D WI IN NEW MEXICO THE HARD TRUTH - … offenders and rode shotgun with police on patrols for...

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THE HARD TRUTH

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P LE AS E U PD AT E C HA N GE S! ! !

D A TE : XX XD O C U M EN T: XX X S E C TI O N : X XX P U B . D AT E XX XS L U G : XX XW H ER E : RUSS MA CA R T I S T: RUS SD E S I G NE R : XX XP R O G R A M ; fr ee hand qua rkS I Z E : X XXC O L O R - S EP S : XX XF O NT S : XX X

SPECIAL REPORT

D W I I N N E W M E X I C O

DWI arrests and convictions are down. Alcohol-related crashes are up. So is the number of people killed by drunken drivers. What happened

to New Mexico’s crusade to stop drunken driving? We fell asleep at the wheel.

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2 SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002

How This ProjectWas Reported

The Journal began working onthis project last year.

Thomas J. ColeInvestigative reporter Thomas J.

Cole interviewed judges, police,prosecutors, gov-ernment officials,drivers, victimsand activists in thefight against DWI.

He spent time incourtrooms watch-ing sentencing ofDWI offenders androde shotgun withpolice on patrolsfor drunken dri-vers.

Cole obtained and analyzed statedatabases containing hundreds ofthousands of DWI arrests and alco-hol-related accidents. He alsoinspected DWI cases across thestate.

Cole, 47, has been a reporter forthe Journal for 10 years.

Leslie LinthicumJournal reporter Leslie

Linthicum spent two months profil-ing people whose lives have beenaffected by DWI — people injuredin drunken driving accidents, sur-vivors of thosekilled by drunkendrivers, peoplewho have dedicat-ed their careers tothe fight againstdrunken drivingand drunken dri-vers themselves.

In late March,Linthicum spentone 72-hour periodcompiling a chronological reporton DWI in our state.

Linthicum, 44, has been areporter for the Journal for 13years.

Linthicum and Cole last workedtogether on the “Betrayal of Trust”series about treatment of childrenwith leukemia at the University ofNew Mexico.

PhotographersJournal photographer Rose

Palmisano shot many of the pho-tographs for this series. Palmisano,49, has been withthe Journal for 11years.

Staff photogra-pher Josh Stephen-son and free-lancephotographer PatVasquez-Cunning-ham also con-tributed to thisproject.

The human toll drunkendriving inflicts on ourstate is mind-numbing.

The statistics you will read inthis special report make thatclear, and I won’t repeat themhere. Suffice it to say it is aproblem that we grow hard-ened to and often ignore, per-haps because it seems so bigand virtually impossible tosolve. Avoidance is our defensemechanism.

Then, a particularly tragicDWI incident generates bannerheadlines that no one canignore. When a drunk drivingthe wrong way on the interstatekills four people, we all feelthreatened. It could have beenus.

In fact, it could be us almostany time we get into a vehicle.

My 17-year-old son has beenarrested twice on drunken dri-ving charges. He is one of hun-dreds of juveniles picked upevery year for DWI. His sec-ond arrest, which occurred ear-ly this year, came after he lostcontrol of the car he was dri-ving and hit a utility pole. Hewas lucky to walk away. Andeven luckier no one else washurt. The people you will readabout in this special reportweren’t that lucky.

The court allowed my son toenter a treatment program thatinvolved therapy and wilder-ness living under extreme con-ditions. He suffered a seriousinjury while in the programand is recuperating. His case ispending until he completes theprogram, which he intends to

do. Parents of teen-agers fromevery walk of life can be con-fronted with DWI and the prob-lems it brings.

This special report tells theDWI story from the perspec-tive of people closest to theproblem: victims, cops, sur-vivors, grieving loved ones anddrunken drivers themselves.

Investigative reporterThomas J. Cole analyzed hun-dreds of DWI cases statewide;Leslie Linthicum introducesyou to the people affected byDWI. And she takes youthrough 72 hours of drunkendriving and its fallout — fromthe street to the emergencyroom to an autopsy.

We have compiled their work,and that of photographers RosePalmisano and Josh Stephen-

son, into a single section inhopes it will be used by electedofficials, advocates, teachers,police and everyday citizens inthe fight against DWI.

As this special report makesclear, we can do better. Weshould do better.

If you would like extra copiesof this special report, pleasecontact the Albuquerque Pub-lishing Company library at 823-3490.

T.H. LangPublisher

ON THE COVERThe ground near a cross on U.S. 84/285 just north of Santa Fe is littered with liquor and beer bottles thrown by passing motorists. Thecross is a memorial to a drunken driver who was killed. In the photo above is another memorial at the same site, but dedicated to his victim.

JOSH STEPHENSON/JOURNAL

To Our Readers

72 Hours of Drunken DrivingA chronicle of three days ofdrunken driving in New Mexico— and three fatalities.

PAGE 3

DWI Brakes FailingThe number of alcohol-relateddeaths rises as DWI arrestsfall.

PAGE 9

Life SentencesStories of the people killed andinjured by drunken drivers,reformed drunken drivers andpeople who have made DWItheir life’s work.

BEGINNING ON PAGE 11

Many Drunks Get Off EasyThe policy of tougher penaltiesfor repeat DWI offenders isoften not the practice.

PAGE 15

Stopping Those Who Start Young

Juvenile DWI offenders rarelyend up with convictions on driving records, but they oftenrepeat the crime.

PAGE 21

Solutions Demand Involvement

New Mexico needs to get backto work in fighting DWI. Whatexperts say you can do.

PAGE 27

INSIDE

COLE

LINTHICUM

PALMISANO

JOSH STEPHENSON/JOURNAL

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3SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002

By Leslie LinthicumJournal Staff Writer

New Mexicans’ twinaddictions — drinkingliquor and driving cars— collide day in, dayout in the most terrible

ways.Someone is killed every 36

hours in a traffic accident thatinvolves alcohol.

A car crash that involvesdrinking happens every threehours.

And every half hoursomeone in New Mexico getshandcuffed and booked on acharge of driving whileintoxicated.

Year in, year out, NewMexico ranks as one of themost drunken and dangerousplaces in the country.

The statistics are numbingafter a while, but the fallout isreal: Heads shatterwindshields, families rush tohospitals or plan funerals, andchildren watch their parentsgo to jail.

What does it look like insidethe problem? We will showyou, using interviews, reportsand personal observation tochronicle the drunken drivingevents of one three-dayweekend.

We’ll start with Friday,March 29.

10 P.M.David Lake has left his

house in McIntosh a littleafter 9 p.m., giving him plentyof time to drive the 45 milesinto Albuquerque and makehis night shift at the U.S.Postal Service.

The 55-year-old mechanichas just passed the point onInterstate 40 where TorranceCounty ends and BernalilloCounty begins and he istopping Sedillo Hill when helooks in his rearview mirrorand sees headlights behindhim. It appears they areclosing in fast.

Lake’s Chevy pickup is inthe right lane and he keeps hiseye on the headlights.

“I figured he was going toslow down,” Lake says.Instead, he says, “he just kepton coming.”

Lake braces for the impactand the car bangs into the

back of his pickup. Dazed, hepulls to the highway shoulder.The car that hit him stops alittle farther down the roadand, as Lake is takinginventory of his injuries, thedriver walks up to his window.

Lake, a former drug andalcohol counselor, has nodoubt about the driver’scondition.

“I could smell alcohol on hisbreath. His eyes were droopy.

He was incoherent.”“Stay right here,” the driver

slurs. “I’ll go get some help.”And he drives away.

10:20 P.M.The streets around Nob Hill

and East Central Avenue arecrawling with peoplecelebrating the end of thework week with drinks at thedozens of bars in the

neighborhoods. AlbuquerquePolice Department trafficofficers are out in force,conducting a “saturationpatrol” in the area.

Officer Larry Campbellheads out, writes a couple ofquick tickets for trafficviolations and then points hiscruiser west on CentralAvenue at San Mateo andbegins looking for drunkendrivers.

