Most Santa Fe Fiesta Council members at a Monday meeting applauded a newly issued written statement condemning accounts of an altercation between the Fiesta queen and a princess, but cut off the princess's mother, who wanted to talk about the incident.

She and other witnesses have said Fiesta Council officials told them not to publicly discuss what happened. Meanwhile, the head of the volunteer group that puts on the celebration has consistently refused to respond to questions about the affray.

However, Fiesta Council President Alberto "Gabby" Montoya's written statement called The New Mexican's two stories last week, based partly on sources who asked to remain anonymous, "one-sided," "sensational" and "gossipy."

"Ms. Constable failed in her duty to produce a truthful, honest, fair, and objective newspaper article," he wrote of assistant city editor Anne Constable's reports. "As a consequence, the one sided news article contributed to false reporting by other media, and that false reporting will continue to echo throughout the Internet and the blogosphere for the rest of time."

Montoya and other Fiesta Council officers declined to speak to Constable for the record or said they were unaware of the altercation that occurred after the Gran Baile in early September. In the wake of the published reports, Montoya's letter confirmed there was a "disagreement" and "quarrel," and said the Fiesta Council investigated the matter and dealt with it, but has a policy of "not debating or vetting personel (sic) matters in the media or public venues."

Witnesses have said a physical altercation broke out between two members of the Fiesta royal court and their families, and that there had been tension between the queen, Victoria Mora, and the princess, Christina Chacon. Although no one was seriously injured during the confrontation, both sides filed police reports, and the mother of the Fiesta princess has said she wants a restraining order against the parents of the queen.

When Gloria Y. Trujillo, mother of the princess, began speaking at Monday's Fiesta Council meeting, council member and former president Tony Lopez moved that any comments on the incident take place only behind closed doors. Although Trujillo said her comments were not about personnel matters and one member said he would like to hear them, the motion was approved by a voice vote.

Outside the State Land Office auditorium, where the meeting took place, Trujillo told a reporter for The New Mexican that the council had ordered her and others not to speak to the media.

"The Santa Fe Fiesta Council has to keep sweeping things under the rug," she said. "They don't want to address it. ... They just want to make their comment that was very long and wordy and didn't say anything and didn't mean anything."

Trujillo said all she wanted to do was to ask for an apology from Montoya and other Fiesta officers for the way her daughter, Chacon, and another Fiesta princess, Lynette Dominguez of Tesuque Pueblo, were treated. Trujillo blamed Mora, this year's Fiesta queen, or La Reina, and her family for instigating the problem.

"Throughout the summer, both Lynette and Christina were both being harassed by Victoria and the dad," she said. "So I just wanted to respond to that."

Chacon did not attend Monday's meeting "because I didn't want her to get further abused by anybody here," Trujillo said.

Dominguez, who did attend, agreed with Trujillo. "They don't want us talking to you because it's the truth," she said. "That Friday, me and Christina actually approached (the chairman of the committee for Fiesta royalty), and we had told him how Victoria was being rude to us and how she would single us out when she was introducing, and he didn't do anything about it."

Trujillo said Montoya told her daughter on the Sunday of Fiesta that she would not be allowed to participate in the closing ceremonies because of threats against her.

"So instead of protecting her, what they did, they gave a security to Viola Mora, who is the mother (of Victoria) who made the threats, and that's not fair," Trujillo said. "I feel another decision could have been made where Christina could have carried on her reign and finished on Sunday, and that's what I wanted to ask them for — a personal apology to Christina."

President Montoya, in a telephone interview later Monday, declined to respond to Trujillo, but emphasized that she is not speaking for the Fiesta Council. He reiterated that he could not discuss with a news reporter what corrective action was taken against whom.