Former police officer goes up against sheriff
Davis challenges Hogrefe for post
Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe became a national figure for a brief time this past summer when his office raided a makeshift compound near the Colorado border and rescued 11 malnourished children from adults who are now accused of plotting terrorism.
But one child, 3-year-old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, was already dead by the time deputies got there, leaving people to wonder if Hogrefe could have moved in sooner to save the boy.
Now, Hogrefe has a new challenge: Republican Jani Davis, who is competing against Democrat Hogrefe in Tuesday’s general election.
Deputies and other state officials raided the compound near the community of Amalia in early August. They had information that young AbdulGhani, who had reportedly been abducted in Georgia by his father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was at the compound and that the five adults living there were plotting terrorist attacks.
The remaining children were taken into state custody and the adults were arrested. AbdulGhani, who had allegedly been denied his seizure medication, was found dead on the property soon after the raid.
Hogrefe got a lot of flack for his initial handling of the case because the sheriff’s office had received the information that the missing boy could be there back in May. But court documents that were released after the raid, based on accounts from people who were living there, suggest that Abdul-Ghani had died months before, in either December or February.
Hogrefe told the Journal earlier this week that he would not have done anything differently in the case. “I’m
proud we did it the right way and the lawful way,” Hogrefe said.
He said in August that local authorities couldn’t confirm that the missing boy was at the Amalia compound and that’s why they didn’t move in sooner. Once police in Georgia got a message that people in the compound were starving, his office finally had enough probably cause to seek a search warrant from a judge and move in, he said.
Taos District Attorney Donald Gallegos’s staff subsequently missed critical deadlines for preliminary court hearings for the five arrested adults. That forced Taos District Court judges to drop charges against the Amalia defendants. The adults currently don’t have state charges, but are facing federal counts and are now incarcerated.
Hogrefe took to Facebook to express dismay about the rulings and how the case was handled by the DA’s office. But he told the Journal he can continue to work with Gallegos, who recently announced that he’s not seeking another term in 2020.
“I’ve known Mr. Gallegos since before he was an attorney,” Hogrefe said. “I have no big issues with him on a personal level. There’s no strain in that relationship. He’s got a good staff over there.”
Police work ‘a calling’
Davis didn’t get into law enforcement until she was 44 years old, after holding various jobs, including as a Hollywood stunt woman. She says it’s not a bad thing that she became an officer, which she says is her “calling,” after getting experience in other fields.
“In my opinion, people should get into law enforcement later in life,” she said. “I can perceive people’s problems and differences a lot better. People with life skills fare better in law enforcement.”
She first started working for the Taos Police Department in 2009 and most recently worked for the Questa Police Department until last fall when she decided to go back to school.
Her law enforcement career was derailed three years ago when she was fired from the Taos Police Department after she was accused of using excessive force during a June 2015 arrest of domestic violence suspect Frank Olonia. Davis was tried for one count of misdemeanor battery for the incident, but was acquitted by the jury.
However, the termination led Davis to file a lawsuit against the Town of Taos in June 2016 for gender and age discrimination, as well as violations of the Whistleblower Protection Act. That case was settled out of court in June.
Male officers were at the scene, including one who she said threatened to kill Olonia, and Davis said she was the only one who lost her job.
“None of the other officers tried to stop me,” Davis recently told the Journal. “I just find it interesting that they don’t apply that same thinking to other officers that happen to be male. I was found not guilty in under 12 minutes. I fight a system that I believe is unethical and probably sexist.”
Davis was also named as one of several defendants in four different lawsuits — one in state court and the others in federal court — over the past eight years that accuse Davis of using excessive force during an arrest and of abusing her position as an officer. The state court suit was dropped because Davis was never served and she said she was dropped from the federal suits before they were settled out of court.
Hogrefe was named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit in 1994, because, he says, he pulled over a car in Red River and arrested the driver for DUI. A passenger in that car later caused a fatal crash, Hogrefe said. The suit was later dismissed.