The intersection of Centraland San Mateo is the fifthworst intersection in NewMexico in terms of accidents,and police think drunkendrivers contribute to thatstatistic. That is whyCampbell and about a dozenother officers are covering thestreets leading into the

intersection.They patrol up and down

Central, Lomas and San Mateountil hours after the barsclose, Campbell spottingweaving cars and pickups andpulling them over, and officerTroy Luna asking suspecteddrunks to walk through fieldsobriety tests and then blow ina Breathalyzer.

Across New Mexico, 55people are arrested for DWIon average every day. TheAPD patrol this night netsabout a dozen offenders. Andthe New Mexico State Policewill pop 37 people for DWIbefore the weekend ends.

The record setter is a manstopped outside Las Cruceswho is charged with his 24th DWI.

72 HOURS OF DRUNKEN DRIVING

ROSE PALMISANO/JOURNAL

JUST ANOTHER DAY: The evening is still young when the first victims of drunken driving crashes begin arriving at the University of NewMexico Hospital’s trauma center.

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David Lake looks in his rearview

mirror and sees headlights behind him.

“I figured he was going to slow down,”

he says. But “he just kept on coming.”

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4

IN A STATE OF ADDICTIONS, MANY DAYS END IN DEATH10:30 P.M.

APD officers are respondingto two unrelated accidentswithin sight of each other onCoors Boulevard onAlbuquerque’s West Side.Neither wreck involvessomeone who has beendrinking, and the officersfollow their usual proceduresfor investigating and cleaningup a minor accident.

An APD officer pulls hispatrol car on an angle to blocktraffic from the accidentscene and parks it with hislights flashing.

Diana Smith, 30, is drivingnorthbound on Coors. TheAlbuquerque woman drivesright into the patrol car.

Officers smell alcohol onher breath, ask her to performa field sobriety test and arresther for DWI. She ishandcuffed and placed in theback seat of another patrolcar.

Minutes later, Sgt. MarkGarcia and Patrol OfficerEsther Garcia are standing infront of that car when a 17-year-old driver slams into it.He is not drinking, onlyinattentive.

11:01 P.M.An ambulance pulls up to

the back door of theUniversity of New MexicoHospital’s trauma center andDavid Lake, strapped to aback board, is wheeled intothe emergency room. Police,meanwhile, are looking withno luck for a small car — Lakethinks it might have been aFord Escort — with Texasplates.

Lake’s back injury is painfulbut not serious, and he will besent home in a few hours. Hisown condition report? “Tired,sore, disgusted.”

“And he’ll probably neverget caught,” Lake says. “I’mjust a statistic.”

11:05 P.M.Two more men are wheeled

into the trauma room at UNMHospital, injured in a rolloveraccident on I-40 betweenSanta Rosa and Tucumcari.One man, who was ejectedfrom his pickup, is seriously

injured. The paramedics whodeliver the driver and hisinjured friend report “alcoholon board.”

Police who responded to thecrash say both men had beendrinking when the driver spunout of control and rolled intothe ditch.

At the same time, threemore injured men are on theirway to the hospital from ahigh-speed rear-end collisionoutside of Gallup. The driverin that accident registers a .38blood-alcohol level — 4{

times the legal limit.Veteran charge nurse Jane

Rich sees a busy shift shapingup for her overnight crew and,characteristically, drinkingand driving are fueling herbusiness.

“It’s the one thing I hateabout this job,” says Rich. “Iwish people in New Mexicoknew what a problem we havewith drunk driving. Thishappens all the time.”

11:59 P.M.Like many of the motorists

on Interstate 40 this Friday

night, brothers Lyle andJulison Jim are heading homefor the Easter weekend. LyleJim, 27, a student at TVI, hasbeen living in Albuquerque.He and his 29-year-old brotherare driving to Fort Defiance,Ariz., the family’s hometownon the Navajo reservation.

They are drinking thisevening, Julison Jim later tellspolice. Somewhere betweenthe Bluewater Lake andPrewitt exits on I-40 west ofGrants, they get off theinterstate and then back on —headed in the wrong direction.

Thirty-five-year-old truckdriver Christopher Frevele ofIndianapolis is also headinghome along I-40. It is late andFrevele’s partner and 13-year-old son are in the sleepingcompartment of the Volvotractor-trailer as it rollstoward Albuquerque at 75mph.

Frevele passes under thebridge at the Prewittinterchange and is surprisedto see headlights facing him.

Frevele hits the brakes andswerves to try to avoid thelittle car heading straight athim.

There is not enough time.The tractor-trailer and theDodge Neon collide head on.

Police cars and ambulanceshead to the scene of brokenglass, twisted metal andscattered beer bottles. InAlbuquerque, the pager of theOffice of the MedicalInvestigator’s coroner on callthis weekend goes off.

1:34 A.M. SATURDAYNew Mexico State Police

officers are on the scene out-side Prewitt on Interstate 40,sorting out the head-on crashbetween a Volvo tractor-trail-er and a Dodge Neon.

Emergency medical techni-cians from Grants have takenJulison Jim to the hospital inGrants.

Truck driver ChristopherFrevele has only a cut elbow,even though his truck skiddedand rolled onto the driver’sside.

Frevele’s passengers havesome bumps and bruises butare OK.

The body of Lyle Jim, the27-year-old who was dri-


“I’M JUST A STATISTIC:” David Lake waits to have his neckand spine X-rayed at the University of New Mexico trauma cen-ter after a hit-and-run driver, who smelled of alcohol, rear-endedhim on Interstate 40.


HIT FROM BEHIND: Diana Smith of Albuquerque, arrested fordrunken driving after plowing into an Albuquerque Police Depart-ment car, was handcuffed in the back seat of this patrol carwhen it was hit by an inattentive, but sober, driver.

An APD officer

pulls his patrol

car on an angle to

block traffic from

an accident scene

and parks it with

his lights flashing.

Diana Smith is

driving north-

bound on Coors.

She drives right

into the patrol car.

She is arrested

for drunken

driving.

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SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002

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ving the car, lies on the road-way where it landed. Jim’sbody is zipped into a rubber-ized bag and driven to theOffice of the Medical Investi-gator in Albuquerque. Itappears that Jim died instant-ly when the force of the colli-sion sent him flying from thecar.

An autopsy will shed lighton just how Jim died. StatePolice already believe theyknow why he died.

“Empty beer containersinside and out,” says StatePolice Capt. Tim Baughman.They classify the accident ascaused by drunken driving.

3:01 A.M.The 1990 Honda speeding

along I-40 just west of theContinental Divide catchesthe attention of David Abeita,an officer in the Departmentof Public Safety’s MotorTransportation Division.

A check of the license plateshows that the car was takenin a carjacking in Albu-querque. Abeita begins hispursuit.

The driver speeds up andbegins weaving in and out offreeway traffic, flashing hisheadlights and on occasionturning them off. He hits 100mph.

Abeita is able to pull the dri-ver — a San Diego, Calif., manin his 20s — over just east ofGallup and arrest him for anumber of crimes, includingDWI.

4:30 A.M.I-40, New Mexico’s east-

west artery, has been host tosome hellacious accidents.Just this year, four peoplewere killed on it in a head-oncollision west of Albuquerqueand seven died in a multi-carpile-up in eastern New Mexi-co.

Abeita is still doing hispaperwork when LagunaPueblo police spot a swervingInternational tractor-trailerweaving in and out of trafficon I-40. They know they haveto get the truck off the road.They give chase at mile mark-er 114, just east of the mainpueblo village. At mile marker96, at Acoma Pueblo, they

give the chase over to StatePolice.

Grants police lay down aspike belt at marker 85, andMcKinley County Sheriff’sdeputies lay down spikes atmarkers 47, 34, 29 and 22.

At this point, the truck isdriving on the rims.

At mile marker 16, just pastGallup and 98 miles after thechase began, the trucker getsoff the interstate, drives for afew miles on a two-lane stateroad and pulls to a stop in afield.

