Investigation started into inappropriate behavior allegation

Lawyer of woman arrested for DWI says officer began following woman on Instagram and ‘liked’ one of her photos

New Mexico State Police has launched an investigation into allegations that one of its officers behaved inappropriately by contacting a young Santa Fe woman on social media after arresting her for DWI and careless driving, a spokesman for the agency said Friday.

“New Mexico State Police holds our officers to a higher standard, and be assured that this allegation will be fully investigated,” public information officer Lt. Mark Soriano said in an email.

Sam Bregman, the attorney for Mariah Garcia, filed a motion Thursday asking the court to dismiss the charges against his client on the grounds of “outrageous government conduct,” saying the officer’s behavior violated Garcia’s due process rights.

Officer Louie Martinez wrote in his report documenting his June 8 arrest of Garcia that she failed to yield to another officer who was conducting a traffic stop on Interstate 25 near the St. Francis Drive on-ramp, so he followed her south on the freeway. When he pulled Garcia over, Martinez wrote, he smelled alcohol on her breath. She performed poorly on field sobriety tests, according to the report, and agreed to a breath test, which indicated she had a 0.12 blood-alcohol level.

A level of 0.08 is considered legally impaired in New Mexico. According to his motion to suppress evidence, Bregman wrote Martinez had no legitimate reason to pull Garcia over and that two days later, he began following her on Instagram, proceeding to “like” one of her photos. That made Garcia feel uncomfortable, the motion said.

Bregman’s motion includes excerpts from a deposition with Martinez in which the officer made conflicting statements on the topic. Bregman said Martinez also overstepped by discussing Garcia’s stop with her sister and mother — who was in the vehicle with Garcia on the the night of her arrest — when he encountered them at another roadblock at some point after Garcia’s arrest.

A hearing on Bregman’s motions to suppress and dismiss is scheduled to take place in November. An attempt to reach Martinez through a state police spokesman late Friday was unsuccessful.