Couple kicked off flight for pushing crew and removing other passengers' bags
A pair of 'disruptive passengers' were ejected from a Viva Aerobus flight in Mexico after barging past crew members and yanking other passengers' luggage out of the overhead, as seen in a video taking off online.
'They started insulting the flight attendant and taking other passengers' bags down to put their own in,' one furious fly-witness told Jam Press of the kerfuffle, which occurred Easter Sunday at Puerto Vallarta International Airport.
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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bedford teen killed in motor vehicle incident
More than 20 bouquets of flowers, many mementos, empty beer cans and an American flag encircled a utility pole on Wallace Road in Bedford on Monday afternoon. It marked the scene of yet another tragedy — the third time in 49 days that a teenager was killed in a motor vehicle incident in town. This time, a Bedford High School junior — a boy on the precipice of ascending to his senior year — died Sunday night in an incident with few details made public. The name of the boy has not been released and police are still investigating what happened. At 8:15 p.m., Bedford officers responded to a report of a person jumping out of a moving vehicle near Stagecoach Lane. The boy was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Bedford High Principal Bob Jozokos sent a letter to parents first thing Monday, informing them that a student had died and offering help to students who would struggle with the news, which mourners said has become too common in Bedford. 'Why does this keep happening here?' one mourner said at the scene Monday afternoon while wiping tears and hugging her friend. The town suffered a similar loss on April 20 when resident Lauren Souza, a 16-year-old Trinity High School junior, was killed in a crash early Easter morning. On May 28, a Manchester 13-year-old died in a crash at the Kilton Road exit off Route 101. For about 100 or so students who intermittently gathered where their classmate was killed, there were more questions than answers. Most didn't want to talk. Those who did, didn't want their names in the paper. Everyone was shaken. 'He was the light of every room he was in,' said a female classmate. 'There wasn't a single person he wasn't friends with.' The girl and her friend were there when the victim's best friend arrived around 4:30 p.m. He, too, was still processing the news and unable to talk. About three hours earlier, a much larger contingent of mourners paid their respects, attaching dollar bills and a T-shirt to the utility pole. They gathered. They laughed. They cried. They shared stories. One young man who identified himself as the victim's brother asked for privacy. Others said they would love to share stories of their friend at another time when the sense of shock had cleared. And then, one by one, they reluctantly left the scene. Cars came and went like that all afternoon, just two days after the latest class of seniors celebrated at graduation. Bedford investigators determined the victim was a passenger of a car, but would not provide additional details. Residents of Bedford and surrounding towns speculated on social media platforms like Facebook as to who the boy was and how he died. Emotions and blame ran high. But still, there were no official answers. Anyone who may have seen anything on Wallace Road leading up to this incident can call the Bedford Police Department at 603-472-5113. dpierce@
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
State withheld records in Rio Arriba sheriff death investigation
The New Mexico Department of Public Safety took 42 days — far beyond the 15 days allowed by state statute — to release information this week about the mysterious April death of Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield. Forensic pathologists reported May 15 that Merrifield's Easter morning death was due to the toxic effects of fentanyl and alcohol. Other questions remained unanswered, including whether the sheriff knowingly consumed fentanyl and where he may have obtained it. In the days after Merrifield was found dead in his patrol car April 20, The New Mexican filed a public records request for related police reports and other information. At first, the Department of Public Safety refused to release additional records. Next, it described the request as burdensome, buying the agency more time. After additional complaints from The New Mexican, it released a batch of investigative reports Thursday evening — 42 days after receiving the request. Those records — 105 pages of reports, photos and other documents — show the agency's investigators have not yet determined how Merrifield ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl that caused his death, along with alcohol. The recent secrecy over Merrifield's death reflects a pattern of slow-walked disclosure of public records like state police reports and lapel camera footage, shielding public information on homicides, crashes, police shootings around the state and other public safety-related incidents. The department's initial decision to withhold police reports from the investigation — as well as documents in another unrelated case — appears to have potentially run afoul of state public records laws and a Supreme Court ruling in recent years. Department of Public Safety spokesperson Herman Lovato declined to respond to some questions about the matter in an email Friday, but he wrote each request through the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act 'is addressed individually' by department staff. 