New DA sets a block in county jail revolving door

New 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez has wasted no time employing a new strategy of focusing prosecutions on what he calls “the relatively small percentage of the criminal population that drives a disproportionate amount of crime.” Thank heavens.

The strategy — adopted in response to severely limited state funding, a state Supreme Court order requiring timely adjudication of cases and a troubling increase in crime — has the potential to deliver the Metro area the most bang for its prosecution buck.

But only if the judiciary concurs with his interpretation of the Supreme Court’s Case Management Order.

Christopher Heh, 31, appears to fit perfectly into the new strategy. He was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center 13 times in 2016, primarily for drug and property crimes — including 11 felonies. But under former DA Kari Brandenburg’s interpretation of the 2014 Case Management Order — which set strict deadlines for prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense attorneys — all of Heh’s cases resulted in prosecutors filing “nolle prosequi” documents. That’s basically a dismissal of charges with the option of refiling them later. Prosecutors said they made the move to buy time for them to gather all their evidence to meet the CMO’s deadlines. It also turned Heh loose to allegedly commit more crimes.

Heh, the son of a former Albuquerque police officer and mayoral candidate, is one of those repeat suspects who prosecutors are now pursuing under Torrez’s new approach to ending the so-called “revolving door” that habitual offenders have relied on to escape justice.

So far this month, grand juries have returned indictments against Heh in three separate cases, according to a state court website. As of Thursday, he was still in MDC.

That’s because Torrez is interpreting the CMO as requiring prosecutors to present enough evidence at arraignment to justify moving forward, in contrast to Brandenburg’s interpretation that prosecutors must present enough evidence to prove a case. And there’s another fly in the ointment. A new constitutional amendment passed by voters last fall is supposed to allow certain defendants to be held without bail while awaiting trial.

Torrez’s prosecutors used it to try to keep Heh behind bars. But 2nd Judicial District Court Judge Stan Whitaker denied the request, saying, “I’m not sure this is the case where he needs to be detained under the new bail amendment.” Whitaker did set two $15,000 bonds and two $5,000 bonds that must be posted before Heh can hit the streets again.

Just as Brandenburg and Torrez have used their prosecutorial experience to interpret the Supreme Court’s speedy-trial requirements — with drastically different conclusions — Whitaker and other judges are using their judicial expertise to interpret those rules plus the new constitutional amendment on no-bail incarcerations.

Heh’s road to justice, which has already had far too many detours, will be an interesting test case for Torrez’s method of trying to reduce crime while rendering justice to victims and defendants alike. It will be equally interesting to see how judges interpret the speedy-trial rules and the no-bail law toward that same end.