School insurer aims to avoid covering costs of civil case against Pecos coach

Jun. 9—The agency that insures New Mexico's public schools hopes to avoid paying costs associated with a lawsuit against a former Pecos High School assistant basketball coach who admitted using social media to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos from young girls.

Joshua Rico pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court to five counts accusing him of coercing and enticing minors to engage in illegal sexual activity. Prosecutors had alleged he used text and Snapchat messages — including some sent under fictitious names — to convince girls as young as 14 to engage in sexual acts or to send him sexually explicit photos between 2016 and 2020.

He's scheduled to be sentenced next month in the criminal case but is also the defendant in a civil complaint filed by one of the victims, who is identified only as "Jane Doe."

The New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority has been paying his legal fees in the case but is asking a state court to declare it does not have a duty to continue doing so and is not responsible for paying any settlement or jury award that could result from the case.

Rico does not qualify as a school employee under the state Tort Claims Act, according to a complaint the insurance authority filed Wednesday in state District Court, and was not "acting within the scope of his duties" when he engaged in actions in which the lawsuit claims he violated the girl's equal protection and due process rights.

Rico's attorney in the civil case didn't respond to a call seeking comment Friday.

Linda Hemphill, an attorney for the plaintiff, said Friday she hadn't seen the agency's complaint but finds it "shocking" the insurer would attempt to avoid covering Rico, "given they have previously paid settlements related to other people accused of sexual misconduct with students, including Gary Gregor, Dominick Baca and Vernon Trujillo."

Gregor, Baca and Trujillo are all former public school employees accused of sexual misconduct in cases that resulted in payout to plaintiffs in civil cases. Gregor and Baca were convicted of criminal offenses, as well.

Rico's case is different, insurance authority general counsel Marty Esquivel said, in part because the lawsuit he faces centers on actions that occurred mostly at his house on his own time, not at school.

"This conduct was completely outside the course and scope of Rico's employment, and that's the difference," Esquivel said.

Rico is the third Pecos basketball coach accused of sexual crimes in the past five years.

In 2018, former Pecos Middle School coach Apolonio Blea was charged with raping a 14-year-old Mora girl, among other related crimes.

The case was dismissed in January 2019 pending further investigation and has not been refiled, court documents state.

In 2019, former Pecos High School coach Dominick Baca pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal sexual penetration and one count of criminal sexual contact with a minor. Baca was sentenced to three years in prison in 2020.

The Pecos school board, former Pecos Independent School District Superintendent Fred Trujillo, former Pecos Middle School Principal and district athletic director Michael Lister are also named as defendants in the lawsuit against Rico, which says the district has had a pattern of failing to properly investigate allegations of sexual abuse of students, failing to take action against sexual predators, failing to train employees to recognize and prevent sexual abuse, and retaliating against people who report sexual misconduct.

Esquivel said Friday it would be up to a judge to apportion responsibility in the case.