'If it involves an active or ongoing investigation, records that are complete will be produced if not subject to an exception, even on an active or ongoing investigation,' Lovato wrote. 'If the records have not been completed because of an active or ongoing investigation, they may be temporarily withheld until completed.' He wrote the department's process 'aligns with New Mexico Supreme Court precedent and the requirements of IPRA.' However, the department's written reason for denying a recent request for state police reports tied to Merrifield's death did not appear consistent with the process Lovato described. In response to a request from The New Mexican seeking reports on Merrifield's death, a staff member at the department's records division wrote in early May, 'this is still a active/on going investigation and I was not given the approval to release the documents as they are still being [processed].' About two weeks later, the department's reasoning changed, with a different staffer writing the request for reports was 'overburdensome.' The records were finally released Thursday after The New Mexican submitted a complaint concerning an alleged violation of the Inspection of Public Records Act to the Department of Justice — and after sending emailed questions about the records request to officials that day. Advocate: Court ruling 'clear' Christine Barber, the executive director of New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said in an interview the department's initial denial of the request appeared to potentially violate a state Supreme Court ruling a few years ago on the specific topic of records in active law enforcement investigations. The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit brought by Andrew Jones against the Department of Public Safety, which had denied his request for records related to a state police investigation into the fatal shooting of his brother by Albuquerque police officers. Barber said the 2020 ruling was clear, holding that 'the status of a criminal investigation as 'ongoing' does not serve to exempt public records related to the investigation from inspection under [the Inspection of Public Records Act].' 'Sometimes government agencies need to be reminded of the law,' Barber said, noting past litigation between the Foundation for Open Government and the Department of Public Safety. In a 2007 settlement between the department, the foundation and several news publications — including The New Mexican — department officials agreed to provide records like incident reports within the 15-day timeline required by state law. An attorney for the government transparency group said at least one other journalist reported receiving a similar response recently when requesting the reports on Merrifield's death, but she added she did not recall other recent instances of state law enforcement agencies explicitly citing an open investigation as the reason for denying or delaying the production of records. The Department of Public Safety cited the Supreme Court's decision in a letter denying a different request from The New Mexican earlier this year for an incident report in a different death investigation. In the letter, staff acknowledged the court ruling stated exemptions to public records law 'cannot be interpreted so broadly as to withhold records simply due to the existence of an ongoing investigation.' The letter described exemptions that allow for redactions of parts of records, like names of potential subjects and informants, and ultimately stated the agency would withhold the entire report. 'Once the investigation is closed and no longer subject to these legal restrictions, certain records may become available for inspection,' the letter states. Weeks to fulfill requests While records are not usually withheld outright by the Department of Public Safety, it often takes several months to disclose reports from an investigation. In the past two years, The New Mexican has submitted at least 24 requests to the Department of Public Safety seeking reports or other documents such as the agency's written policies, lists of employees or financial data — not including requests for records like police lapel camera footage. The department provided the requested records in an average timeframe of more than two months per request. A little more than half of the requests for police reports or other documents were deemed 'broad' or 'burdensome' by the department's record staff, which allows for delays longer than 15 days. As of Friday, records have not been provided in response to two of the requests. Department of Justice spokesperson Lauren Rodriguez said attorneys from the division that investigate public records complaints had contacted the Department of Public Safety earlier this week regarding the complaint from The New Mexican. The investigators — after being assigned a complaint — usually contact the government agency in question to obtain more information, she said. They are trying to determine if there is actually noncompliance as well as whether the agency's staff knew their actions were out of compliance and whether they acted purposely in denying or delaying a records request. Apart from the complaint submitted against the Department of Public Safety by The New Mexican, the department has been the subject of one other records-related complaint so far this year to the Department of Justice, Rodriguez said. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the Department of Public Safety's practices concerning the release of public records. Lujan Grisham stood behind the department when asked about the issue last year, with a spokesperson writing the governor 'defers to law enforcement authorities to determine when the release of information is appropriate based on the status of ongoing investigations, notification of next of kin, etc.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
