‘Petty’ crimes cause plenty of human suffering
If New Mexico legislators really want to make streets safer this year, they will pass a crime bill dedicated to Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros. Johnny and Gerrie were in their Jeep one pleasant night, stopped at a red light in Española. Then-state Sen. Richard Martinez was driving behind them. Martinez was drunk. He plowed his Mercedes SUV into the back of the couple’s Jeep. Johnny and Gerrie suffered serious injuries.
Martinez, D-Ojo Caliente, was hurt, too. But his main worry was how to hold on to his Senate seat. He tried to talk himself out of trouble, an idea ruined by his faulty execution.
He admitted to police he had been drinking. His beverage of choice was either a few beers or a couple of glasses of wine, depending on the moment Martinez delivered his glassy-eyed story.
The senator wouldn’t take a blood-alcohol test. He said he was under control, certainly not intoxicated. What was all the fuss? No police officer could be serious in believing a 20-year lawmaker, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would be a menace behind the wheel.
Prosecutors charged Martinez with aggravated drunken driving. They based their decision on Martinez smelling of booze and his refusal to take the breath-alcohol test. The state added a count of reckless driving to its case against Martinez.
He pleaded not guilty. Martinez’s lawyer said the senator hadn’t committed a crime. The crash was an accident — one of those unfortunate, unpreventable occurrences life can bring.
Martinez wanted a jury trial. In his circumstance, a hung jury would be almost as good as an acquittal. If Martinez staved off a conviction through even a single holdout juror, he might retain his position of power.
The senator lost his motion. State District Judge Francis Mathew heard the evidence and convicted Martinez.
Prosecutors from the state Attorney General’s Office asked Mathew to impose the maximum penalty of 180 days in jail — 90 days each for aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving.
At his sentencing hearing, Martinez finally spoke to Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros. He told them he was sorry as
part of his pitch for leniency.
Martinez got what he wanted but far from what he deserved. Judge Mathew sentenced him to five days in jail.
The light penalty should inspire Martinez’s old legislative colleagues to improve the system. Doesn’t a drunken and reckless driver who injures innocent people deserve more punishment than five days in jail?
Sen. Joe Cervantes, a skilled attorney, succeeded Martinez as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. On taking the seat, Cervantes reflected on how judges almost always hand down minimal jail sentences in first-offense drunken-driving cases.
Legislators aren’t hogtied, though. They can and should increase the mandatory minimum penalties for aggravated drunken driving and reckless driving.
If Cervantes was correct, Martinez wasn’t treated better or worse because he was a senator. Any other drunken driver in New Mexico who caused the same pain and suffering would get off just as easily. The punishment doesn’t fit the crimes.
How much jail time should Martinez have served? Ninety days would have made it clear that New Mexico is serious about keeping drunks off its roads. Five days sent the opposite message.
After his short stay in jail, Martinez returned to the Senate. He sat at his desk, helping to make laws in the regular and special legislative sessions of 2020. Martinez also ran for reelection. He offered a curious campaign statement, saying his brush with the legal system could make him a better senator.
Two decades in office, but he claimed not to appreciate the consequences of drunken driving until he was a defendant.
Voters rejected Martinez in the Democratic primary election. He took defeat like a nonprofessional, endorsing a Republican candidate who had no chance to win.
As for Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros, they didn’t buy a word of Martinez’s belated claim of remorse.
The couple didn’t find much justice in the criminal courts, either. Both of Martinez’s convictions were petty misdemeanors, a classification that sounds almost as incongruous as friendly fire does to a wounded soldier.
There was nothing petty about the neck, back, hip and leg injuries Johnny and Gerrie Sisneros received. That’s the state we’re in — a place where a drunk can maim people and not have a full-fledged misdemeanor on his rap sheet.
Ringside Seat is an opinion column about people, politics and news. Contact Milan Simonich at msimonich@sfnewmexican. com or 505-986-3080.