Ricky Collins, a 46-year-oldTexan, steps out of the caband tells police he has beenchased by aliens.

Collins is arrested on manycharges, and police draw

blood because they suspect heis intoxicated. He is latercharged with DWI.

“There was reason to sus-pect,” Baughman says, “thathe might be under the influ-ence of something.”

9:25 A.M.At St. Vincent Hospital in

Santa Fe, Johnathan PollockJr. succumbs to injuries hesuffered in a drunken drivingaccident outside Las Vegas.

Pollock is 18 and has beenbattling internal organ andspinal cord injuries for 13days.

The West Las Vegas HighSchool senior — a varsityfootball player, wrestler, saxo-phonist and honor roll mem-ber — was riding in a pickupdriven by a friend, 17-year-oldLyle Kretz, on March 11 whenthe truck veered off Inter-state 25 into the median. It hitdirt and rolled three times.

Pollock and Kretz had beenat a party and were headedhome. Neither was wearing aseat belt. Pollock was thrownfrom the truck.

Kretz was treated for minorinjuries and taken to jail. Hisblood-alcohol level was .13,nearly twice the legal limit forprosecution and well over the.02 level at which a teen’s dri-ver’s license can be revoked.

He told police he had threeor four beers.

Matthew Sandoval, the Dis-trict Attorney in Las Vegas, isnotified of Pollock’s death andprepares to amend thecharges against Kretz, addingone count of vehicular homi-cide.

Pollock’s body is bound forthe Office of the MedicalInvestigator, then a funeralhome in Las Vegas. He leavesbehind parents, grandparentsand six brothers and sisters.

9:30 A.M.Pathologist Rebecca Irvine

is already suited up in

VIOLENT DEATH, A 100 MPH CARJACKER CHASE AND ALIENS ON I-40


THE PRICE OF DWI: The body of Lyle Jim is wheeled into the autopsy suite at the Office of theMedical Investigator in Albuquerque. Jim was drunk and driving in the wrong direction on Interstate40 when he hit a semi-truck.

ER CLEANUP: Emergencyroom resident Brian Hoerne-man and nurse Meredith Som-mers stabilize a patient whowas flown to University ofNew Mexico Hospital from aDWI accident near Gallup.


One look at Lyle Jim bears out the violence of his death. Hisskull is fractured; his jaw is broken; his neck is broken; andhis pelvis, hip and ribs are broken. “This,” says pathologist

Rebecca Irvine, “is what we call multiple blunt-force trauma.”

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TEARS, TRAUMA AND GRIM EXPECTATIONS AT THE HOSPITALROOMhospital scrubs and awaterproof apron when atechnician begins undressingLyle Jim’s battered body sohis autopsy can begin.

His brother, Julison, is on agurney in the emergencyroom at UNM Hospital nextdoor, where he has beentransferred by ambulancefrom the hospital in Grants.Doctors are monitoring hisinjuries.

The question in the autopsyroom is how did Lyle Jim dieand how much alcohol was inhis system.

Technicians take a bloodsample and a sample of fluidfrom behind the eye fromevery body they autopsy. Theyhave it checked for drugs,alcohol, poison and a host ofother substances that mightshed light on the person’shealth and death.

Jim’s results will show hisblood-alcohol level was well

above the legal limit when hedied.

Irvine then begins themethodical process ofexamining Jim’s internalorgans.

Members of MothersAgainst Drunk Driving andother anti-DWI crusadersoften object when the word“accident” is used to describealcohol-related collisions thatinjure or kill.

Fatal DWI collisions are notaccidents, they argue, butviolent crimes.

One look at Jim bears outthe violence of his death.

His skull is fractured; hisjaw is broken; his neck isbroken; and his pelvis, hip andribs are broken.

His left arm is broken in twoplaces; his right arm is brokenin three places and nearlysevered at the armpit.

His diaphragm is torn; hisliver is cut; his lung is torn;

and his heart is ripped.“This,” Irvine says, “is what

we call multiple blunt-forcetrauma.”

6:25 P.M.Marlene and Todd Walkows-

ki are headed home to TaosPueblo after a day of ridingtheir Harley with friendsthrough Northern New Mexi-co. It is a beautiful day andthey stop in Taos for a fewdrinks.

On Paseo del Pueblo in Taos,a car cuts in front ofWalkowski, a carpenter, andhe lays the bike down. His 40-year-old wife, a Bureau ofIndian Affairs firefighter, isthrown and lands face downon the pavement.

7 P.M.An ambulance speeds

toward University of NewMexico Hospital with 88-year-old Bonifacia Chavez inside.

The trauma team tries its

best, but Chavez’s injuries aretoo severe and there is noth-ing they can do to save her.

Trained by experience toguess that a pedestrian hit bya car on a Saturday night isthe victim of drunken driving,charge nurse Jane Rich getsangry, then sits down andcries.

It turns out the driver whohit Chavez had not been drink-ing — he just couldn’t stopwhen Chavez stepped off thecurb. The news erases Rich’sanger, but her sadnessremains.

“It gets to you after awhile,” Rich says.

Doctors and nurses in theemergency room cannotlinger on the death for long,though. The Lifeguard heli-copter is taking off to pick upMarlene Walkowski in Taos.Her motorcycle leathers pro-tected her body, but she was-n’t wearing a helmet and doc-tors worry about bleeding inher brain.

11:10 P.M.Lifeguard lands on the UNM

Hospital roof and paramedicsgive their report on MarleneWalkowski: No helmet, a headinjury and a blood-alcohol ofmore than .20.

Todd Walkowski has notbeen charged with DWI. Aninvestigation is pending. Mar-lene Walkowski is not


LEATHERS, NO HELMET: Marlene Walkowski of Taos, with a blood-alcohol level of more than .20, is loaded off the Lifeguard chopperon the roof at University of New Mexico Hospital. Walkowski was the passenger on a motorcycle that crashed in an accident stillunder investigation by Taos police.

TOO MUCH TO HANDLE: The cumulative toll of drinking and driving is too much for trauma nurse Jane Rich. Rich is comfort-ed by ER tech Kevin McFarland after she breaks down.

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charged because she is the passenger.

4:15 P.M. SUNDAY

Joseph Mendez arrives atthe trauma center at Universi-ty of New Mexico Hospital ina condition that shocks evenemergency room veterans.

Mendez, 46, was riding hisbicycle on Lomas and SecondStreet in Downtown Albu-querque on this Easter, hetells police, when he was hitby a car.

It is not Mendez’s injuriesthat are surprising — he does-n’t appear hurt. But he blowsinto one of the Breathalyzers

the hospital keeps on handand it registers .52. That is 6{

times the legal limit foroperating a motor vehicle. Itis close to being lethal.

“Wow,” says Mike Chi-carelli, the charge nurse onduty tonight.

The hospital routinely seesblood-alcohol levels of .20and .30, although Chicarellionce treated a man — stillalive — with a .70.

A person with a .52 levellike Mendez’s is usuallydead or passed out.

Mendez, however, is alertand happy to talk.

Mendez got onto his bicy-cle to ride to the bank andwas hit when he passed a

car on the right at an inter-section.

He was riding his bikebecause his driver’s licensewas revoked. Court recordsshow a string of DWI arrestsgoing back to 1982.

“People run you off theroad,” Mendez complains.“They have no considerationfor people on bikes.”

Despite his alarminglyhigh Breathalyzer score,Mendez says he purchasedonly two beers today.

“Me and this friend ofmine,” he says. “He had oneand I had one.”

He got that drunk on onebeer? “It was a tall one,”Mendez says.

5:30 P.M.

New Mexico State Policeofficer Greg Valdez arrives atthe scene of a rollover acci-dent on a dirt road outside theNavajo Nation community ofDzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle and issurprised to find that none ofthe four occupants of thesedan is seriously injured.The driver, his wife and ababy and toddler in the carwere all buckled into seatbelts.

