Getting inside the crime beat.

I had a great time running this crime blog the past couple years, but unfortunately a move back in January off the crime beat and away from reporting has made it impossible to devote the time to the blog I once did.

Some of you probably already noticed the past several months have had far fewer posts than I once posted when I would do a few a day.

So unfortunately this will be the final post on my Santa Fe Crime blog. Thank you all for reading. The numbers were surprisingly good for a crime blog like this so I hope it is continued in some form by someone down the road.

On to the next adventure…

Here is their emailed news release from Monday morning:

As part of the ongoing efforts to keep Santa Fe roads and streets safe, the Santa Fe Police Department will conduct a Sobriety Checkpoint the weekend of July 28th. Driving under the influence is a crime. Anyone caught driving under the influence will be arrested, their automobile may be seized and they will incur significant costs included legal bills.

Sandoval County Fire Chief Killed in Roll-Over Crash on I-25

SANDOVAL COUNTY — At approximately 8:45 a.m. this morning, State Police Officers responded to the scene of a two vehicle crash, on I-25 approximately 3 miles south of the Bernalillo exit.

Officers arrived on scene and found a gray 2004 Cadillac on the northbound shoulder of the I-25 northbound lanes. Debris was scattered across I-25 northbound lanes to the southbound lanes, where a marked Sandoval County Fire Department Ford SUV was found on its top in the left hand passing lane of southbound I-25.

Preliminary investigation determined that both vehicle’s had been traveling northbound on I-25, when the crash occurred. The vehicle’s came into to contact with each other in the northbound lanes for an undetermined reason, causing the driver’s to lose control.

The driver of the marked Ford SUV, located in the southbound lane was identified as John Tibbits (59) of Albuquerque. Tibbits, who was the current Sandoval County Fire Chief succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The driver of the Cadillac was taken to a local Albuquerque hospital with minor injuries.

The crash investigation will continue to determine the cause and any enforcement.

Adrian Ordonez-Flores (2008 jail mug shout from the Santa Fe County jail)

Authorities in Minnesota arrested a Santa Fe man early Monday and authorities say he’s the last defendant to be apprehended in a 14-person cocaine operation bust announced last week at a joint press conference involving the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, New Mexico State Police, Santa Fe Police Department and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.

Here is an email news release announcing Monday’s arrest, sent by FBI spokesman Frank Fisher out of Albuquerque:

A man being sought after a joint law enforcement operation in Santa Fe County last week apprehended several individuals allegedly tied to cocaine trafficking has been arrested in Minnesota.

Adrian Ordonez-Flores, 25, of Santa Fe, was arrested without incident early Monday (7/2/12) by FBI Special Agents in Burnsville, Minn., approximately 15 miles south of Minneapolis.

Ordonez-Flores was among 14 men indicted and charged with federal narcotics trafficking offenses as the result of a three-year investigation by the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force and the HIDTA Region III Narcotics Task Force that targeted major cocaine trafficking organizations operating in Santa Fe County.

Eight defendants were arrested in an early morning operation on June 28 in Santa Fe County:  Aldo Erives-Lopez, 29; Armando Gutierrez, 26; Ramiro Andazola, 41; Diego Encineas, 22; Javier Morales-Varela, 37; Miguel Gallegos, 30; Manuel Marquez, 38; and Diego Tena, 29.

Ordonez-Flores was the remaining defendant who had yet to be arrested and was considered a fugitive.

Efforts are underway to return Ordonez-Flores to New Mexico to face charges.

CLICK TO ENLARGE: New Mexico State Police Sgt. Andy Tingwall died in a Search and Rescue mission in 2009 in the Santa Fe area. (Courtesy photos)

Nice gesture from New Mexico State Police here, even if it does coincide with a change in call signs for the department’s entire airborne fleet.

This from an email Tuesday morning from DPS spokesman Tony Lynn:

Effective today the New Mexico State Police Helicopter will now be identified as ABLE-6.  The call sign is being changed so that the previous call sign, N606SP, can be retired to honor fallen helicopter pilot, Sergeant Andy Tingwall.

Sgt. Tingwall was on a Search and Rescue mission in June 2009 near the Santa Fe Ski Basin when the tail rotor of his State Police helicopter struck the mountain side causing a rapid decent and subsequent crash killing Sgt. Tingwall and Megumi  Yamamoto, a stranded hiker  he was trying to rescue from the mountain.

ABLE will now recognize all the State Police rotary wing aircraft.  ABLE is an acronym for AirBorne Law Enforcement.

Here is just one of the many articles posted on The New Mexican website following the 2009 crash:

• Helicopter crash: Mountaintop tragedy

[Video courtesy Santa Fe Police Department]

Nicole Castellano, the 42-year-old who earlier this month lost her Democratic primary bid for the state Senate District 39 seat, was arrested Friday and charged with aggravated DWI and resisting an officer.

Police on Monday released the arrest video and audio.

The video shows her white SUV stopped in the parking lot of the Santa Fe Place mall moments after they say she was involved in a crash on Camino Entrada near the Santa Fe Police Department.

Between audio from the police car of Sgt. Mario Salvidrez and the officers lapel audio recorder, you can hear Castellano initially being argumentative from inside her white sport utility vehicle. She eventually gets out, then tries to walk back into her truck before officers grab her arm and walk her to the back of her vehicle.

