Sen. Martinez found guilty of aggravated DWI
Governor calls for resignation of longtime state lawmaker
SANTA FE — Almost six months after plowing into a car stopped at a red light in Española, state Sen. Richard Martinez was found guilty Tuesday of aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving.
The veteran senator, a Democrat from Ojo Caliente who holds a key legislative committee chairmanship, was convicted after a 1½-day bench trial in Santa Fe. He will be sentenced Jan. 7 and faces a minimum sentence of seven days in jail and a maximum of 180 days.
While Martinez previously said he would not step down from the Legislature even if convicted, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham urged him to resign shortly after the verdict was announced.
“There is no way to square the circle: Drunken driving is an intolerable scourge in our state, and our elected leaders must hold themselves to the highest possible standard of behavior,” the firstterm Democratic governor said in a statement.
Top-ranking Democrats in the Senate did not go that far, though they said they will recommend against allowing Martinez to remain as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That panel that routinely debates bills dealing with criminal penalties.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, and Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, said it will be up to Martinez himself — or voters — to determine whether he remains in the Legislature.
Wirth and Papen said they will deliver their recommendation to the Senate Committees’ Committee next month. A 30-day legislative session is scheduled to begin Jan. 21.
“Now that the court has made its decision,” they said in a written statement, “the time has come for the New Mexico State Senate to take appropriate action.”
Martinez, 66, who has served in the Senate since 2001, remained emotionless as District Judge Francis Mathew announced the verdict Tuesday and did not respond to reporters’ questions while leaving the Santa Fe courthouse.
He had pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with the June 28 traffic crash and told reporters during the summer that he felt he could still serve ably as the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, saying the experience could end up making him a “better senator.”
But Lujan Grisham said in her Tuesday statement that Martinez had not heeded her previous suggestion to reflect on his actions and how they affected his role as a legislator and committee chairman.
“The senator’s defense of himself does not suggest to me that any such personal reckoning has taken place — and given the judge’s unambiguous ruling this afternoon, I urge him to resign his seat,” the governor said.
Sobriety tests
In their closing argument, prosecutors with Attorney General Hector Balderas’ office pointed out that Martinez
admitted to drinking alcohol on the night in question, first telling a police officer he had consumed “a beer or two” and later saying he actually had several glasses of wine.
They also said Martinez was driving too fast and the only thing that stopped him from running the red light was the red Jeep he slammed into, injuring an Española couple who were returning from a graduation party.
“No one is above the law, not even a senator — not even this defendant,” said Mark Probasco, an assistant attorney general with the AG’s Office.
In contrast, Martinez’s defense attorney, David Foster, described the crash as an accident and suggested Martinez’s poor performance on field sobriety tests was due to his being temporarily dazed from hitting his head on the windshield.
Foster also raised questions about Española police officer Dustin Chavez’s handling of the crime scene, arguing that the officer did not immediately turn on his lapel video camera upon arriving, quickly made up his mind to arrest Martinez and did not properly administer field sobriety tests.
“There was an abject failure by the police to follow any training or policies they had,” Foster said during Tuesday’s trial proceedings.
The officer had testified that Martinez showed classic signs of intoxication — including glassy eyes, slurred speech and the smell of alcohol — after crashing into the other vehicle.
Johnny Sisneros, the driver of the Jeep, testified during the trial that he suffered excruciating pain after being rear-ended and is still dealing with neck, back and hip injuries that have prevented him from resuming work as a security officer.
Martinez, who is also a retired Rio Arriba County magistrate judge, could not successfully perform two sobriety tests after the crash, as shown on police lapel-cam video, and refused to take a breath test to determine blood alcohol content.
The refusal to submit to a breath test is grounds for an aggravated DWI charge under New Mexico law.
‘Justice served’
Martinez is the second legislator to be charged with drunken driving in the last two years in New Mexico, a state with one of the nation’s highest rates of impaired driving fatalities as recently as 2017.
Former state Rep. Monica
Youngblood, an Albuquerque Republican, was convicted of aggravated DWI after being arrested at a sobriety checkpoint in May 2018. She was then defeated in last year’s general election by Democrat Karen Bash.
Balderas, whose office took over the Martinez case for Santa Fe-based district attorney Marco Serna, who recused himself to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, expressed satisfaction with the judge’s verdict.
“Drunk driving continues to plague our communities, and we must enforce the rule of law against anyone who risks the safety of others,” Balderas said. “I am grateful to the judge for hearing this case and that justice was served for the victims.”
As for Martinez, he has indicated he plans to seek election to a new four-year term in 2020, and no challengers — either Democrats or Republicans — have emerged for the Senate District 5 seat.
With his sentencing date three weeks away, Martinez will remain free on his own recognizance under court-ordered conditions of release that include no consumption of alcohol.