Senator’s fans insist racism infects DWI case
Afew defenders of state Sen. Richard Martinez are using an old and predictable tactic to try to save his political career. They say racism has fueled my coverage of Martinez, who’s charged with aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving.
Martinez, D-Española, crashed his Mercedes SUV into the back of a Jeep, injuring two people. Police smelled alcohol on him. Then he couldn’t perform simple sobriety tests, such as counting backward from 31 to 14.
Martinez insisted police had no cause to arrest him, but he refused a breathalcohol test that would have cleared an innocent man.
I wrote last week that Martinez should resign from the office. He chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and an interim legislative panel on the justice system. He’s spent 19 years in the Senate deploring the carnage caused by drunken drivers.
His credibility gone, Martinez cannot be an effective lawmaker.
I took the same position last year when then-Rep. Monica Youngblood, a law-and-order Republican from Albuquerque, tried to intimidate a police officer who suspected her of drunken driving.
The officer asked Youngblood for her level of education before giving her a field sobriety test. She told him she was a high school graduate and a state representative.
Her office had nothing to do with her education, but she hoped political clout would spare her from an arrest and conviction. It didn’t. The facts I’ve laid out here have nothing to do with race. But a handful of people, including a man identifying himself as Alfonso Duran, have a different vantage.
“You use the cases of Richard and Monica to make your case,” Duran wrote in an email. “What do the two have in common? They are both Hispanic. Have you advocated for the removal of [Sen.] Mimi Stewart? I don’t think so. She was in a similar situation as Richard and Monica. … In your case it isn’t political bias but I think it is racial bias.”
Stewart, D-Albuquerque, was arrested in 1999 on suspicion of drunken driving in Santa Fe. Police found her in her car, passed out. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.10 percent, higher than the threshold of 0.08 percent that presumed intoxication.
Stewart pleaded guilty the same day she was arrested. I wasn’t working in New Mexico then, but I’ve reviewed her case and two decades worth of newspaper coverage about public figures charged with drinking and driving.
As recently as 15 years ago, any New Mexico politician in a safe district could survive a conviction for what now is regarded as a dangerous crime.
Stewart kept her legislative seat. So did then-state Sen. Phil Griego, who was convicted of drunken driving in 2000 and again in 2001.
Griego, D-San Jose, remained in the Senate until 2015, when he resigned under threat of expulsion for profiteering in the sale of a state building. He served time in prison for the real estate scandal.
Duran was eager to bring up Stewart, who is Caucasian. He avoided any mention of two-time offender Griego, who is Hispanic.
Race wasn’t the issue then any more than it is now. Legislators of different ethnic backgrounds were treated about the same in press coverage. Griego received more attention only because he had two convictions.
This is a different time. The public isn’t tolerant of drunken drivers, especially those who make the laws.
Many of us know someone who’s been injured or killed by a drunk who took the wheel. Everyone else can see the human wreckage because of advances in technology.
Griego and Stewart committed their crimes when the internet was in its infancy. YouTube was not yet born.
In contrast, police videotaped the arrests of Martinez and Youngblood. The internet made it possible for everyone to judge how well their claims of sobriety held up.
Ordinary people also saw Martinez and Youngblood trying to talk their way out of trouble, hoping the power of their office would lift them above the law.
They watched a deferential but efficient young police officer telling Martinez he was under arrest.
“Are you serious?” the senator asked.
Those three words lose him votes each time people replay the video.
Duran, who says he’s a friend of Martinez, downplays the senator’s conduct and the likelihood that he committed a crime. To Duran, what counts is Martinez’s influence for Rio Arriba County.
“Without a senator with seniority, we probably would be left out in the cold on any legislation that would benefit us…. We only have Senator Martinez to take care of our issues,” Duran said.
Martinez has issues of his own. They are in the open for all to see.
His apologists can’t change that, no matter how often they try to make his case about race instead of recklessness.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican.com or 505-986-3080.