’s security force.

Tony Fetty, who said he spent six years on Martinez’s security detail before being abruptly reassigned to patrol duties and sent to remedial training, filed the lawsuit in state District Court in Santa Fe last week. The suit said that the Department of Public Safety retaliated against him in violation of the whistleblower protection act because he raised questions about actions by other members of the detail.

The lawsuit describes gambling and other debts that another bodyguard allegedly amassed, alleges a “personal relationship” between the governor and that bodyguard, and claims the officer ended up with a $200,000 settlement with the state – some of which was used to pay off debts to Fetty and others.

Attempts to reach Martinez for this story were unsuccessful. In connection with a lawsuit filed last summer that included some similar allegations, a spokesman for the governor told the Journal at the time that the suit contained “many ridiculous allegations that are completely removed from the truth.”

Read more: https://www.abqjournal.com/1271866/former-gov-martinez-bodyguard-files-whistleblower-suit.html