Jurors to be drawn from S.F. County
Rio Arriba County lawman facing two criminal cases; most serious one expected to start in November
Trials in both the pending criminal cases against Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan will be heard by jurors from Santa Fe County.
Judges presiding over the two cases had already ruled the trials would be held in Santa Fe County after granting a motion by special prosecutor Andrea Reeb, who argued the physical limitations of Rio Arriba County’s courthouse in Tierra Amarilla and Lujan’s undue influence over residents in that county made it difficult to hold a fair trial there.
Lujan’s attorneys argued in one of the cases jurors should still be pulled from Rio Arriba County to satisfy the requirement his case be heard by a jury of his peers drawn from a county where “he has a good name and reputation.”
Defense attorney Tommy Jewell argued Thursday the ethnic, racial and socioeconomic makeup of the counties is so different that having Santa Fe County jurors hear his case would be detrimental to Lujan.
Reeb argued pulling jurors from Rio Arriba County would make the change of venue moot because Lujan’s influence over the jurors as their elected sheriff would still exist. State District Judge Bryan Biedscheid ruled the jurors should
be drawn from Santa Fe County.
When issuing his ruling, Biedscheid said his decision to grant a venue change was based on the physical limitations of the courthouse, not the ethnic makeup of jurors, and he didn’t feel the two counties were so different that Lujan would not get a fair trial from Santa Fe jurors.
Biedscheid is presiding over a case in which the sheriff is charged with three misdemeanor counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer. He is accused of showing up drunk at a crime scene in Española in March 2020 and attempting to take over the operation from police.
Lujan faced trial in June on felony charges of bribing or threatening a witness and harboring a felon during an incident in 2017.
Both cases against Lujan involve former Española City Councilor Phillip Chacon. In the 2017 case, Lujan is accused of helping Chacon evade police after Chacon led them on a high-speed chase.
Reeb — the 9th Judicial District attorney who is serving as a special prosecutor for both cases against the sheriff — filed motions for venue changes after the June trial in Tierra Amarilla ended with jurors deadlocked 8-4 in favor of acquittal.
She said numerous factors — including the presence of the sheriff’s family members and staff throughout the courtroom in Lujan’s first trial, the lack of privacy in the deliberation room and the jurors’ knowledge that Lujan remains the top law enforcement officer in their county — combined to make the jurors feel “intimidated” and unable to deliberate without fear of repercussions.
That case is scheduled to go to trial in November.
A trial date for the misdemeanor case has not been set.
Lujan remains sheriff while the criminal cases against him are pending, but he has lost his authority to carry a gun, drive a police vehicle and make arrests.