Deputies find, arrest Block Jr.
Officers received tip former PRC member was staying at Life Healing Center
Former state Public Regulation Commission member Jerome Block Jr. is back in jail.
After receiving an anonymous tip, agents with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office found him at the Life Healing Center southeast of Santa Fe and took him into custody on an arrest warrant issued two weeks ago in connection with a downtown Santa Fe burglary, according to a statement issued by Capt. Nathan Segura.
Block, who has a history of drug problems and theft, had told police and others by telephone that he had checked himself into a rehabilitation program rather than surrender to law enforcement, but investigators did not know his whereabouts until Thursday.
The Santa Fe Police Department on Monday had placed a wanted poster on the its website labeling the 40-year-old as the “Fugitive of the Week.” A police spokesman said this week that the non-
profit Crime Stoppers program planned to offer an award for information leading to his arrest but that no amount had been determined.
Segura said authorities do not know who left the tip about Block’s whereabouts with Santa Fe County dispatchers around noon Thursday. About an hour later, Segura said, two sheriff ’s deputies showed up at the Life Healing Center off Old Las Vegas Highway, where an employee told them, “I know who you’re here for.”
The employee then contacted a supervisor at the center, and Block surrendered to the two warrant agents without incident, Segura said.
It’s unclear if personnel at the Life Healing Center knew Block was wanted on a felony arrest warrant during his stay at the inpatient addiction treatment facility. A voicemail left at the Life Healing Center after 5 p.m. Thursday was not returned.
Online records show that shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday, Block was booked into the Santa Fe County jail, where he was being held without bond.
Segura said that Block likely will be arraigned Friday by a Santa Fe County magistrate, who will decide whether Block should be released from custody and, if so, under what conditions.
Block has a felony record. In 2011, he resigned from his $90,000-a-year elected post on the state regulatory body when he pleaded guilty to felony fraud and embezzlement charges for misusing taxpayer money. He avoided jail through a plea deal in which he agreed to seek treatment for his drug addiction while on probation. But in the years that followed, Block continued to make headlines for violating his probation terms.
Police obtained the warrant for his arrest on Dec. 1 after gathering evidence that included a surveillance video of Block leaving a time-share condominium with valuables belonging to an Oklahoma couple who spent the Thanksgiving week in Santa Fe. The victims later told police that Block’s mother, who manages the Otra Vez en Santa Fe complex on Galisteo Street, had found their stolen iPad and wallet in an office. But they said in an interview last week that they still hadn’t recovered a $6,700 watch, $600 worth of gift cards and $380 in cash.
The couple said they had offered to not press charges if Block returned the watch and worked out a repayment plan for the value of the missing gift cards and money. But they decided to pursue the case when the watch wasn’t returned.
Block was elected to the Public Regulation Commission in 2008, following in the footsteps of his father, who had served on the commission years earlier. Block Jr. resigned from the position in 2011 as part of the deal in which he pleaded guilty to six felony counts.
Block was sentenced in 2012 to probation and drug treatment in that case. But he was kicked out of the Drug Court program after telling a teenager via text message he could get her Oxycontin. Two years later, he violated his probation by testing positive for cocaine and opiates.
The state Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, argued that Block should spend time behind bars for probation violations. Instead, a judge again ordered Block to undergo rehabilitation treatment.
His probation ended in April 2016, according to court records.
Thursday was the 10th time since 2009 that Block has been booked in the Santa Fe County jail, records show.