Too blind?

Don’t blame judges for releasing suspects; blame lawmakers we elected

Fabian Gonzales has been released, but is it Judge Charles Brown’s fault?

Gonzales was originally charged with a heinous murder; however, upon further investigation, it was found that his role in this heinous act was complicit after the crime was already committed. He has been in jail for three years on a $1 million cash-only bond. So, the question becomes, why let him out now? What has changed?

The answer: The people of New Mexcio voted in an amendment to provide a “greater fairness” in the process of bonds and pretrial release. We, the people of New Mexico, said through our vote that it was not “fair” to make a defendant without financial resources stay in jail just because that defendant could not afford a bond. However, we may not have known how the newly minted amendment would actually play out through regulations.

The New Mexico Supreme Court went to work on the amendment and through their interpretation created regulations that — with some hyperbole — go like this.

“If you, the defendant, say you cannot pay a bond, and if the district attorney cannot prove that you have a previous violent criminal conviction, and if the DA cannot prove, under a relatively high standard, that you are a danger to society or a flight risk, then you are free to roam the streets until your trial.”

This is not what the voters of New Mexico voted for in the amendment. We voted to allow defendants who are indigent to be given a reasonable bond that would both protect the judicial system and assure that the defendant would return to court, and protect the defendant’s presumption of innocence without an absolute restriction of the defendant’s freedoms while they await their day in court. We were hoodwinked.

The question then becomes, is this the judge’s fault? In the case of Judge Brown, the answer is a resounding “no.” Why? Judges take an oath to uphold the law and to implement the law as the arbiter, not as the lawmaker. This judge used the law that he was handed and made a decision based on the standards required.

This guy, Fabian, did a bad thing in our minds, and we cannot just allow him to walk free. Since we cannot punish him directly, we end up demonizing the judge who made the decision to release him. In reality, the ones to blame are you and me.

However, there is also good news. The good news is that we can undo the mistake we made. We can have a do-over. How? By remembering what these elected officials have done and making them pay at the ballot box.

Here’s the problem with this good news. The problem is that we are fickle people. We will be very angry about this story for a few weeks and we will swear revenge, but then, we will go back to life and we will forget. And we will be busy making our livelihood and taking care of our families and doing what good citizens do; and we will lose this anger and forget the heinous acts and not remember the elected officials who were complicit, and we will not make them pay.

The solution is simple: We must challenge ourselves to build community relationships that will outlast any elected official or election cycle. Every person, in every neighborhood knows five other people. And those five people know five more people. We must crowd-source information in our neighborhoods. We must create and foster relationships that encourage debate and thought. Neighbors talking to neighbors about their concerns and fears. It’s only through tight communities that we can create solutions on how to fix it.

Apathy is kryptonite to a republic. We must cure the apathy and be about the betterment of not just our own immediate family and circle, but of this beloved city, state and country of ours.