Lawsuit: Sheriffs Used Pepper Balls And K-9 On Elderly Man – Albuquerque Journal
Family members of an elderly man who was shot with pepper balls and taken down by a K-9 dog have filed suit against the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that 88-year-old Fidencio Duran was distraught over his wife’s death and wandering the streets with one shoe and no shirt when he was approached by deputies last fall.
He waved a knife and asked officers to shoot him. Deputies shot Duran 50 times with pepper balls filled with a chemical irritant and released a dog to subdue him.
He suffered a broken femur and pelvis and died of pneumonia a month later. The medical investigator rule the death a homicide. An internal investigation cleared deputies of wrongdoing. But the sheriff’s office did a criminal investigation and turned the case over to the District Attorney’s office, which is considering criminal charges.
The suit asks the sheriff’s office to force deputies to wear lapel cameras and to also train them not to use pepper balls on the elderly.
House Passes Measures To Crack Down On Drunken Driving – The Associated Press
The full House has approved a pair of measures meant to crack down on New Mexico's drunken drivers.
One of the bills that passed Thursday allows judges to impose stricter penalties for repeat offenders.
A DWI offense can be deemed a felony after the fourth conviction. The legislation would make individuals convicted of a DWI felony eligible for sentencing under the state's habitual offender law.
The other measure would make it a fourth-degree felony to be charged with DWI while driving on a suspended or revoked license for a prior DWI offense.
The bill also would increase punishments for those who lend their car to someone with a revoked suspended license due to drunken driving.
Man Sentenced To 60+ Years For Homeless Killings – The Associated Press
An Albuquerque man convicted of beating two homeless men to death with cinder blocks and other objects has been sentenced to 67 ½ years in prison, the maximum allowed.
A jury found 20-year-old Alex Rios guilty last year of more than a dozen felony counts in the 2014 killings of Alison Gorman and Kee Thompson.
He was sentenced Friday after the victims' families choked back tears and described the voids left in their lives by what they called a senseless and vicious crime.
Police say Rios and two of his friends began beating the men as they slept in a vacant lot.
Rios apologized to the victims' families and asked the judge for mercy.
His attorney, Daniel Salazar, had told the judge that Rios should face no more than 42 years in prison.
New Mexico Senate Passes Version Of A 'Kendra's Law' – The Associated Press
The New Mexico Senate has passed a proposal that would require some New Mexico residents with severe mental illness to receive court-ordered outpatient treatment.
The Democratic-led Senate voted 29-9 to approve a bill that orders some patients to participate in assisted outpatient treatment if the court finds that the patients are a danger to themselves and others.
Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, who is co-sponsoring the bill, says it's "like a modified version" of the New York's Kendra's law.
That measure was named after Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old woman who was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train in 1999 by a man battling untreated schizophrenia.
New Mexico is one of only five states without a similar law.
New Mexico Considers Creation Of Ethics Commission – The Associated Press
New Mexico is moving closer than ever toward creating an independent ethics commission to keep watch over the conduct and campaign finances of public officials, lobbyists and state contractors.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to deliberate and possibly vote Friday on a constitutional amendment to create an independent ethics agency.
The new commission would have the power to subpoena witnesses and government records and issue civil citations and penalties under a long list of laws on campaign financing, lobbying and gift giving. Criminal matters would still be referred to prosecutors.
New Mexico is one of eight states that do not have an independent ethics commission or committee. A long list of ethics and campaign finance reforms are pending before the Legislature this year.
New Mexico Succeeds In Legal Fight To Bar Horse Slaughter – The Associated Press
New Mexico has succeeded in a lengthy legal battle aimed at barring a horse slaughter operation from opening in the state.
A state district judge in Santa Fe granted an order yesterday that finalizes a settlement reached with the attorney general's office, animal advocates, and Valley Meat Co., who had sought to convert its cattle processing plant to the slaughtering of horses but the state filed a lawsuit in 2013 in hopes of stopping those plans.
An attorney for Front Range Ee-quine Rescue, Bruce Wagman, said that the order effectively ends any chance of a horse slaughter operation opening in New Mexico.
The last domestic horse slaughterhouses closed in 2007.
Downsized New Mexico Budget Sent To House For Vote – Associated Press
A $6.3 billion state budget with spending increases dominated by Medicaid, public schools and the state prison system is moving to the full House of Representatives for deliberations.
The downsized spending bill was approved by the House Appropriations and Finance Committee on Thursday in a 12-5 vote with full Republican support and Democrat lawmakers divided.
The state last week slashed its forecast for revenues next year by $200 million.
