Courts

Los Alamos Municipal Court Briefs

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COURT News:

 

Christian Chavez appeared before Municipal Judge Alan Kirk Aug. 3 on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia and open container. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a $100 fine for the paraphernalia charge, $75 for the marijuana charge and $100 for the open container charge plus court fees for all three charges.

Jerome Montoya was pleaded guilty to driving with no license and was fined $100 plus $65 in fees. He pleaded not guilty to a second charge of prohibited acts while driving.

Javier Duarte-Medrano pleaded guilty to battery. He received Read More

Stimmel Sentenced On Roof Citations

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By MAIRE O’NEILL
Los Alamos
maire@ladailypostcom

 

Municipal Judge Alan Kirk gave Jay Stimmel of White Rock until Oct. 31 to finish replacing a roof on his Kayenta Drive property. During a pro se trial Monday in Los Alamos, Judge Kirk fined Stimmel $500 in each of four separate citations for having a roof in disrepair but suspended $300, $300, $250 and $500 in those cases until Oct. 31. 

The cases all relate to Stimmel having begun to replace his roof in 2015 when he obtained the first of three permits from Los Alamos County. After almost two years of having the roof covered with tarps, Read More

District Court Service For Los Alamos Disrupted

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By MAIRE O’NEILL
Los Alamos
maire@ladailypostcom

 

First Judicial District Court Administrator Stephen T. Pacheco confirmed Wednesday that the Court is not sending a clerk to the Los Alamos Justice Center Wednesdays as it has in the past to provide services for local residents.

“The judiciary as a whole has been underserved for the past several years,” Pacheco said. “Our District Court is currently down by seven clerks. On occasion, we have had only one or two people come by on our day in Los Alamos, so for the time being we will not have a clerk there on Wednesdays.”

Magistrate Court Read More

Los Alamos Police Blotter: Aug. 10 To Aug. 14, 2017

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LAPD News:

The following information is provided by the Los Alamos Police Department.

Neither arrests nor charges indicate a conviction, and neither means that a person is guilty of the charges against them.

JOHNNY LOWANCE

Aug. 10 at 2:14 a.m. / Johnny Lowance, 46, of Los Alamos was arrested in Rio Arriba County on an outstanding Magistrate Court warrant and an out of state warrant.

 

DANIEL G. ARCHULETA

Aug. 10 at 3 p.m. / Daniel G. Archuleta, 35, of Espanola was arrested on an outstanding Magistrate Court warrant.

 

 

JACOB ROMERO

Aug. 11 at 12:33 p.m. / Jacob Romero, 32, of Alcalde Read More

Letter To The Editor: Ethics Complaint Dismissal

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By LISA BRENNER
Los Alamos

Thank you, Carol, for printing the letter from the SOS on the ethics complaint that I had filed against the LA Future PAC.

As explanation, I filed the ethics complaint against the LA Future PAC for their yard signs as I was familiar with the campaign laws and it is a typical political tactic to go after technicalities such as these. Based on the evidence I supplied to the SOS, there was a clear violation in the LA Future PAC signage. However, and most interesting, is that the NM law is unconstitutional! 

The most interesting part (and you should read the whole thing 

Read More

Judge Grants Final Approval To Settlement Barring San Juan County Jail From Honoring ICE Detainers

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SUPU News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE ― Thursday, as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued his attempt to coerce local jurisdictions across the country, including Bernalillo County, into enforcing federal immigration law, U.S. District Court Judge William P. Johnson granted final approval to a class action settlement barring the San Juan County Detention Center from honoring ICE Immigration Detainers in the case of Susana Palacios-Valencia and Somos un Pueblo Unido v. San Juan County Board of Commissioners.

“The federal government cannot force local jails

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AG Seeks Potential Victims In Child Exploitation Case

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Anthony Groomas

From the Office Of Attorney General Hector Balderas:

TUCUMCARI – Attorney General Hector Balderas announced that a 29-year-old man was arrested this morning in Tucumcari by special agents  from the Office of the Attorney General for multiple sex offenses in connection to the criminal sexual penetration and solicitation of several girls ranging from 14 to 17 years old.

Anthony Groomas was booked into the Quay County Detention Center on a $15,000 cash only bond this morning.

“Protecting New Mexico’s children from sexual predators is our highest priority and I Read More

Legislative Interim Committee Meetings Aug. 14-18

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STATE News:

 
SANTA FE ― The following legislative interim committees are meeting the week of Aug. 14-18.
 
9 a.m. Aug. 14, 2017 ― Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee of the Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee, Law Offices of the Public Defender Training Room, 17th Floor, 505 Marquette NW, Ste. 120, Albuquerque.
 
Agenda items: Welcoming Remarks; Subcommittee Itinerary and Goals – Why Is Criminal Justice Reform Needed? – What Parts of the System Need Reform?; Oportunities for Justice Reinvestment In
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Automated Fingerprint Analysis Now Closer To Reality

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Fingerprints left at a crime scene—so-called latent prints—are often partial, distorted and smudged. Courtesy/Chugh et al., Hancek/NIST

 
NIST News:

The first big case involving fingerprint evidence in the United States was the murder trial of Thomas Jennings in Chicago in 1911. Jennings had broken into a home in the middle of the night and, when discovered by the homeowner, shot the man dead. He was convicted based on fingerprints left at the crime scene, and for most of the next century, fingerprints were considered, both in the courts and in the public imagination, to be all but Read More