DWI charge for officer seeking help

State policeman crashed car in detox parking lot

A drunken off-duty New Mexico State Police officer who tried to get help at Bernalillo County’s alcohol and drug detox center is facing a DWI charge after he crashed in the parking lot, according to Albuquerque police.

Officer Morgan Ortiz, 32, tried to admit himself to the Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment center Aug. 12 but got into an argument with employees there, Albuquerque police spokesman Tanner Tixier said. They refused to treat him and shut down a part of the facility because he was so aggressive, according to a police report on the incident.

So he apparently got in his car to leave — but didn’t make it far. He crashed into a nearby parked car, prompting a call to Albuquerque police.

Tixier said Ortiz’s blood alcohol content at the drug treatment center was 0.28 percent — more than three times the state’s presumed level of intoxication, which is .08 percent.

After the crash, an ambulance immediately took him to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where he refused to submit to DWI-related tests, according to the police report.

Lapel video from an Albuquerque police officer released Friday shows Ortiz was belligerent at the hospital and put in leg and arm restraints. The video also showed that officers found a closed bottle of Wild Turkey whiskey in his truck.

Ortiz was not booked into jail, but was issued a summons on misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charges, as is standard practice when the hospital won’t immediately release intoxicated patients, Tixier said.

“We didn’t give him preferential treatment because he’s a State Police officer,” he said.

Ortiz was convicted of misdemeanor DWI in two different cases, one in 2003 and one in 2005, both before he was a police officer.

In both cases, he was not yet 21 years old, New Mexico State Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Armijo said.

Despite his past, Ortiz was able to get a job as an officer last year.

Armijo said applicants for officer positions are not automatically disqualified if they have previous DWI misdemeanor charges.

In Ortiz’s case, Armijo said the officials who decided to hire him found he had a stable life with no serious issues in the decade preceding his application to be an officer.

“He came with very high references, very well recommended,” Armijo said. “He was able to show that he was stable.”

Ortiz was only nine months into the job when he was charged last week. He was put on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.