The House spending bill would sweep together $52 million in spare cash from agencies and reserve accounts to pay for roughly $81 million in spending increases.
Nearly half of the increased spending would go toward rising costs for Medicaid health care. Public Schools would get a 1 percent increase of $31.2 million. Funding for state universities would be trimmed.
Man Convicted Of Fatally Beating Transients Faces Sentencing – Associated Press
A young man convicted of beating two homeless men to death with cinder blocks and other objects in New Mexico's largest city faces sentencing on more than a dozen felony charges.
A jury has found 20-year-old Alex Rios guilty of killing Alison Gorman and Kee Thompson in 2014. Rios could be sentenced Friday to up to 15 years each for two second-degree murder convictions.
The maximum sentences for Rios' other felony convictions range from nine years to 18 months.
Police say Gorman and Thompson were sleeping on a mattress in a vacant lot in Albuquerque when Rios and two of his friends attacked them. The other two were juveniles at the time and have been charged.
Relatives say the victims had come to Albuquerque from the Navajo Nation to find work.
Advocates Backing Revamped New Mexico REAL ID Bill – Associated Press
Advocates say they will give up the right for immigrants living in the country illegally to obtain New Mexico driver's licenses to achieve a REAL ID compromise.
Immigrant rights groups say they can live with a bipartisan proposal that instead would allow those immigrants and other residents to get "driver's authorization card." Marcela Diaz, executive director of Santa Fe-based advocacy group Somos Un Pueblo Unido, says she doesn't believe that bill singles out or discriminates against immigrants.
However, passage may hinge on whether those immigrants will be required to submit fingerprints for background checks before getting cards.
House Majority Leader Nate Gentry said without the fingerprint requirements the revamped bill won't pass the GOP-controlled House. Gov. Susana Martinez also promised to veto any measure without the fingerprint provision.
Uber, Lyft Bill Fixing New Mexico Impasse OK'd In Committee – Associated Press
A key House panel has approved a bill aimed at welcoming and regulating ride-booking companies like Uber and Lyft.
The House Judiciary Committee passed the proposal unanimously Thursday.
Rep. Monica Youngblood, an Albuquerque Republican, sponsored the bill to allow the companies to operate legally in New Mexico.
The legal status of the companies has been in limbo in the state since they began offering services in 2014. The companies say the state's Motor Carrier Act doesn't apply to them because they don't operate as commercial taxi businesses.
Uber and Lyft offer an online service that allows people with cars to connect with people seeking rides.
Traditional taxi companies say ride-booking services still need to be regulated.
Wet Weather Systems Increasingly More Rare In Southwest -
By Scott Sonner, Associated Press
A new study of global weather patterns over the past 35 years supports earlier scientific predictions the southwestern United States will become drier as atmospheric conditions that typically bring the most rain and snow to the region continue to become more rare.
The research supported by the National Science Foundation concludes that what's now considered a normal year of precipitation in the Southwest is drier than it used to be.
The scientists emphasize the new data doesn't prove climate change is responsible for increasing frequency and duration of drought.
But they say it's evidence that subtle shifts in large-scale weather patterns over the past three decades have been the driving force behind moisture trends from Southern California to the southern Rockies.
The study was published Thursday in a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
New Mexico Lawmakers Look To Curb Opioid Addiction – Associated Press
With one of the highest drug overdose death rates in the nation, New Mexico has been working for years to curb what has now been identified by the highest levels of government as a national epidemic.
The state was the first to require all licensed clinicians to undergo extra training for prescribing painkillers, but now lawmakers are looking for new ways to quell the growing addiction to opioids and not everyone is onboard.
After a lengthy debate Thursday, a Senate committee suggested more needs to be done to improve the language of a bill that calls for increasing education and requiring insurance companies to cover medications that deter opioid abuse.
Insurance lobbyists argue that the legislation amounts to a mandate that would only benefit the pharmaceutical companies producing anti-abuse opioids.
Sandoval County Woman Hospitalized With Hantavirus – Associated Press
Health officials say a 37-year-old Sandoval County woman is hospitalized with hantavirus, making New Mexico's first case this year.
The state Department of Health says an environmental investigation will be done at the woman's home to help reduce the risk of others contracting the deadly disease.
Hantavirus is transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings or saliva. People also can breathe in the virus.
Health officials say people should seal up cracks in their homes to prevent mice from entering.
New Mexico had one case of hantavirus last year. The 53-year-old Taos County woman survived.
The state had six cases in 2014, three of which were fatal.
New Mexico has had the most hantavirus cases of any state in the country since the virus was discovered in 1993.