The driver, who is stagger-ing around outside the car,smells like alcohol and admitshaving been drinking beforehe lost control of the car.

Valdez waits for the NavajoNation police to arrive toplace the driver under arrestfor DWI. While he waits, hisradio reports another rollovera few miles away.

5:59 P.M.APD Sgt. J. Bledsoe is

stopped on the shoulder of I-40 in Albuquerque checkingon a motorist with a disabledcar. He is parked more than acar width off the roadway andhas left the driver’s dooropen.

Tiffany Alexander, who isdriving along I-40 in the rightlane, veers off the inter-

BICYCLIST’S NEARLY LETHAL BLOOD-ALCOHOL LEVEL A SHOCK


OPEN KEG ON I-25: Open beer cans, a keg and cups survived the crash that sent the occupants of the car — primarily teens — to the hospital.

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DRUNK ON EASTER CANDY; TEENS AND A KEG IN THE BACK SEATstate, hits the door of thepatrol car and comes to a stop80 yards away.

“At least I stopped,” Alexan-der tells the officer. “I’m agood girl.”

She is arrested for DWI butblames her bloodshot eyes andthe smell of alcohol on severalliquor-filled chocolates she atefor Easter.

6 P.M.Two people are sitting out-

side their house near Nageezion the road that leads to Cha-co Canyon, enjoying the warmEaster evening when they seea car speeding down the dirtroad. The car hits a wash-

board stretch of the road, fish-tails, skids, hits a dirt embank-ment and flips.

The people run to the carand find Charleston Martinez,a 22-year-old neighbor, stillbuckled into his seat. His headhas hit the car’s ceiling.

They pull him out, check fora pulse, find none and drive tothe convenience store a mileaway to call police.

Officer Valdez gets the calland arrives a short time later.Budweiser cans, open andempty, are found inside thecar. Valdez makes arrange-ments for a coroner to pro-nounce Martinez dead.

Martinez’s blood-alcohol lev-el is .199. He is the third per-

son to die this weekend as aresult of an accident thatinvolves alcohol.

8 P.M.Tina Lucher is driving south

on Interstate 25 through Albu-querque without a valid dri-ver’s license. In the passengerseat next to her is a 22-year-old man she knows only as“Weedo” and several opencans of Bud Light. In the backseat are 19-year-old DezireeLuevano, 13-year-old ChristinaRojas, 11-year-old CharleneRomero, an open keg of beerand plastic cups.

Lucher is 17.She pulls to the right to pass

a slower car and, when that

driver moves into the samelane, she swerves and smash-es into a concrete barrier.

11:20 P.M.Although bicyclist Joseph

Mendez is not injured, onlydrunk, it is the hospital’s poli-cy not to release a patientuntil the alcohol level in hisblood falls under the legal lim-it.

Because of his high alcohollevel, Mendez will spend thenight. He is on a bed next tothe nurse’s station, fast asleepand snoring.

11:30 P.M.Eleven-year-old Charlene

Romero, the most seriouslyinjured girl in the car thatcrashed on I-25 has beenmoved from the UNM Hospi-tal trauma room to a bed inthe emergency room. Lue-vano, who has been evaluatedfor a possible concussion, andRojas, who is not injured, waitwith Romero.

Four beds away, APD offi-cer Holly Garcia makes sure ablood sample from Lucher isdrawn and tagged.

Lucher has registered a .098on the Breathalyzer, wellabove the legal limit.

“Have you been drinking?”Garcia asks her.

“A lot,” Lucher answers.“I’m in a lot of trouble when Iget out of here.” ■


“I’M IN A LOT OF TROUBLE:” This car spun and hit a concrete barrier on Interstate 25, injuring its young occupants. Tina Lucher, the 17-year-old driver, was legallydrunk, according to a Breathalyzer test.

By Thomas J. ColeJournal Investigative Reporter

Max DiJulio says it waslove at first sight whenhe was introduced toMary Louise Allin.

“I had it as soon as Imet her,” DiJulio says.

“It was over for me. She was aterrific lady, a helluva lot betterthan me.”

They were married just 10years.

Mary LouiseDiJulio, 64, aretired managingeditor of Reader’sDigest, was killedby a drunkendriver last Juneon U.S. 84/285 justnorth of Santa Fe.

She was one ofat least 201 peopleto die in alcohol-related accidentson New Mexico’shighways in 2001.

It was the worst year foralcohol-related crash deaths sinceat least 1997, with a number ofaccidents still under investigation.It was the third consecutive yearthe number of deaths hasincreased.

The jump has reversed some ofthe progress New Mexico madeagainst its drunken drivingproblem in the 1980s and much ofthe ’90s.

“The system has crept back tocomplacency,” says state Highwayand Transportation Secretary PeteRahn, who oversees the TrafficSafety Bureau. “Do we have tolose a family member to decidedrunken driving is a problem?”

The state remains one of theworst in the nation in thepercentage of traffic deathsrelated to alcohol, and in alcohol-related crash fatalities based onpopulation.

Drunken driving is the leadingcause of injury and death for NewMexicans between the ages of 1and 44.

It doesn’t have to be this way.There is plenty of research on

what tools are effective incombating drunken driving.

There is nearly unanimousagreement that aggressive lawenforcement is a big part of thesolution. One advocacy group saysmore aggressive statewideenforcement in New Mexico couldsave more than 40 lives a year.

Because it’s impossible to catchall drunken drivers, people mustbe deterred from drinking anddriving by fear of arrest.

But some law enforcementagencies aren’t getting the jobdone because they are eitherunable or unwilling.

Some don’t even take advantageof state funding for sobrietycheckpoints and saturation patrols— proven tools in the fight againstdrunken driving.

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ALCOHOL-RELATED CRASH FATALITIES ACCELERATE FOR THIRD YEAR IN A ROW

DWI BRAKESFAILING

PAT VASQUEZ-CUNNINGHAM/FOR THE JOURNAL

THERE’S NO FORGETTING: Max DiJulio visits the spot just north of Santa Fe where his wife, Mary Louise DiJulio, was killed by a drunken dri-ver. He says he’s trying to hang on to the memories of their 10 years together.

M. DIJULIO:Killed bydrunken dri-ver last June

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As a result, enforcement of DWIlaws is uneven across the state.

Fewer drunken drivers arebeing arrested and many countieswith low DWI arrest rates rankhigh in alcohol-related crashes.

Cross to bearMax DiJulio, 82, who compos-

es and arranges music, livesalone in the Santa Fe condomini-um he once shared with hiswife.

He’s lonely and trying to hangon to the memories.

“I don’t want to get over it,”he says.

The spot where Mary Louisedied is marked with a cross.Just a few feet away is a secondcross for the drunken driver.

The ground where the crossesstand is littered with emptyliquor and beer bottles thrownfrom passing vehicles.

‘It’s not over with’Most New Mexicans drink —

beer being the most popularbeverage — and many have aproblem.

The state’s deathrate from alcohol-related diseasesand injuries isamong the highestin the nation.

And NewMexicans like tomix drinking anddriving. Aboutone in 75 driversis arrested eachyear for DWI.Tens of thousandsmore drive drunkand are nevercaught.

In response to the toll on thehighways, the state enactedseveral laws in the mid-1990s tocombat drunken driving.

The state lowered the legalblood-alcohol limit to .08,increased penalties for drunkendriving and became the only stateto set aside part of its liquorexcise tax to fund anti-DWIprograms.

The number of alcohol-relatedcrash fatalities dropped from 235in 1996 to 213 in 1997 and 188 in1998.

But the picture has changedsince 1999, when the number ofalcohol-related crash deaths roseto 193. It jumped to 195 in 2000.The 201 figure for last year ispreliminary and could go higher.

The number of fatal andnonfatal alcohol-related crashes isalso on the rise, jumping from3,219 in 1999 to 3,580 thefollowing year.

