Request for suspect’s records denied
Judge says man’s pretrial location not relevant
A state district judge in Albuquerque on Friday rejected a request by the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office to obtain court pretrial services information, including GPS monitoring records, for a 19-year-old man jailed while awaiting trial on burglary and larceny charges.
Without ruling on the bigger issue as to whether such records are public, Judge Alisa Hart found there was no relevance to the prosecutor’s request to review data showing where Jesse Mascareno-Haidle has been since he was placed on a courtordered ankle monitor last February pending trial on burglary, larceny and other charges.
That’s because Mascareno-Haidle’s conditions of release have already been revoked since he was re-arrested on Oct. 25 on new charges, Hart said. Earlier this week, state District Judge Britt Baca-Miller also granted a prosecutor’s motion to keep him in jail because he allegedly committed the new felony charge despite being subject to the highest level of supervision by the pretrial services.
“I don’t think the state has established the connection as far as showing how the records are material for prosecuting the defendant for the crimes charged,” Hart said.
In the continuing debate about the operations of the pretrial services division, and its monitoring of defendants on supervision pending trial, the DA’s office on Oct. 27 issued a subpoena for the GPS records for Mascareno-Haidle, who is a suspect in dozens of burglaries in Albuquerque dating back to the fall of 2020.
District Attorney Raúl Torrez’s office maintained the GPS records were needed to prove the danger the defendant posed to the community as well as to show that he violated his conditions of release.
But Mascareno-Haidle’s defense attorney asked to quash the subpoena for privacy reasons. And the administrative arm of the 2nd Judicial District Court objected and hired an outside attorney to
help draft a protective order to keep certain personal information from being released to prosecutors.
“Really these records are his. They’re being kept by pretrial services,” assistant public defender Noah Gelb told the judge.
Prosecutors had asked that Mascareno-Haidle’s supervised release be revoked after he allegedly burglarized a student’s vehicle at Rio Grande High School Oct. 25 while he wore a court-ordered ankle monitor. He had previously violated his conditions of release last summer by entering an exclusion zone where his alleged accomplice in the burglary ring lived, the DA’s office said in a response to the defense motion to quash.
Chief Deputy District Attorney James Grayson told the judge on Friday there might be other crimes that MascarenoHaidle committed in the nine months he was on an ankle monitor.
“The state is entitled to have information about any other violation he committed,” Grayson said. “Part of the issue with GPS records, at least during the time he was on supervision, is they weren’t monitored on daily basis to determine where the defendant was.”
When Hart asked whether the state had specific information as to other crimes Mascareno-Haidle may have committed during that time, Grayson replied no. But he added that that’s because law enforcement hasn’t had the opportunity to review the GPS data. Grayson said the records would also be important for prosecutors if MascarenoHaidle appeals his detention order.
Torrez contends that the GPS records are public record, but so far his office hasn’t had success obtaining such information by filing a request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act. Grayson said his office was still considering whether to appeal the pretrial services decision to withhold the information because it is confidential.