Block Jr.’s attorney: Police knew his location
Judge orders release from jail, wants him back in rehab
Santa Fe police issued an arrest warrant for Jerome Block Jr. on a felony count of burglary Dec. 1 and called him a fugitive — even posting a notice on the department’s Facebook page earlier this week naming him the “Fugitive of the Week” — but an attorney told a Santa Fe County magistrate Friday that police knew all along Block had checked himself into the Life Healing Center of New Mexico, a rehabilitation facility south of the city.
Juan Valencia, who is representing Block in the burglary case, told Magistrate Donita Sena during a court hearing that his client’s father, Jerome Block Sr., had called police and informed them of exactly where his son was staying.
That conflicts with statements made previously by Santa Fe police officials.
After obtaining an arrest warrant accusing Block Jr., a former state elected official with a history of drug problems and theft, of burglarizing a downtown timeshare condominium, police told media outlets that Block Jr. had called the department himself to tell officers he was in rehab but refused to name the facility.
Sena set an unsecured appearance bond of $1,500 and ordered Block’s release from jail on electronic monitoring, despite a prosecutor’s request for a much higher bond. “I would like him to return to the treatment facility,” the judge said.
Sheriff ’s deputies had picked up Block at the Life Healing Center on Thursday after receiving an anonymous tip called in to a county emergency dispatcher, according to news releases issued by city police and the Santa Fe County Sheriff ’s Office.
Asked by Sena to respond to Valencia’s claim that police knew of Block’s whereabouts all along, Santa Fe police spokesman Greg Gurulé and Deputy Chief Andrew Padilla both said they could not comment on the issue because they first needed to consult with the officer assigned to the case, Luis Ruiz, who was not working Friday.
Wearing a tan jumpsuit and shackles during the court hearing, Block, 40, stood out from more than a dozen defendants arraigned via a video feed at Magistrate Court; he was the only one with a private attorney.
Valencia told Sena that Block has no “recent” criminal history and poses no flight risk, and therefore should be released from custody so he could check himself back into the Life Healing Center, a behavioral health, substance-abuse and trauma treatment facility off Seton Village Road.
Sena agreed that Block is not a flight risk. She also was well aware of his political status, she said, adding that she was going to treat the case like any other.
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” the judge said. “And if he does, he’ll come back.”
A prosecutor argued, however, that Block does pose a flight risk, and that he has a history of probation violations from a 2011 conviction on felony counts of fraud and embezzlement that led him to resign from his $90,000-a-year seat on the state Public Regulation Commission.
Block abused his position of trust, the prosecutor said, when he entered a downtown timeshare condominium on Nov. 19, while the time-share owners were inside sleeping, and took several valuables. The prosecutor urged Sena to set a secured bond of $20,000.
Police have said a surveillance video shows Block leaving the condominium with valuables belonging to the Oklahoma couple, who had spent the Thanksgiving week in Santa Fe. The couple later told police that Block’s mother, Patsy Block, who manages the Otra Vez en Santa Fe complex on Galisteo Street, had found their stolen iPad and wallet in an office. But in an interview Dec. 1, they said they still hadn’t recovered a $6,700 watch, $600 worth of gift cards and $380 in cash.
Valencia said Block has since returned all but one item to the couple.
“He paid his debt in the last case,” Valencia added. “He never absconded.”
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled Jan. 3 before Magistrate David Segura. Sena said the third-degree felony burglary charge carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison, a $5,000 fine or both.
Outside the courtroom, Valencia declined to say whether his client planned to plead guilty or not guilty to the charge.
No one at the Life Healing Center returned a phone message requesting comment Friday on the case. A message left with the facility’s Franklin, Tenn., owner, Acadia Healthcare, was not returned.
Deputy Chief Padilla said in an interview Friday that officers were not investigating the facility for harboring a fugitive wanted on a felony warrant.
Valencia’s comments in court, however, raised questions about whether Block was an actual fugitive.
In a Dec. 5 report, The New Mexican quoted Deputy Chief Mario Salbidrez, saying Block had called police and said he was in a rehabilitation facility. “He refuses to tell investigators where he’s at,” Salbidrez said. “We don’t know where he’s at; we just know his claim that he’s in rehab.”
For the same article, Gurulé told The New Mexican to encourage Block to turn himself in, if he was reached by a reporter.
And on Monday, Santa Fe police posted on the department’s official Facebook page a wanted poster calling Block the “Fugitive of the Week.”
In an interview Friday evening, Daniel Selchow, one of the victims of the time-share burglary, said a notarized document was sent to the District Attorney’s Office earlier in the day saying Block had paid back the value of the items to the couple.
Selchow said the couple no longer want to pursue charges in the case, calling it a “mess.”
District Attorney Marco Serna did not return a voicemail seeking comment Friday evening. And Selchow declined to say how much Block had repaid the couple for their valuables.
“He’s made full restitution,” Selchow said.