“Everybody thought we alreadydealt with” DWI, says NadineMilford, state chairwoman of

Mothers Against Drunk Driving.“It’s not over with. It could beyour family next.”

The death of Milford’s daughterand three granddaughters in adrunken driving crash onChristmas Eve 1992 helped sparkthe state changes in DWI laws.

Enforcement countsFighting drunken driving is

part art and part science.Many studies have been con-

ducted to identify what worksand what doesn’t.

A federal plan to reduce alco-hol-related crash deaths recom-mends, “Embrace active, highvisibility law enforcement. …We know what works.”

A study of repeat DWI offend-ers conducted in 1996 for the

National Highway Traffic Safe-ty Administration also foundevidence that fewer peopledrove drunk when law enforce-ment was certain to be in thearea.

Law enforcement is the firstline of defense against drunkendrivers, says Richard Ness,executive director of the NewMexico Sheriffs and PoliceAssociation.

“The bottom line is, if they getbehind the wheel, it’s lawenforcement that puts themaway,” says Ness, a former Tor-rance County sheriff.

A total of 19,304 drivers werearrested for DWI in New Mexi-co in 2000. That was down from20,604 in 1991 and a decade-highof 24,437 in 1993.

“If we could increase thosearrests, we would decrease

those types of accidents andfatalities,” says Santa Fe PoliceChief John Denko, a formerState Police chief and presidentof the New Mexico MunicipalChiefs of Police Association.

The 300 Lives Initiative by thenonprofit DWI Resource Centerin Albuquerque says strongerenforcement would save an esti-mated 98 lives by the end of2005.

Adding 100State Police offi-cers for trafficenforcementwould save 43more, the centersays.

Rahn says lawenforcementneeds to do itsjob, but officersare discouragedby the failure ofthe courts to deliver swift andsure punishment.

State Police Deputy ChiefMichael Francis says DWIarrests by the agency have lev-eled or declined in some areasbecause some drivers have got-ten the message.

‘So close to home’Joe Henry Thomason began his

last day like every day.Trailed as always by a

neighbor’s dog, Thomason walkedmore than a mile from his home inEl Prado, just north of Taos, to aTexaco station to buy a morningnewspaper.

He was well liked by theworkers at the station. Touriststhere sometimes mistook him forWillie Nelson because of hisbeard, ponytail, southern accentand trademark bandanna.

Thomason was headed homewhen a driver struck and killedhim.

The driver, who has beencharged with homicide by vehicleand DWI, was allegedly drunk, enroute to a store to buy more beer.It was 8:45 on a weekday morning.

Thomason, a retired elementaryschool principal from Arkansas,was 66.

A cross marking the spot wherehe died on Millicent Rogers Roadis decorated with flowers and aTexaco banner.

Thomason’s widow, Susan,drives past the cross on manydays.

“I guess that’s been the hardestpart,” she says. “It happened soclose to home.”

The Thomasons were collegesweethearts. They had beenmarried 45 years, the parents oftwo. She was a special educationteacher.

They retired to Taos in 1990,and it was glorious. They oftenplayed tennis together andtraveled a lot to visit family. Shequilted and he cooked.

Today, Nana, the dog that

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DENKO: Santa Fepolice chief

MILFORD:State chair-woman ofMothersAgainstDrunk Driving

DWI BRAKES


ASSERTIVE APPROACH: Alamogordo Public Safety officer Bobby Pacheco handcuffs suspected drunkendriver Ronald P. Archer at a sobriety checkpoint. Such checkpoints are proven deterrents in the fightagainst drunken driving. Archer was later convicted.

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Agencies involved in Operation DWIOnly about half of New Mexico’s local law enforcement agencies takepart in Operation DWI. Participants in 2002:

Sheriff’s departments

Bernalillo

Chaves

Colfax

De Baca

Doña Ana

Eddy

Grant

Los Alamos

Luna

McKinley

Mora

Otero

Rio Arriba

Roosevelt

San Juan

San Miguel

Sandoval

Santa Fe

Socorro

Torrance

MunicipalpoliceAlamogordo

Albuquerque

Artesia

Aztec

Bayard

Belen

Bernalillo

Bloomfield

Bosque Farms

Cimarron

Clayton

Cloudcroft

Clovis

Corrales

DemingEspañolaEstanciaEuniceFarmingtonGallupGrantsHobbsLas CrucesLas VegasLos LunasLovingLovingtonMoriartyRatonRio RanchoRuidosoSan YsidroSanta Clara

Santa FeSanta RosaSilver CitySocorroSpringerSunland ParkTexicoTruth or Con-sequencesTucumcariTularosaZuni

OtherAcoma TribalPojoaque TribalZuni Tribal

— Source:State Traffic

Safety Bureau

trailed Joe to the Texaco, goes formorning walks with Susan. Shemisses seeing her husband sittingon the patio and working his dailycrossword puzzles.

“I stay very, very busy,” SusanThomason says. “I take it a day at atime. I’m not the first person whohas had tragedy in their life.You’ve got to go on. You can’tcrawl in a hole.”

Taos County is one of the worstin the state for alcohol-relatedcrashes. Its arrest rate for DWI isalso among the worst.

“It’s a matter of the law notbeing enforced,” Thomason says.“I’m not sure the city is interestedin doing anything about theproblem, or the county. I haven’theard anything that anybody caresenough to make changes.”

She says she isn’t interested inbecoming an activist.

“It would turn me into an angryperson,” Thomason says. “I don’twant to be like that.”

Good ol’ boy systemTaos County isn’t alone in having

a high rate of alcohol-relatedcrashes and a low rate of arrests.

Six other counties in 2000 rankedin the top 10 for crashes and thebottom 10 for arrests. (See graphicat left).

County sheriffs and local policemake 80 percent of the DWIarrests in New Mexico.

State Police are also critical inrural areas, making one in fourarrests outside of Albuquerque andBernalillo County.

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DWI BRAKES


NOT ENOUGH TIME: Susan Thomason says she reflects daily on her 45 years of marriage toJoe Henry Thomason. A retired elementary school principal, he was struck and killed on hisdaily walk in El Prado, just north of Taos. Police say the driver was drunk and on his way tobuy more beer.

SANDRA SUAZO, 26Dixon Killed by a drunken driver

Sandra Suazo is frozen intime in her family’s memo-ries. Forever 26, she neverhad the chance to marry herfiance and move into thehouse they were fixing up.She never had the chance tofinish her schooling andbecome a physical therapist.She never had the chance tohave children.

Suazo had stayed late atthe doctor’s office in

Española where she workedas a manager on the eveningshe was hit and killed by adrunken driver on her wayhome. Dominic Velasquezhad pulled onto N.M. 68after leaving a club in

Alcalde and driven thewrong way on the dividedhighway for several milesbefore he slammed into Sua-zo’s Chrysler LeBaron.

That was 12 years ago.The crash robbed St. Antho-ny’s Parish in Dixon of adedicated volunteer, stoleone of Lupita Suazo’s threedaughters and took from theworld a smiling, laughingspirit.

“She couldn’t carry a tunein a bucket,” said her sister,Arlene, “but she was learn-ing how to play the guitar.”

Arlene Maestas and hersister, Cindy Atencio, havetheir memories of Sandra’slife, and they also endurememories of her death —every time they seeVelasquez around Españolaor Santa Fe or read in thenewspaper that he has been

arrested again for DWI.Velasquez pleaded no con-

test to vehicular homicide inSuazo’s death and wasparoled after six months. Hewas arrested again for DWIin 1993 and 1994.

Last November, Velasquezwas charged with DWI againafter he was pulled over inHernandez. It was 9:30 a.m.and Velasquez was weavingin and out of traffic with a10-year-old passenger help-ing him steer, according topolice.

“Please get me out of thecar,” the boy told police.“He’s all drunk.”

“It’s frustrating,” CindyAtencio said. “He’s out thereliving his life, and he’s at itagain.”

Velasquez has since beenheld in jail on a $50,000 cashbond. His trial date is set for

“We want the judgeto make him stop.”

