Latest news with #LawOfficesofthePublicDefender
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Public defenders look back on 2025 legislative session
Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur. (Photo courtesy of the Law Offices of the Public Defender) Philip Larragoite, chief of staff for the New Mexico Legislature's Senate Judiciary Committee, says his measure of a legislative session's success isn't so much the bills lawmakers passed but, rather, the ones they did not. 'You can't hear 'em all, and the Judiciary Committee in the Senate was pretty rigorous about what it hears and what it acts on,' Larragoite told the state Public Defender Commission on Friday during its regular meeting in Albuquerque — its first since the session ended on March 22. 'Our Constitution is hard-wired — it's supposed to be hard to adopt legislation, hard to pass bills.' The commission oversees the Law Offices of the Public Defender, the independent state agency that employs public defenders who represent anyone charged with a crime in New Mexico. Larragoite, who is also LOPD's deputy chief of policy and statewide offices, noted that he has participated in more than 70 legislative sessions, the earliest in 1961 as a page for Jack Campbell, who was House Speaker at the time. Appellate Defender Kim Chavez Cook, who also works as LOPD's policy advocate during legislation sessions, agreed that it is important to note the bills that did not pass. She highlighted two examples of bills that were 'priorities for us to stop': House Bill 204, a proposal that comes up every year to try to remove defense pre-trial interviews from certain cases; and House Bill 190, which would have given alleged victims in criminal cases the right to be a litigant in those cases. Chavez Cook said LOPD had 'serious due process concerns' with HB204, and put a lot of time and energy into discussions about it. HB190 raised 'some serious separation of powers and other related concerns,' she said. Neither bill received a single vote in committee this year. 'We'll keep doing that year after year, many of these things will come back again,' Chavez Cook said. Policy aside, Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur told the Commission on Friday he was disappointed by the budget outcomes. During the recent session, his agency asked lawmakers for a nearly 13% increase in its annual budget but only received a 4.1% increase. Lawmakers did not give LOPD any money for additional full-time staff positions, Baur said, but they did give the agency $450,000 to spend over the next two years for recruitment and retention. Hundreds of additional public defenders would be needed to properly handle all of the cases coming through the state's criminal legal system, and there is a longstanding disparity of resources between public defenders and their opponents in court, district attorneys. The American Bar Association found in 2022 that New Mexico needs at least 602 full-time attorneys and is currently only meeting 33% of clients who need a legal defense. Baur said many lawmakers were concerned about the economy in the U.S. and the state as they considered the budget, and are probably even more concerned about it now than they were during the session. In the last four years, he said, lawmakers have funded 54 new staff positions. LOPD has an overall vacancy rate of 11%, better than most state agencies, he said. That rate is higher for attorney positions, at 16.8%, he said. Many public defenders aren't actually full-time staff employed by LOPD, but are contractors who are paid a flat fee for taking on cases rather than an hourly rate. For example, when a contractor takes on a first-degree murder case, the state pays them a base rate of $5,400. For the whole case. That means, on average, that attorney is making $13.81 per hour representing their client, according to the ABA's study. In some jurisdictions, paying a public defender a flat fee is outlawed, said Commissioner Jacqueline Flores, a former Second Judicial District Court judge. Baur said lawmakers didn't give LOPD money to launch a pilot project for paying contract attorneys an hourly rate. But he said he's determined to still try to do it by 'rearranging money' within the agency's existing budget. 'Those of you that know the budget process know that you never get what you ask for,' Baur said. 'But if you don't ask for it, then you don't get it.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Yahoo
Trial of former APD officer proceeds without in-person testimony from alleged victim
Apr. 3—Largely absent this week in the trial of former Albuquerque police officer Kenneth Skeens is the mentally disabled man whose arrest in 2022 is central to the case. Prosecutors allege that Skeens, 30, illegally arrested 53-year-old Matthew McManus at a Target store as he struggled to purchase a bicycle at a self-checkout register. Testimony began Tuesday in Skeens' trial on felony charges of false imprisonment and perjury and a single misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report. Jurors have viewed hours of security video showing McManus piling cash on the self-checkout register, trying to buy a blue Huffy bicycle. Prosecutors also showed jurors police lapel-camera video of Skeens and a second officer confronting McManus at the register, then pulling him out of the store as he forcibly resisted. Officers then cuffed McManus, asked him for identification, and put him into the back of Skeens' patrol car. But McManus himself will not testify in the trial, prosecutors said. Instead, jurors on Wednesday heard a recording of McManus' testimony at Skeens' trial in April 2024. That trial ended in a mistrial last year after the jury failed to reach a verdict on any charge, which allowed prosecutors to retry Skeens this week on identical charges. "They were very brutal," McManus said in his recorded testimony of his treatment by police on Aug. 19, 2022. "They didn't have any right to do all those things to me." McManus also said he had "a heart problem, an aneurysm and a stroke." McManus' disabilities often make it difficult to understand his speech. McManus, now 56, faces his own legal problems. He was charged in May 2024 with aggravated assault for allegedly throwing rocks at trailers in the 9000 block of Zuni SE, where he lived at the time, court records show. A Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge in December ordered an evaluation to determine McManus' competency to stand trial in that case. Assistant Attorney General Johnna Walker said that questions about McManus' competency bar him from