On Wednesday, April 8, attorneys Julio Romero and Kelly Sanchez sent a letter to University of New Mexico leadership addressing inaccuracies and alleged “mischaracterizations” of their client by former UNM Law School Dean Sergio Pareja in a letter he sent to UNM leadership on March 31.
Romero, Sanchez and the ACLU represented a former law student who raised due process violations against the law school after meeting with Vice Dean Steven Homer on Nov. 19, 2024, regarding what the client alleged was retaliatory allegations of misconduct made against her by another law student.
Romero and Sanchez wrote that the law school received audio of the Nov. 19 meeting with the student and Homer over the disciplinary violation that captured Homer “prematurely interrogating the student and telling the student he had already decided the student’s truthfulness,” before giving her an opportunity to select between a formal or informal investigation.
The law school policy handbook states that the associate dean is to inform a student of the allegations before giving them the option of either going through an informal investigation, conducted by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, or a formal investigation, where a “disciplinary committee” will investigate and decide the matter.
On April 16, 2025, a New Mexico Civil Rights Act Notice sent by Romero and Sanchez to UNM leadership and the law school stated the school could not legally proceed with a disciplinary hearing related to the allegations while the matter was actively pending on appeal before the Board of Regents, according to the letter.
The greater law firm of Martinez, Hart, Sanchez and Romero, along with the ACLU, filed a temporary restraining order against the UNM School of Law in April 2025 to prohibit the school from proceeding with a disciplinary hearing until a “fair equitable process” was in place after the earlier unresolved due process violations.
Pareja wrote in his letter that “nobody’s Due Process rights were violated” and the client “obviously wanted all disciplinary proceedings related to the complaint to stop, which is the obvious purpose of their pleading.” Romero and Sanchez wrote that his statements were “inaccurate and inconsistent.”
Romero and Sanchez wrote in their letter that between December 2024 and April 2025, they asked to meet with law school dean Camille Carey and then-Associate Dean Steven Homer to address the law student’s due process concerns, but were repeatedly rejected.
“The issues arose from direct procedural and substantive due process violations on UNM School of Law’s own disciplinary procedures. Court intervention was only sought after Camille Carey convened the disciplinary hearing to act despite knowing the student’s challenge to remove Steven Homer on grounds of bias was actively pending before the UNM Board of Regents,” the Romero and Sanchez letter reads.
The restraining order was settled the day before Carey was court-ordered to testify before a state district court judge about the alleged due process violations, according to the letter, contradicting Pareja’s statement that the settlement was reached the same morning that the law school’s investigative committee was to conduct their hearing.
Second-year law student Kaitlyn Urenda Harrison also wrote a letter in response to Pareja’s March 31 letter to address his suspicion that the primary author of the student open letter Pareja was originally responding to was not a student.
“I very much wanted him to know this is being done by students, but they are just so afraid of retaliation that they are operating anonymously,” Harrison said.
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She said she saw Pareja’s letter as disregarding letters sent by prominent state legal organizations.
“The New Mexico Hispanic Bar (Association), the ACLU and a very prominent law firm in the state are all saying, ‘this is not correct, you’re saying this incorrectly,’ and being able to display their talents, and their skills, are now being buffed off like ‘that doesn’t really count, you shouldn’t really listen to them, it’s just a small fraction,’” Harrison said.
Harrison said she won’t stop putting pressure until she sees a change in leadership at the law school.
“I will never stop advocating, regardless of the pushback from an institution that I’m trying to graduate from,” Harrison said.
In a statement to the Daily Lobo, UNM Communication Director Steve Carr wrote that he received Harrison’s letter but did not receive the letter from Romero and Sanchez.
Carr wrote that he could “have no further comment at this time” besides an April 10 statement previously sent to the Daily Lobo.
“The UNM School of Law is carefully reviewing the concerns that have been raised. Again, we remain firmly committed to advancing the School of Law’s mission and to supporting the students and communities it serves across New Mexico,” the UNM statement reads.
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88
Paloma Chapa is the multimedia editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at multimedia@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @paloma_chapa88