A R L E N E M A E S T A S ,

S A N D R A S U A Z O ’ S S I S T E R

life sentences by Leslie Linthicum

➔

COURTESY PHOTO

How vigorous law enforcementis in combating DWI boils down totwo major issues: money andattitude.

State Police make the majorityof the DWI arrests in TaosCounty.

“I could probably reduce theaccidents way down” with moreofficers, Francis says.

Taos Police Chief Neil Curran, aformer State Police chief, says hehas two fewer officers today thanwhen he took over the departmentin 1992.

“Could we do a better job? Yes.No doubt about it,” Curran says.“You have to have resources.”

Denko says law enforcementhas other crimes to fight, anddepartments must prioritizelimited resources.

“And when you don’t have theresources, some of the drunkdrivers are going to slip throughthe net,” he says.

Denko and others say DWIenforcement is less vigorous insome communities because ofpolitical considerations by localofficials.

“I don’t think it’s people actuallycondoning this,” Denko says.“They want to be representativeof their communities.”

Others are less politic.Española Municipal Judge

Charles Maestas says concernsabout la familia, or family, driveDWI enforcement in somecommunities, including his own.

“We are our own worst enemy,”Maestas says. “We are family, butwe have to believe in tough love.”

Milford and Ness call it “thegood ol’ boy system.”

“You got to live with the guynext door,” Ness says. AddsMilford, “They don’t understandthat eventually someone is goingto get hurt.”

Milford says some communitiesfear tough DWI enforcementcould affect their economies byreducing alcohol sales andtourism.

Francis adds, “We have a lot ofsheriffs who won’t run trafficenforcement. They have to run for

re-election.”Only about half of New Mexico’s

140 local law enforcementagencies participate in OperationDWI, a state program that fundssobriety checkpoints andsaturation patrols.

More than a dozen sheriff’sdepartments, including TaosCounty, don’t take part.

Taos County Sheriff CharlieMartinez says he applied last yearwith the state Traffic SafetyBureau to take part in OperationDWI but never heard back fromthe agency.

He says he hasn’t runcheckpoints this year but didabout seven or eight in 2001.Saturation patrols are morecommon, the sheriff says.

Lisa Kelloff, president of SaferNew Mexico Now, whichcontracts with law enforcementagencies on behalf of the TrafficSafety Bureau, said the TaosCounty Sheriff’s Departmenthasn’t participated in OperationDWI since 1997 or 1998.

There is no record that thedepartment applied last year forgrant money, Kelloff said.

Before they crashIt’s a Tuesday evening in March

and 10 officers with theAlamogordo Department of PublicSafety are manning a sobrietycheckpoint on busy Indian WellsRoad.

The officers nab only onesuspected DWI offender in fourhours but send a chilling messageto hundreds of drivers about thethreat of arrest should they

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It’s become an all too familiar story in New Mex-ico: A motorist repeatedly arrested for DWI killswhile driving drunk yet again.

Lloyd Larson of Crownpoint, charged in a crashJan. 25 on Interstate 40 that killed two Nebraskacouples, had at least nine prior DWI arrests.

Repeat offenders cause a disproportionate shareof the state’s alcohol-related crashes. More simplyput: A motorist who has been previously arrestedfor DWI is a greater threat on the highway than adriver who hasn’t.

Still, a staggering two-thirds of all alcohol-relat-ed fatal and nonfatal accidents are caused by dri-vers who have never been arrested for DWI.

And that is the basis for a debate over how muchanti-DWI efforts should focus on repeat offendersversus efforts aimed at the entire driving popula-tion.

Steven Flint, a board member of the nonprofitDWI Resource Center in Albuquerque and a for-mer chief of the state Traffic Safety Bureau, saysNew Mexico has focused too much on repeatoffenders.

“They aren’t necessarily the key to the solution,”Flint says.

Drivers never arrested for drunken driving aremore responsive to anti-DWI efforts, such assobriety checkpoints, he says.

“They are more concerned about losing theirlicenses, their reputations in their communities,how they are viewed by their families,” Flint says.

“Enforcement, by the research, is what wouldsave lives,” he says. “Saving lives is what it’s allabout.”

The local DWI grant program, funded by rev-enues from the liquor excise tax, is an example ofhow New Mexico is overfocused on repeat offend-ers, Flint says.

Local governments received $10.5 million underthe program in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001,and only $934,000 of that went to enforcement.

The rest was spent on prevention and planningand alcohol- and drug-abuse screening, outpatienttreatment, intensive supervision and alternativesentencing for DWI offenders.

But Terry Huertaz, state executive director ofMothers Against Drunk Driving, says the focus onrepeat offenders is warranted because they arethe known population of drunken drivers.

Drivers who have never been arrested but are atrisk for driving drunk are hard to identify, Huer-taz says.

Thomas English, secretary of the state Depart-ment of Public Safety, is focusing on repeatoffenders as part of his Road Predator Project.

State Police officers are given information aboutpeople in their areas who have been arrested forDWI more than three times.

English says officers don’t conduct stakeouts tocatch the repeat offenders but can watch for themwhile on patrol.

State Highway and Transportation SecretaryPete Rahn also says using substantial resources totry to prevent repeat drunken driving is warrant-ed.

“The system is finally making contact with thisproblem (a drunken driver) and has an opportuni-ty to deal with it,” Rahn says.

Who Should Police Target?

HUERTAZ:State executivedirector ofMothersAgainstDrunk Driving

FLINT: Former Traffic SafetyBureau chief

RAHN: StateHighway andTranspor-tation secretary

EXPERTS DIFFER ON WHETHER REPEATOFFENDERS ARE KEY TO SOLUTION

ENGLISH:State PublicSafety secretary

DWI BRAKES


DOING THE PAPERWORK: Alamogordo Public Safety officer Bobby Pacheco inspects a motorist’s driver’slicense, vehicle registration and proof of insurance at a sobriety checkpoint. Otero County has a high rateof DWI arrests and a low rate of drunken driving crashes.

“We are our own worstenemy. We are family, butwe have to believe intough love.”

E S P A Ñ O L A M U N I C I P A L

J U D G E C H A R L E S M A E S T A S

➔

drink and drive.“It serves as a deterrent,” says

Tony Bransford, the DWIprogram coordinator in OteroCounty.

Otero is one of the state’s mostaggressive counties in fightingdrunken driving. It also has one ofthe lowest rates for alcohol-related crashes.

It was one of eight counties in2000 that ranked in the top 10 forarrests and the bottom 10 forcrashes.

“The officers here take anassertive approach to DWI,” saysAlamogordo police Lt. T.O.Livingston.

“We’re not lax about it. Theseguys know it’s part of their job.”

Bransford adds, “We get thembefore they crash.”

Livingston says his department

operates about two sobrietycheckpoints each month, withofficer overtime funded by thestate.

At the checkpoint on IndianWells, each motorist is asked toprovide proof of insurance,driver’s license and vehicleregistration.

In addition to the DWI arrest,officers issue two dozen othercitations, mostly for no proof ofinsurance, driving without a validlicense and lack of registration.

One driver is cited for an opencontainer of alcohol. A womanwho says she is a police officer onHolloman Air Force Base is takento jail when a check on herdriver’s license shows an arrestwarrant for passing worthlesschecks.

At times, as many as 20 vehiclesare backed up at the checkpoint.Some motorists wait 10 minutes ormore to get through.

Despite the inconvenience, most

of the 300 motorists who gothrough the checkpoint are ingood moods. DWI activists handout key chains and note pads asthank yous for the hassle.

Some drivers know the trade-offis safer highways. “I don’t objectto it,” one woman says.

Goals neededAs for counties with high

alcohol-related crash rates andlow arrest rates, nothing willchange until residents demand it,says Linda Atkinson, executivedirector of the DWI ResourceCenter.

“They have to know somethingdifferent can be done,” Atkinsonsays.