testifying. A judge ruled Monday that prosecutors could use a recording of McManus' testimony last year in lieu of calling him as a witness, Walker said. McManus is represented by an attorney with the Law Offices of the Public Defender. A spokeswoman for LOPD said Thursday that McManus is not in custody but declined additional comment about the status of his criminal case. Court records also show that McManus was evicted last year from his trailer at Wyoming Terrace for failure to pay rent. McManus failed to show up for trial on Aug. 8 when a Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court judge ordered him to vacate the trailer and pay Wyoming Terrace $1,405 in past-due rent and attorney fees. Skeens' trial is scheduled through early next week in 2nd Judicial District Court before Judge Britt Baca. Jurors also heard this week from Ty Hunt, who worked as Target's asset protection specialist the night of McManus' arrest. Hunt said he gave Skeens permission to "make contact" with McManus, but not to cite him for criminal trespass. Hunt told jurors he did not observe McManus doing anything illegal inside the store and refused to sign a criminal trespass notice that would have barred McManus from entering the store in the future. Hunt said he spoke by phone with a supervisor and obtained permission for Skeens to "make contact" with McManus. A short time after Skeens and a second officer approached McManus, the officers removed him from the store. "They grabbed him and there was a bunch of yelling commotion, and at that point, that's when they started dragging him out," Hunt told jurors. "It was kind of shocking," Hunt said. "I didn't think that's how it was going to go. I thought they were going to make contact and talk with Mr. McManus about what's going on or something they could help him with."
NBC News
19-03-2025
- NBC News
Teens charged with murder nearly a year after cyclist on way to work was intentionally hit by stolen vehicle
Video released Tuesday shows the moments leading up to when New Mexico police say a bicycle commuter was intentionally struck by a stolen vehicle full of youths and killed. The release of the cellphone video comes a day after the teenager who police said was driving was arrested on a charge of murder, Albuquerque police said Tuesday. The 13-year-old accused of driving and the two others in the car when the cyclist was killed last year are 'runaways' and 'dropouts,' Mayor Tim Keller said at a news conference. 'These children are murderers,' he said. The passengers were 15 and 11 at the time. The youngest is too young for criminal prosecution, police said. On Tuesday night, the department announced that the 11-year-old was taken into custody, but that they were still looking for the 15-year-old. The state Children, Youth & Families Department will take custody of the 11-year-old and evaluate him, police said. he was taken into custody by that agency in June, police said. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said at Tuesday's news conference with the mayor that the boy at the time could not be prosecuted or confined effectively because of his age. The older boys have been charged with murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of a collision involving injury or death, and unlawful possession of a firearm, Albuquerque police said in the statement. The state public defender's juvenile unit for the Albuquerque area did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Juveniles in children's court are automatically assigned public defenders, according to the New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender. Scott Dwight Habermehl, 63, of Corrales, a community 16 miles north of Albuquerque, was killed May 29. The Ph.D physicist was bicycling to his job as a military contractor at Sandia National Laboratories when he was struck, police said. "Scott was riding his bike with his helmet in a bike lane with a safety light on when he was struck by a car, and the car left," Albuquerque Police Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock said at the news conference. According to a detailed obituary published by Daniels Family Funerals & Cremation, Habermehl's contributions at Sandia, where he was also remembered as a mentor and scholar, led to six patents and included work on keeping computer microchips resistant to radiation. "These are techniques that are still used to this day for national security and space applications," the obituary stated. He and partner Jamie Philpott, an Albuquerque-area veterinarian, have two grown sons, it said, adding that Habermehl recently completed his construction of a home in Leadville, Colorado, a historic town surrounded by some of the Rocky Moutains' highest peaks, as a family retreat. The case was initially considered a hit-and-run, officials said. "The case was actually closed pending further leads," Hartsock, who oversees the police department's Criminal Investigation Division and any homicide probes, said at the news conference. In February, two youths reported the existence of the video to a parent and school administrator, police said. It was allegedly taken from inside the stolen vehicle that struck Habermehl and later posted to Instagram, Hartsock said. The video helped investigators identify the three youths and obtain arrest warrants last week for two of them, according to police. The youths had previous run-ins with law enforcement and were relatively easy to find, the commander said. Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina described the three youths as friends who were on officers' radar about this time last year. Police said the recording includes audio in which the 15-year-old can be heard encouraging the 13-year-old who they say was driving to "just bump him, brah." The video indicates the vehicle accelerated before the cyclist was hit, police said in Tuesday's statement. "The front passenger, believed to be the 11-year-old who was waving a handgun, ducked and laughed as the front, passenger side of the vehicle struck Habermehl," police said in the statement. The statement continued, "There were loud sounds, including metal flexing, as the momentum of the crash carried Habermehl and his bicycle on top, and off, the passenger side of the vehicle." The 13-year-old was taken into custody on Monday. He was on juvenile probation and probation officials were able to help police locate him, Medina said. The 15-year-old who police are looking last year was suspected in doorbell thefts, participating in a $15,000 burglary of beer, alcohol and cigarettes, and a minor-injury shooting, police said.
