Dec. 28—A former driver for the North Central Solid Waste Authority has filed a lawsuit alleging he was fired from his job for cooperating with an investigation into a co-worker’s death last year.
Peter Velarde’s lawsuit says the authority drew up his termination letter while he was meeting with an inspector from the state Occupational Health and Safety Bureau, a move that prevented him from showing the official the truck he’d been driving the day of Alfred Trujillo’s death.
The state District Court lawsuit and other public documents provide new details about investigations into the Nov. 22, 2022, incident in Dixon, which prompted the state to fine the North Central Solid Waste Authority more than $18,000.
The Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office had charged Velarde with tampering with evidence in connection with the incident, but the District Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges earlier this year, citing a need for further investigation.
Velarde’s complaint accuses the waste authority of negligence and retaliation and seeks a jury trial, legal fees and damages including lost wages and special damages for stress and anxiety.
Representatives of the waste authority could not be reached for comment. A voicemail message said its administrative offices are closed through Jan. 2, and the authority did not respond to an email or online form submission requesting comment.
The day of the deadly incident began with a safety meeting in which Trujillo, 47, appeared to be falling asleep, according to Velarde’s complaint. An operations director with the authority who observed this directed Velarde to drive the trash collection truck.
Before heading out on the route, Velarde inspected the truck and noted a broken metal step on the back, which he had reported previously, the lawsuit says. Often, it says, a worker would ride on the step between collection sites.
Trujillo was riding on the back of the truck as the pair collected trash in Dixon, a small community north of Española. He banged on the truck to signal to Velarde to drive up a hill to the next stop, the lawsuit says.
When Velarde got to the top of the hill, he didn’t see Trujillo at first. Then he saw his co-worker lying on the road, “far behind the truck,” the suit says.
He ran to Trujillo, who was conscious and talking but not moving, and “had a visibly injured leg, which was bleeding.”
Velarde, who thought Trujillo had been run over by a vehicle, placed a tourniquet on his leg. He later told a deputy he had noticed tire marks on Trujillo’s leg, according to a sheriff’s office report. It remains unclear how Trujillo sustained the injuries that resulted in his death.
Velarde’s cellphone had no signal, so he asked a passerby to call 911, his lawsuit says, and after an ambulance arrived, he used his phone to take a short video and pictures of Trujillo’s injuries and the surrounding scene.
Deputy Ernesto Giron wrote in his report Velarde had “bloodshot-watery eyes and a white sticky substance coming from the corners of his lips,” and that Velarde had admitted to smoking marijuana the night before.
When supervisors from the waste authority arrived, Velarde’s lawsuit says, then Operations Director Marty Sanders told him he’d need to take a drug test and drove him to Española, where the test was conducted. The test administrator told him there were no drugs in his system, he says in his complaint, but Sanders still placed him on paid leave until the “formal results” came back.
A few days later, Velarde received a text message from a co-worker telling him the damaged step on the truck had been cut off, according to the complaint.
Soon after, he was asked to attend a meeting with a state Occupational Health and Safety Bureau inspector.
Waste authority General Manager Janet Saucedo and Sanders, who have both since resigned, also were at the meeting.
Velarde told the inspector about the loose step and showed her the pictures and video he’d taken at the scene and photos he’d received showing the step being removed, his lawsuit says. He agreed to join her for an examination of the truck after the meeting.
However, the suit says, before that happened, Sanders presented him with a termination letter informing him he was no longer allowed on the authority’s property.
The OHSB inspector was “shocked” by the letter, told him he could not accompany her to the truck and advised him to look into the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act, his lawsuit says.
“I’ve never seen a whistleblower retaliation case this obvious,” Velarde’s attorney, Sheri Raphaelson, said in an interview.
The Occupational Health and Safety Bureau cited the North Central Solid Waste Authority for three “serious” violations and fined it $18,462 in May. The citation says the authority failed to provide a place of employment free from hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm — specifically the “damaged rear step platform” on the truck Velarde and Trujillo had used that day.
The investigation also found the waste authority had removed a platform from the truck after the incident and that a rear-facing camera was not operable at the time, a spokesman confirmed in response to questions from The New Mexican.
The authority paid the fee June 1, according to a copy of the check provided by the state Environment Department, but it did not provide proof of corrective actions that were due to be completed by June 12.
“The North Central Solid Waste Authority (NCSWA) has not provided adequate documentation showing they have abated risks associated with the citation to date,” an Environment Department spokesman wrote in an email Thursday. “NCSWA will be subject to significant additional penalties if the Bureau determines they have not corrected the violations.”
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