A federal plan to combat DWIsays city, county and stateofficials need to establish goalsand officers need to be trained,supported and motivated toconsistently enforce drunken

driving laws.Francis says the State Police is

encouraging district commandersto get local residents involved byforming chapters of MothersAgainst Drunk Driving.

State Public Safety SecretaryThomas English, who oversees theState Police, says DWIenforcement boils down to asimple question: “What is thepublic willing to pay for, and whatare they willing to put up with.”

So far, he says, New Mexicohasn’t made the sacrifices tovigorously address the problem.

Terrance Schiavone, a statehighway official and formerexecutive director of the NationalCommission Against DrunkDriving, says police, courts andcommunities need to be re-energized about fighting DWI.

New Mexico, he says, doesn’thave to be one of the worst statesfor drunken driving. ■

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Cost of DWIThe annual monetary cost ofDWI in New Mexico

■ More than $1.1 billion inmedical bills, lost wages, pub-lic service expenses, propertydamage, quality of life lossesand other expenses.

That breaks down to:

■ $3.2 million per death.

■ $79,000 per person injured.

■ An estimated 12 percent ofNew Mexicans’ auto insurancepremiums.

Source: A report prepared bythe Public Services ResearchInstitute for the National High-way Traffic Safety Administra-tion. The report is based on1998 crash data.

DWI BRAKES

RUSSELL KIDMAN, 57MARY KIDMAN, 55Los Alamos Killed by a drunken driver

It came as no surprise to people whoknew them that Russell and Mary Kid-man spent their last day alive scram-bling around Bandelier National Monu-ment, then heading to the mountains forsome end-of-the-day nature watching.

Nor did it surprise anyone that theyhad a daughter, a grandkid and somefriends along.

In their 25 years in Los Alamos, theKidmans had devoured the scenery andpracticed the small good deeds thatbuild lifelong friendships.

Russell, a nuclear physicist, grew ros-es, collected lost softballs, biked towork every day, sailed on Abiquiu Lakeand canned tomatoes. He had recentlyfigured out how to predict the behaviorof subatomic particles, a breakthroughin developing techniques to dispose ofnuclear weapons.

Mary, a lifelong student, was presi-dent of the League of Women Votersand the Civitans, a fan of Frank LloydWright’s designs, a doting grandparentand a quiet influence on friends andneighbors who sought her advice. At 51,she had worn a cap and gown and grad-uated from the University of New Mex-

ico.The Kidmans were in their Toyota

Camry on Sept. 17, 1999, when theyrounded a curve on N.M. 4 and found acar facing them. Their older daughter,Stacey Plassmann, and her 8-month-oldson, Ryland, riding in the back seat,were barely injured in the head-on colli-sion. Plassmann’s friends saw the crashfrom their car.

Russell Kidman was crushed againstthe steering wheel. Mary Kidman wastrapped in the seat next to him. It tooknearly three hours for rescue crews toarrive and cut them from the car. Rus-sell died in the helicopter on the way tothe hospital. Mary, her legs and armsshattered, died six weeks later.

“There couldn’t have been a more vio-lent way to kill them,” their youngerdaughter, Sonya Lee, says. “You couldhave taken a sledgehammer, and itwouldn’t have been more violent.”

The driver of the car that hit themhad been convicted of DWI five timesand did not have a valid driver’slicense. He is now off the roads, inprison and serving a 22-year sentence.

“They were really in the primeof their life.”

S O N Y A L E E , D A U G H T E R O F

R U S S E L L A N D M A R Y K I D M A N

DENNIS LIHTE, 51Albuquerque Police chaplain

He has walked to the front doors ofhundreds of homes in Albuquerque overthe years, knocked lightly and deliverednews that changes peoples’ lives forever.

Dennis Lihte, an ordained Baptist min-ister and the director of a homeless shel-ter, is one of 30 volunteer AlbuquerquePolice Department chaplains called tothe scene of violent death to help policeidentify victims and then notify the fami-ly.

Too often, the news is related to drink-ing and driving.

Some of those accidents, even yearslater, stand out in Lihte’s memory.

Like interrupting the carving of theturkey on Thanksgiving Day to tell thefamily why their son was late to dinner.

Like finding the 13-year-old girl in theback seat of the crumpled car, a beer cansmashed into her mouth by the force ofan accident, and heading out into thenight to try to find her mother or father.

Like telling the mother that her 21-year-old son had driven off an embank-ment drunk and then learning that anoth-er police chaplain had delivered similarnews only a year earlier about thewoman’s other son.

Confronting the living is harder for

Lihte than helping police identify thedead.

“When you see the body, it doesn’t real-ly mean anything until you match it withthe people who loved that person,” saysLihte.

“Then the pain you weren’t feeling atthe scene becomes pronounced. Seeingthe devastation in the eyes of these moth-ers and fathers, it sticks in your mind.It’s the hardest part of the job.”

“They know the chaplain is attheir door and what that means.I don’t even say, ‘I have badnews.’ I get right to it.”

COURTESY PHOTO



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More than 210,000 driverswere arrested for DWI in NewMexico during the decade thatended on the last day of theyear 2000.

During the same period, therewere 46,203 alcohol-relatedcrashes resulting in 2,267 peo-ple killed, and thousands moremaimed.

But there were only 238 cita-tions issued against liquorlicensees for serving intoxicat-ed people.

More than 100 of those result-ed in no punishment for the sell-ers.

Santa Fe Police Chief JohnDenko calls the number of sell-er citations “astoundingly low.”

“It’s an indictment of compla-cency,” says Steven Flint, aboard member of the nonprofitDWI Resource Center in Albu-querque and a former chief ofthe state Traffic Safety Bureau.

Tougher enforcement of NewMexico’s law against servingintoxicated people would saveabout 20 lives a year on thehighways, according to a studyproduced for the National High-way Traffic Safety Administra-

tion.“That’s the next place we

need to go” in the DWI fight,says Nadine Milford, statechairwoman of Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving.

The Special InvestigationsDivision of the state Depart-ment of Public Safety has pri-mary responsibility for enforc-ing liquor laws.

But the state has a long histo-ry of underfunding the division.

“The money of the alcoholindustry speaks loud and clear,”says Linda Atkinson, executive

director of the DWI ResourceCenter. “Alcohol is the sacredcow of New Mexico.

“We will have a liquorlicensee on every corner, bedamned if you want a safeneighborhood,” she says. “Ourwild west mentality has unfor-tunately stayed.”

Thomas English, a former fed-eral prosecutor who becamepublic safety secretary lastyear, says he is trying to crackdown on bars and restaurantsthat serve intoxicated people.

“The efforts to this datehaven’t met up to that problem,”English says.

Repeat DWI offenders wereasked in a study for the Nation-al Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration where they typi-cally consumed alcohol.

Bars topped the list, followedby the offenders’ homes, homesof friends and relatives, andrestaurants.

To deny that DWI offendersget drunk in bars, “You have tobe a liar,” Denko says.

Of the 238 citations issued forserving intoxicated people from1991 through 2000, at least 102were dismissed, resulted in norecorded penalty or were set-tled with a warning.

For those who paid a fine, theaverage was $600. Only 42 cita-tions resulted in license suspen-sions.

The state in 1995 beganrequiring that alcohol serversbe trained in compliance withliquor laws and in 1999 beganissuing citations to individualservers.

It is impossible to tell fromthe state Alcohol and GamingDivision database how manyserver citations have beenissued for serving intoxicatedpeople.

Bert Clemens, a hotel andrestaurant owner in Eagle Nestand a former president of anassociation that represents barsand restaurants, says 99 percentof sellers do a good job in notserving intoxicated people.

“It’s really hard to say when aguy is visibly intoxicated,”Clemens says. “It can be impos-sible.”

It is also hard for sellers toalways know how much some-one has had to drink becausepeople bar hop and drink invehicles, he says.