New York Times
18-03-2025
- New York Times
Two New Mexico Teenagers Are Charged With Murdering a Cyclist
Two teenage boys, one 13 and the other 15, have been charged with murder after the younger boy intentionally drove a stolen vehicle into a man as he was riding his bike to work last year, killing him, the police in Albuquerque said on Monday. An 11-year-old who was also in the vehicle will be charged in connection with the crime, the police said in a statement, though he is too young to be charged with murder and his name was not disclosed. The driver, Johnathan Overbay, was identified through a cellphone video that the boys posted on social media, the police said. The video, which one of the boys recorded from the back seat, showed Jonathan accelerating toward the cyclist, Scott Dwight Habermehl, 63, the police said. Mr. Habermehl was on his way to work at Sandia National Laboratory on May 29, 2024, when he was fatally struck around 4:40 a.m. The 15-year-old, William Garcia, sat in the back seat and told Jonathan to slow down and 'just bump him,' the video shows. As they drove, the 11-year-old, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, flashed a handgun to the camera and then ducked as they neared Mr. Habermehl. The video, shared by the Albuquerque Police Department, does not show the moment the vehicle crashed into Mr. Habermehl, but the department said in a news release that 'there were loud sounds, including metal flexing.' Mr. Habermehl was flung on top of the vehicle and then fell off the side. Jonathan was arrested on Monday, and the police said they were still searching for William and the 11-year-old. Jonathan and William are facing charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death, and unlawful possession of a handgun by a person. The Bernalillo County district attorney's office would not comment on the charges or clarify whether the boys would be tried as adults. Maggie Shepard, the communication director for the New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender, said it was too early for the office to provide comment. Detectives did not initially know who was in the vehicle after it hit Mr. Habermehl in May. In February, the police received an anonymous tip that included the Instagram account that posted the video of the crash. Around the same time, a middle school principal also reported the video to the police after a student flagged the post. Investigators searched phones belonging to Jonathan and the 11-year-old and found the footage of the crash, the police said. They said that their phones were seized in June 2024 during a separate investigation. The police did not disclose the nature of the other investigation. Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Judiciary approves two public safety bills over the weekend
Police in Albuquerque in mid-September, 2021. (Photo by Marisa Demarco / Source NM) On Saturday, the New Mexico House Judiciary Committee passed two public safety bills forward in advance of additional proposals in the queue for later this week. House Bill 31 would more severely punish the crime of threatening to shoot people by increasing the attached penalty from a misdemeanor, which carries a maximum possible jail sentence between six months and one year, to a fourth-degree felony, which comes with 18 months in prison. Three years ago, Senate Bill 34 similarly called for this crime to be punished as a fourth-degree felony, but it was amended down to a misdemeanor and included in the omnibus crime package signed into law. House Bill 50 would group together the sentences for four different crimes related to stealing motor vehicles. State law already requires longer prison terms if someone commits one of these crimes on multiple occasions, but HB50 would make subsequent convictions carry greater sentences for having violated any of the four statutes. 'In other words, a first time violator of the one statute would be considered a repeat offender of the larger statutory scheme if they have a prior conviction for a different Article 16D offense,' the Law Offices of the Public Defender explained in its analysis of the bill. 'This may lead to further litigation since an accused person may challenge the legality of an enhanced punishment for 'repeating' conduct they have not actually repeated.' The committee has heard two other bills that lawmakers intend to include in the crime package. The committee is expected to vote on the package on Wednesday. House Bill 4 would give prosecutors more options to involuntarily commit people into a locked psychiatric facility if they are found to be dangerous and unable to stand trial. House Bill 38 would ban devices that can convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic ones. The committee is scheduled to hold hearings on House Bill 16, which would increase sentences for trafficking fentanyl, and House Bill 86, which would remove the statute of limitations for prosecuting a human trafficking offense. House Bill 12 is headed to a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives. It would create an alternative process for police officers to ask a judge for an Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order, if a reporting party isn't available or doesn't want to be involved.
