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An attorney for Bernalillo County says former County Clerk Mary Herrera protected a now-suspended employee from years of sexual harassment complaints and claims that he refused to work.

The allegations against the employee, Richard Espinoza, came to the surface in motions filed this month in a federal lawsuit originally brought by Espinoza, who claims he was sexually harassed by a former Bureau of Elections supervisor, Jeff Carbajal.

But county lawyers say they've collected numerous affidavits from co-workers and members of the public alleging inappropriate behavior by Espinoza.

"He repeatedly made statements to employees and patrons that he didn't have to work because he was protected by Mary," Jonlyn Martinez, an attorney representing the county, said this week.

Martinez said Herrera, who was elected secretary of state last year, blocked efforts to discipline Espinoza that began soon after he was hired in 2004.

"We have records of disciplinary action proposed by his supervisors, but she refused to send it down to personnel," Martinez said.

Martinez declined to release those documents, saying they are not public records, but she said they included a recommendation that Espinoza be suspended, which she said never made it to Espinoza's personnel file.

In an e-mail, Herrera's spokesman, James Flores, called those claims "incorrect" and said Herrera had informed the county Personnel Department about complaints regarding Espinoza.

"The secretary advised county Legal and Personnel well over a year ago regarding this matter," Flores' e-mail said.

Espinoza was placed on paid leave during September and October 2006 and again in December 2006. He remains on paid leave, according to court documents and county officials.

The county's lawyers said complaints about Espinoza started several years earlier.

In a motion filed Nov. 6, the county claims Espinoza bragged about receiving oral sex from a female co-worker in a stairwell, offered to have sex with male employees and grabbed other county employees from behind and thrust his pelvis against them.

In an interview in July, Espinoza said county employees began circulating rumors about him after he complained about Carbajal's behavior.

In a response to the county's motion in November, Espinoza's lawyer, Paul Melendres, said the county is abusing the legal process and requesting some information in an effort to drive up Espinoza's legal bills.

Melendres also wrote that Carbajal has already admitted to the county that he gave Espinoza a sexually charged gift as a joke.

Martinez, the county's lawyer, acknowledged the truth of that allegation but said Espinoza had given Carbajal a similar gift.

"Mr. Carbajal and Mr. Espinoza were friends, and at one point this was all in jest," she said. "I'm not saying it was appropriate, but it was welcome."

Martinez said Espinoza's complaints against Carbajal were concocted after Espinoza was transferred to work under another supervisor in the Clerk's Office, Manny Vildasol.

Vildasol, who was fired by the state Children, Youth and Families Department in 1999 after repeated complaints of sexual harassment, according to another federal lawsuit, was hired as an office administrator at the Secretary of State's Office this year.

Carbajal has also had past brushes with controversy. Accused of pocketing fees paid by liquor establishments when he was clerk in Grant County, he pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges in January 2006 and was ordered to pay $16,000 in restitution.

Herrera has said she didn't know about any charges pending against Carbajal when he was hired in 2004. The charges were filed in mid-2005.

Current Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, who took office in January, said Carbajal was transferred out of the Bureau of Elections on her request the same month. He is a financial coordinator for capital improvement projects.