Former sheriff’s deputy offered plea deal in child molestation case
District attorney says his office will seek maximum sentence of up to 25 years
Prosecutors on Monday offered a former Santa Fe County sheriff ’s deputy accused of child molestation a plea deal that subjects him to between three and 25 years in prison.
Dustin Bingham is charged with five felonies, including three counts of sexual contact with a minor under the age of 13, child solicitation by electronic device and sexual exploitation of children. The molestation charges are related to two girls that Bingham babysat in 2015.
District Attorney Marco Serna said his staff will ask the judge who sentences Bingham to give the former law enforcement officer the maximum sentence.
Bingham, 37, appeared Monday before state District Judge T. Glenn Ellington for a proceeding that had been listed as an arraignment and plea hearing. But the judge did not consider the plea deal because Bingham’s attorney, Stephen Aarons, said Bingham wanted to exercise his right to remove Ellington and have the case assigned to another judge.
Ellington agreed to proceed with the paperwork ending his involvement with the case. He also accepted a notguilty plea from Bingham for purposes of the arraignment.
Serna said one of his deputies tried to file the plea agreement with the court after the hearing but was told the clerk couldn’t accept the filing until it was signed by a judge. Details of the plea were not available, so it wasn’t clear what concessions, if any, prosecutors offered in exchange for a guilty plea.
Ellington had ordered Bingham held without bond after his arrest in May, saying no conditions of release could protect Bingham from harming himself or someone else.
Bingham told his father prior to his arrest that if police tried to arrest him he would shoot himself in the head or commit “suicide by cop” by threatening police so they would be forced to kill him.
According to testimony at that hearing, Bingham had told family members he knew he had a problem and wanted to seek counseling on his own with the help of his church. But his father and stepmother ultimately reported him to police.
Bingham worked as a detention officer for the Los Alamos Police Department from 2012 to 2015 and for the Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office from April 2015 through last February.
The Los Alamos Monitor reported in June that Los Alamos police had discovered more evidence against Bingham and filed additional charges. But Serna said Monday that, after reviewing the evidence, he decided it wasn’t worth indicting Bingham on the additional charges, which would have increased Bingham’s prison time by 18 months each.
Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com. Follow her on Twitter at @phaedraann.