AG spokesman charged with aggravated DWI
Matthew Baca placed on administrative leave after Oct. 23 incident
SANTA FE — A spokesman for the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office was arrested and charged with aggravated DWI and other charges after a Santa Fe Police Department officer encountered him in a vehicle that had crashed into a legally parked car, court documents state.
Matthew Baca was arrested Oct. 23, just after 10 p.m. Authorities said his breath smelled of alcohol and he performed poorly on field sobriety tests. He was charged with aggravated DWI because he refused a breathalyzer test, court documents state.
“Our office is aware that Matt Baca was recently accused of driving under the influence and so he has been placed on administrative leave to be with his family and handle this matter,” Attorney General Hector Balderas said through a spokesperson. “He is not serving as chief counsel and his duties have been reassigned.”
This was Baca’s first DWI offense. He was also charged with careless driving.
The officer who stopped him had been attempting to locate a vehicle he had seen driving recklessly, but lost contact with it. He then came upon Baca in a silver Honda sedan on Garcia Street. Baca was not the person seen driving recklessly.
But observations of the collision “strongly indicated that Mr. Baca was not traveling properly within the correct lane of traffic prior to the crash,” the documents state.
During a search, the Santa Fe officer found a vape pen labeled “THC” in Baca’s pocket. Baca told police “he did not know what that vape pen was although it was in his pocket,” the documents state.
When Baca got out of the car, there were “small superficial lacerations on his face,” and the officer called for an ambulance to assess Baca and give medical aid, a criminal complaint filed in Santa Fe Municipal Court states.
The officer “observed slurred speech, dilated pupils and watery eyes” and “a very dry tongue with heat bumps and a green distinct film, which are consistent with the use of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),” officer Fernando Cruz wrote in the criminal complaint. THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.