SF DA uses new process to decide cop shooting case
Committee of DAs volunteers to review info, evidence
Santa Fe District Attorney Marco Serna, as promised, is using a new process that brings several district attorneys together from across the state to determine if charges should be filed in an officer-involved shooting that happened in April.
But since there’s no funding for the process, the prosecutors have to volunteer their time.
Serna said in an interview this week that he requested the New Mexico District Attorneys Association to form a committee of five different district attorneys from around the state to review evidence in the fatal shooting of Andrew James Lucero.
Lucero, 33, was shot once in the abdomen by Santa Fe Police Department Officer Leonardo Guzman near Eldorado on April 29 after Lucero got into the driver’s seat of Guzman’s patrol car, fought with the officer and dragged Guzman a short distance hanging from the car before crashing into a tree, injuring Guzman’s leg. Flores had earlier led police on a pursuit through Santa Fe in a stolen car.
The committee is made up of Albuquerque District Attorney Raúl Torrez, Tucumcari
District Attorney Tim Rose, Farmington District Attorney Rick Tedrow, Taos District Attorney Donald Gallegos and San Miguel County District Attorney Richard Flores.
Flores was chosen as the “chairperson” of the committee and will write the letter with the committee’s recommendation on whether criminal charges should be brought against Guzman. He told the Journal this week that he’ll send the letter to Serna no later than next Wednesday.
If the committee recommends criminal charges, Serna said he’ll appoint a special prosecutor who will determine if guilt can be proven at trial. The case will be closed if the committee doesn’t recommend criminal charges or if the special prosecutor believes the case shouldn’t be taken to a jury.
“There’s always a gray area,” Serna said. “Can that prosecutor make that case knowing they can prove guilt? If they can’t, it’s a waste of judicial resources, and it’s unjust.”
The committee process for police shootings was something Serna campaigned on last year in his bid for district attorney. A similar committee was used by District Attorney Torrez to determine if Albuquerque Police Department officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez should be retried in the shooting death of homeless camper James Boyd after their first murder trial ended with a hung jury. The committee decided against retrying the APD officers.
But Farmington’s Tedrow, who’s also the president of the NMDAA, said Lucero’s death in Santa Fe County is the first time a committee has been used to determine if a police shooting was justified.
Serna took office in January. Former Santa Fe District Attorney Angela “Spence” Pacheco had used investigative grand juries, which were presented with evidence by the DA in closed, confidential proceedings, to determine if police shootings were justified.
As president of the NMDAA, Tedrow said it was his job to contact other district attorneys to ask if anyone could volunteer to be on the committee for the Lucero cases and to make sure no one who volunteered had a conflict of interest in reviewing the case.
All the evidence was electronically scanned so the members could review it from their offices, Tedrow said. The committee got together for the first and only time at the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys in Albuquerque on Tuesday to discuss final findings and other matters before Flores was tasked with writing the recommendation letter.
Tedrow said the association asked the Legislature for funding for these committees, but the effort was unsuccessful. Either way, Tedrow said the prosecutors still felt that it was important to have committees to review officer-involved shootings, so the committees will continue on a volunteer basis for the foreseeable future.
“Funding is not available, but as district attorneys we felt it was necessary to have this avenue for a questionable shooting or if a conflict arises,” Tedrow said. Flores said he was happy to give up some time to assist a fellow prosecutor in need.
“For me, I think all the district attorneys try to help each other as best we can,” Flores said. “It wasn’t time consuming for me. I didn’t think it was a problem.” There are two other active police shooting cases in Santa Fe.
One case is nearly two years old. Herman Flores, 31, was shot and killed by SFPD Detective John Van Etten at a Motel 6 following an exchange of gunfire in January 2016 after he had allegedly robbed a nearby Wal-Mart store.
Jennifer Padgett, appointed by Gov. Susana Martinez to serve out the last year of Pacheco’s term after she retired at the end of 2016, was the Santa Fe district attorney at the time and didn’t make a decision as to whether the shooting was justified before Serna took office in January.
Serna was unable to provide information on the status of the Flores case this week.
Anthony Benavidez, 24, was killed July 19 after being shot at a total of 17 times by SFPD SWAT officers Jeremie Bisagna and Luke Wakefield at an apartment complex near St. Francis Drive and Siringo Road. Benavidez had refused to leave an apartment he’d been evicted from and had thrown ineffective homemade explosives at police. He was said to have a knife when officers removed a window from the apartment and shot him through the opening.
Serna said he’ll ask for a three-person committee for the next police shooting investigation because a five-member committee is hard to coordinate.
“Overall, I think it’s been a good process, but it’s also hard to ask these people to volunteer their time every time,” Serna said.