Here is the exchange that follows as best as I could transcribe it:

Castellano: “I understand you want to put me before the camera. And then I understand you want to put me before a camera that has political explications (sic).”

Officer Salvidrez: “I’m not interested in your political…”

Castellano: “Yes. And that’s all right.”

Officer Salvidrez: “Mrs. Castellano, you’re drunk. That’s what I’m interested in. You’re drunk. You got involved in a crash. You didn’t stay at the crash. You came over here. You made no effort to call (inaudible).”

Castellano: “I called the lady and asker her to please come over to, uh, the situation. … I asked her to please come to a situation that was close and that was not in a position of Cerrillos and the location of (inaudible).”

Here is this weekend’s story posted on The New Mexican‘s website:

• Ex-Senate hopeful charged with DWI

Here is Monday’s updated version of the story by Nico Roesler:

• [Video] Santa Fe police release DWI arrest video of ex-state Senate hopeful

Santa Fe Police Officer Jon Lopez, 30. (Mug shot courtesy Santa Fe County jail)

Santa Fe police late Sunday confirmed Patrol Officer Jon Lopez was arrested earlier in the evening on a domestic violence offense.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Deputies on Sunday arrested the 30-year-old Lopez, who lives in Santa Fe. The three-year veteran of the force was booked into the Santa Fe County jail at 9:06 p.m. and charged with battery against a household member and interfering with communications, according to an online jail database. Lopez was being held without bond as of late Sunday.

It is unclear what exactly happened leading to the arrest and we’ll chase down arrest warrant information Monday morning for more details to post here and on The New Mexican‘s website. The online police reports posted by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office had not yet been updated with the arrest information late Sunday night.

[UPDATE: Here is an updated article posted Monday on The New Mexican's website: Santa Fe police officer jailed on domestic violence charge]

SFPD, meanwhile, confirmed Lopez will be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.

Lopez will presumably be the first officer dealt with since the department went public this past week with a strict no-nonsense, zero-tolerance policy for police misconduct.That policy went into effect Friday.

It so happens one of the groups SFPD consulted before drafting this new stricter policy was the Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families. Again, I don’t pretend to no the details of what led to the arrest, only the charges the sheriff’s deputies placed on Lopez, but considering they are domestic violence charges you can bet many people will be keeping a close eye on how this policy is actually enforced.

We’ll update more on Lopez’s arrest Monday.

New Mexico State Police

New Mexico State Police will be conducting a DWI sobriety checkpoint somewhere in Santa Fe County on Friday night.

Cops usually step up the DWI checkpoints in the summer months and this year is no different. While NMSP always announces in advance that they will be conducting a checkpoint somewhere in the county, the department never says exactly where until the cops are on site setting up the operation.

Attorney General Gary King says the state is responsible for paying to furnish a new district courthouse in Santa Fe.

The state Board of Finance is to consider a request Thursday from the First Judicial District for a loan of nearly $827,000 for furnishings that court officials say are needed for judges to move into the $60 million courthouse in January.

Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed almost $1.4 million that the Legislature approved for courthouse furnishings earlier this year. Martinez contends it’s the county’s responsibility to provide furniture and other equipment.

In an advisory letter this week to Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, King’s office said it’s the state’s obligation, although the county can agree to share the costs.

A Martinez spokesman said Wednesday that the governor disagreed with the attorney general.

Here is a link from the AG’s Office on the matter:

• State Required to Furnish SF County Courthouse

Patricio M. Serna (Photo courtesy UNM.edu)

New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Patricio Serna, a former 11-year State District Judge in Santa Fe, announced Friday he’ll be stepping down from the bench at the end of August.

He served on the First Judicial District bench in Santa Fe from 1985 through 1996.

Obviously this will be a big political issue for this state moving forward as debates will brew over who will be chosen to replace Serna.

For now, here is the news release sent out Friday by the Supreme Court:

The Supreme Court of New Mexico announced today that Justice Patricio M. Serna will retire at midnight on August 31, 2012. Born in the small town of Reserve, New Mexico, Justice Serna was the first of his eight siblings to graduate from college. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande, graduating with honors in 1962. Justice Serna earned his Juris Doctor law degree from the University of Denver School of Law and was the first Hispanic member of the Denver Law Journal. Justice Serna also earned a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Denver School of Law.

After earning his Master of Laws degree from Harvard, Justice Serna moved to Washington, D.C., to become Special Assistant to Commissioner R. Telles of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While in Washington, D.C., Justice Serna also taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School and Columbus School of Law at Catholic University of America, where he taught courses in constitutional law. In 1975, Justice Serna returned to New Mexico and served as an assistant attorney general for four years and then worked in private practice for about six years. In 1985, Justice Serna was appointed by then-Governor Toney Anaya to serve as a District Court Judge for the First Judicial District in Santa Fe. Justice Serna served for over 11 years as a district judge, from 1985 until 1996, and his service included a term as Chief Judge of the First Judicial District Court and as President of the New Mexico District Judges Association.

Justice Serna was elected to serve on the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1996, and was sworn into office on December 5, 1996. Five years later, Justice Serna was elected by his colleagues on the Court to serve a two-year term from 2001 through 2002 as Chief Justice. In addition to authoring and participating in hundreds of decisions during his almost 16 years on the Supreme Court, Justice Serna also serves as the Court’s liaison to the Board of Bar Examiners, the Tribal-State Judicial Consortium, and the Court Interpreters Advisory Committee.