Former district attorney employee gets $600K settlement stemming from whistleblower lawsuit

LAS CRUCES - A former chief deputy of the Third Judicial District Attorney's Office was awarded a $600,000 settlement in a lawsuit arising in 2016. 

Paul Rubino, a chief deputy for former district attorney Mark D'Antonio, was awarded $560,000 for damages on account of personal physical injuries or sickness. Rubino was awarded an additional $40,000 for lost wages. 

The settlement arose from a 2016 whistleblower lawsuit where Rubino said the former district attorney subjected him to a hostile work environment and discrimination. 

In a criminal complaint filed in 2016, Rubino said D'Antonio's district attorney's office was a mess. Rubino said he complained to D'Antonio about "heavy, unmanageable, out of control caseloads and mismanagement."

Rubino said the situation was harming the safety of the public and other DA staffers. He added that he opposed D'Antonio's "discrimination and retaliation against another employee."

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During Rubino's employment from 2013 to 2015, he said D'Antonio and the DA's office retaliated against him, subjected him to a hostile work environment and eventually fired him because he opposed the discriminatory treatment of another employee. 

Additionally, Rubino said he was discriminated against after experiencing a medical incident. He said he sought accommodation but was denied. The case lasted until March 2021, when a judge ordered the two parties to provide documentation for the settlement they'd reached. 

D'Antonio decided not to run for district attorney in 2020, allowing his former Chief Deputy DA Gerald Byers to run unopposed. 

Other settlements against D'Antonio's DA

Rubino's suit was not the only whistleblower suit with a big payout arising from the D'Antonio era. In 2020, Marylou Bonacci, a former office manager for D'Antonio, was awarded $225,000. 

Bonacci claimed that D'Antonio would meet with criminal defendants in his office without attorneys present. She also alleged that in one case, D'Antonio asked her to "secure a loan" from a defendant's family, indicating that "in exchange for the loan, he would dismiss the criminal charges against the defendant's family member," according to the criminal complaint.

Bonacci also said that after she told a third party about D'Antonio's request, the FBI began to investigate the district attorney on corruption allegations.

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Bonacci's case wrapped up in 2019.

Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. he can be reached at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com or on Twitter @Just516garc