No details on how Rio Arriba sheriff ingested fentanyl in New Mexico State Police reports
A month and a half after Rio Arriba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield died from a fatal combination of alcohol and fentanyl, those investigating his death still don't know how he consumed the drug. An initial batch of reports released by New Mexico State Police this week indicate the agency's investigators have not yet determined how Merrifield ingested the fatal dose of fentanyl that caused his death, along with alcohol, according to toxicology reports. Following the sheriff's death, investigators collected evidence from the scene, including several cellphones, and interviewed the last people who had seen him alive and some of his close friends, the reports show. But the reports indicate investigators did not recover any drugs or drug paraphernalia from the scene of the sheriff's death. Although witnesses noted Merrifield was drinking alcohol the night before he died, several who were close to the sheriff have noted — to the police and to The New Mexican — they had never known him to use drugs. Merrifield was found dead in his sheriff's office vehicle on Easter Sunday, April 20, after being involved in what police described as a "minor crash" early that morning down the street from his home near Abiquiú Lake. A close friend told officers and dispatchers he had come to Merrifield's aid sometime before 4 a.m., just after the crash, in which Merrifield, apparently driving his sheriff's office vehicle while intoxicated, had run over a street sign. The sheriff had been with a woman he had met a week before, his friend told police. The two had been drinking together at Merrifield's home, and Merrifield crashed into the sign just after leaving his home to take the woman back to a house she where was living in Española. The woman — who told police she was from Chihuahua, Mexico, and had been staying in Española for about eight months with family friends while acting as a caregiver for an older relative — had met Merrifield at the bar at the Ohkay Hotel Casino the previous Saturday night, April 12. Merrifield was there with friends, including the man who came to the couple's aid the morning Merrifield died, she said. The woman and Merrifield remained in contact throughout that week, developing a romantic relationship, according to the report. She told police Merrifield had been drinking liquor mixed into a Sprite bottle through the night of April 19 and into the following morning, but he was not "displaying obvious signs of impairment," such as stumbling, and he told her he was "good" to drive her home. After he swerved off the road and struck a road sign on N.M. 96, about 50 yards from the entrance of his driveway, the woman became "scared," she said, and she took the wheel and steered the vehicle back onto the road, according to the report. She looked over and saw that Merrifield was "snoring," she said. Police asked the woman if she or Merrifield had used any drugs, and she said "she didn't, but she didn't know if Billy used," police wrote in a report. Investigators interviewed the woman twice, once just hours after Merrifield was found dead and again May 2. Officers indicated the woman asked if she could return home to Mexico sometime after the second interview. After Merrifield's friend arrived at the scene of the crash early the morning of April 20, he drove back to Merrifield's home and the woman followed him, driving Merrifield's vehicle, sitting on the sheriff's lap because he was in and out of consciousness and could not be moved from the seat, she told police. The friend then took the woman back to Española, leaving Merrifield sitting in the driver's seat of his vehicle, parked in his driveway. Merrifield's friend told police he was going to help Merrifield into his home, but he feared the sheriff's dogs — which were inside the home — might bite him if he did so, investigators wrote. He said Merrifield told him he was "okay," and the friend believed Merrifield was going to get out of the car and walk into his house shortly. The woman told officers Merrifield was asleep and snoring in his vehicle when she left with his friend. After trying to call Merrifield 26 times later that day, his friend returned to his home to find him sitting in the vehicle where he had left him that morning, and he was dead, police wrote. Investigators downloaded the contents of the two witnesses' phones and found texts and phone calls that appeared to corroborate the timeline of their testimony about Merrifield's final hours. Reports indicate investigators had not gained access to two phones that apparently belong to the sheriff. As of Friday, state police had not determined whether Merrifield ingested fentanyl knowingly or where he might have obtained it, the agency's spokesperson, Lt. Ricardo Breceda, confirmed in an email, writing, "investigators are hopeful this information will be learned as the investigation continues." There was no evidence to suggest any other staff of the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office were implicated, or that the sheriff obtained any drugs in his official capacity, Breceda wrote. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with Merrifield's death, but investigators are "working to determine if any charges need to be filed," he added.
