VIGILANCE OR RIGHTS VIOLATION?
Facebook post by police asking residents to track burglary suspect raises questions of privacy
The Santa Fe Police Department issued a news release around 6 p.m. Jan. 4, announcing it had arrested its “Fugitive of the Week,” a 40-year-old Santa Fe man who has been in and out of jail for years, often on charges of burglary and receiving stolen property. He’s had four arrests since October, police said, calling the man a “Frequent Flier for Law Enforcement.”
Adrian Bleamer, booked into the Santa Fe County jail that afternoon, had been wanted on a third-degree felony charge of receiving stolen property in connection with a burglary of an Old Pecos Trail residence in early December.
About an hour after police emailed the notice of his arrest to news media, jail records show, Bleamer was released.
The following morning, police posted Bleamer’s mugshot on Facebook, saying a court had released the suspect and was asking for the public’s help tracking his whereabouts, even though the man is not wanted on a warrant.
“Please let Police know where he is as he continues to be a property crimes threat to our neighborhoods,” the post said, providing a phone number to call if anyone spots Bleamer.
The post set off a heated debate on Facebook and beyond about the difficult balance police must strike between keeping the public safe and informed, and violating residents’ rights. Paul Haidle, an attorney who works as a criminal justice advocate for the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, summed up his organization’s perspective of the issue by saying it is “problematic” that police are “essentially asking citizens to spy on one another.”
Criticism by Bleamer’s public defender, Damian Horne, went even further, calling the police department’s Facebook post an outrage that has set the city of Santa Fe up for a “massive lawsuit” if a member of the public harms his client.
Employing a rhetorical flair he often reserves for the courtroom, Horne questioned whether police had “transmogrified” the Constitution to mean someone is guilty until proven innocent and had assumed “the mantle of some gestapo watchdog agency.”
A person commenting on the Facebook post under the name Alec Taylor seemed to confirm Horne’s fears that someone could act out violently against Bleamer. Taylor said judges releasing defendants from custody is “creating a wild west situation where our only option is to shoot thieves on sight. … [S]hoot him and plant a knife on him for your family’s safety.”
But Santa Fe County Magistrate George Anaya Jr., who had ordered Bleamer’s release, said no prosecutor appeared at Bleamer’s hearing to present evidence showing he might be a flight risk or a danger to the community. So, Anaya said Wednesday, he released Bleamer on standard conditions, as he’s required to do.
Under a voter-approved constitutional amendment enacted in July, Anaya said, he must release defendants on the “least restrictive bond possible” — in this case, a $2,500 unsecured appearance bond, which means Bleamer didn’t have to post bail up front but will have to pay the amount if he fails to show up for a court hearing.
And while police said in the Facebook post that Bleamer was “picked up” on an arrest warrant, Anaya said the man actually had turned himself in to the Magistrate Court with his public defender.
Asked if he had any comment on the police Facebook post, Anaya, who recently announced a re-election bid for his Magistrate Court seat, replied, “None whatsoever.”
“I don’t regulate the Santa Fe police, they don’t regulate me,” he said.
A Santa Fe police lieutenant on Wednesday defended the Facebook post about Bleamer, saying the department had not violated the man’s privacy by using publicly available information to alert the community about his release.
Lt. Marvin Paulk said anyone can look at Bleamer’s history with the law on public court and jail websites. It is the police department’s duty to inform the public about the man’s release, Paulk said, because he has been accused of committing multiple property crimes.
“I think I’d want to know that if he lived next door to me,” he said.
Bleamer, who could not be reached for comment Wednesday, has never been convicted of a crime in New Mexico, according to state court records, but is facing six pending criminal cases. In one of them, he has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of receiving stolen property and tampering with evidence in the August theft of two bronze sculptures from the Santa Fe Children’s Museum.
He is not charged with stealing the sculptures, which police say in a criminal complaint were found buried in the yard of a home where Bleamer used to live.
Bleamer is accused of burglarizing an Old Pecos Trail home in October, days after his release from jail in the sculpture case. Police say they also connected him to a Dec. 2 burglary of the same home by using location coordinates from an electronic monitor he was wearing at the time.
I think I’d want to know that if he lived next door to me.” Santa Fe police Lt. Marvin Paulk, on the Facebook post about Adrian Bleam