“You get thrown out of Joe’splace so you go to Mabel’splace,” Clemens says. “Then ittakes a drink to figure out this

guy’s blotto.”English says he has ordered

the Special Investigations Divi-sion to start tracking downwhere drivers got drunk beforecausing accidents.

The division can then use theinformation to target liquor sell-ers for investigation, Englishsays.

Maj. Fernando Gallegos, headof the Special InvestigationsDivision, says the division has21 agents to enforce alcohollaws statewide.

Cases against licensees forserving intoxicated people arehard to prove, Gallegos says.

Someone drinking in a bar orrestaurant can’t be forced totake a blood-alcohol test unlesshe gets into a vehicle, he says.

Agents have begun bringingcases against people who buydrinks for intoxicated friendsand family members after theyhave been denied service inbars and restaurants, Gallegossays.

The Special InvestigationsDivision recently receivedgrant money from the stateTraffic Safety Bureau to stepup enforcement.

“Alcohol is the sacred cow of New Mexico. We will have a liquor licensee on every corner, be damned if you want a safe neighborhood. ”L I N D A A T K I N S O N , E X E C U T I V E D I R E C T O R O F T H E D W I R E S O U R C E C E N T E R

Liquor Sellers Not Held Accountable

ATKINSON:Executivedirector ofthe DWIResourceCenter

CLEMENS:Restaurant,hotel ownersays mostsellers do agood job innot servingdrunks

MARY MARGARETSOSA, 26Albuquerque Killed by a drunken driver

Her parents come up blankwhen they try to remembertheir eldest daughter relaxing inan idle moment.

Mary Margaret Sosa, nick-named “Sister Mary Margaret”by co-workers for her helpful-ness and compassion, wasalways on the go. She readromance novels, loved moviesand always had a crochet pro-ject in the big bag she carried

with her. If friends, relatives orco-workers needed help withanything, she was always thefirst to lend a hand.

“That girl could never say noto nobody,” says Justo Sanchez,who married Sosa’s motherwhen Mary Margaret was 6 andraised her as his daughter.

Sosa juggled three jobs — atMcDonald’s, at a day-care cen-ter and at a laundry — while shecompleted Manzano HighSchool.

By the time she was 26, Sosahad two years under her belt asa 911 dispatcher. She took thejob because she found the workexciting and wanted to make adifference in the lives of peoplein distress.

“She felt it was her responsi-bility,” her mother, TeresitaSanchez, says, “to take care ofpeople.”

Sosa worked the overnightshift and took her lunch break at2 every morning. She would dri-ve from the Bernalillo County

Communications Center atPaseo del Norte and Eubank,grab something to eat at a con-venience store, then head backto work.

On Aug. 26, 1998, Sosa walkedout of the center, looked back ather colleagues and said, “Any-body want anything? See you ina little bit.” When she wasn’tback within 30 minutes, theyworried.

Emergency dispatchers arethe first to know of an accident.One of the dispatchers drove tothe scene of a high-speed crashthat had been reported atEubank and Academy and foundSosa’s red Neon smashed almostbeyond recognition.

A 21-year-old, who later plead-ed guilty to killing Sosa, wascoming from a party at a bar.He had a blood-alcohol level oftwice the legal limit, ran a redlight and hit Sosa’s car broad-side. The impact burst Sosa’sheart.

COURTESY PHOTOS

THE AFTERMATH: Mary Margaret Sosa’s car was hit broadside bya drunken driver who ran a red light.

“She worked, worked,worked. That little girlworked.”

T E R E S I T A S A N C H E Z ,

S O S A ’ S M O T H E R


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Edward N. Sena got a sweetdeal when he was arrested fordrunken driving in March1999.

With four prior DWI convic-tions, Sena could have been con-victed of felony drunken drivingand sent to prison for 11⁄2 years.

But he didn’t spend a day in jailor pay a dime in fines.

The Las Vegas, N.M., manpleaded guilty to a first-offenseDWI under a pleadeal with the localDistrictAttorney’s Office.

It wasn’t hisfirst good dealafter gettingpicked up fordriving whileintoxicated. Allfour of his priorconvictions werefor first-offenseDWI, mockingNew Mexico’spolicy of tougherpenalties for repeat offenders.

Sena’s case isn’t unusual.A Journal analysis of cases

statewide shows about 30 percentof all drivers charged with DWIend up being convicted of orpleading guilty to reducedcharges.

The analysis of 300 randomlyselected cases found about 45percent of the drivers wereconvicted of the maximum chargeallowed by law.

The remainder of the caseswere still pending or had beendismissed. Some were transferredto federal court.

The Journal’s analysis alsofound that about half of thoseconvicted didn’t comply with their

sentences, and judges rarelyimposed mandatory jail sentencesfor noncompliance.

Meanwhile, more than half thedismissals and acquittals werecaused by officers failing toappear at trial and otherprosecution breakdowns.

In short, the criminal justicesystem isn’t sending a messagethat DWI offenders will besubjected to swift and surepunishment. That message iscritical to deterring drunkendriving, experts say.

“We’ve got to get to the DAs andjudges. They’re dropping the ballway too frequently,” says stateHighway and TransportationSecretary Pete Rahn, whooversees the Traffic SafetyBureau.

Pleading outThe state increased penalties

for drunken driving in 1994. It

also created a new crime ofaggravated DWI for those whohad a blood-alcohol content of.16 or more, refused to take ablood-alcohol test or caused bod-ily injury.

Misdemeanor DWI chargesnow range from nonaggravatedfirst-time drunken driving withno mandatory jail time to anaggravated DWI third offensewith 90 days mandatory.

A driver convicted of four ormore DWI offenses can becharged with a felony carryinga mandatory six months and amaximum of 11⁄2 years.

In the Journal’s review ofDWI cases statewide, therewere at least 32 cases wherefirst-time offenders could havebeen convicted of aggravatedDWI but instead were foundguilty of nonaggravated. Thatmeant they avoided

Many Drunks Get Off Easy

WEAK LINKS IN JUSTICE SYSTEM ALLOW PRIORDWI CONVICTIONS TO COUNT FOR NOTHING

AS SUSPECTS SKATE WITH NO JAIL TIME


SEEN BOTH SIDES: Tony Miers says he pleaded guilty several timesto being a first-time DWI offender. He is now sober and an anti-DWIadvocate.

SENA: Withfour priors,was convict-ed for first-offense DWI

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TIMOTHY GLASS, 50Paradise Hills DWI accident victim

When he tells his story at victim impact pan-els, Tim Glass is as harsh and unforgiving as thedrunken driving crash that changed his life.

“I hope to God,” Glass tells convicted drunkendrivers, “that I haunt you for the rest of yourlife.”

Glass was an athlete before a pickup truckgoing 60 mph slammed into the back of hissmaller truck as he was stopped at a red light onSan Mateo at Candelaria. The crash broke hiship, jammed two vertebrae into his head andsheared off a portion of his brain. Three yearsafter the crash, Glass is two inches shorter,walks with a limp and is still in pain.

Glass was a computer scientist and a writerbefore the crash pushed his head into the roof ofhis pickup. He had to learn to walk, talk, readand write again. He lost his job and sold hishouse to pay medical bills. Today, he takes col-lege courses in Web site design in hopes that hecan go back to work and feel a little bit closer tothe man he used to be.

The man who hit Glass, 51-year-old LorenzoMojica of Albuquerque, walked across the streetto get a cup of coffee immediately after thecrash, according to police. He told a judge hewas drinking because he had buried his girl-friend that day. Mojica got a three-year prisonsentence for the crash that injured Glass. Hewas also sentenced to six years for raping hisdeceased girlfriend’s 12-year-old daughter.

The judge allowed the sentences to run simul-

taneously.That means, Glass points out bitterly, that

Mojica is really receiving no punishment forupending his life and the lives of his wife anddaughter.

“Today, I am fighting for my life,” says Glass.“It’s an ongoing nightmare. There is the physicalpain and the emotional pain and the constantfight to be someone again. Tim Glass is dead. Hedied that night on San Mateo. And he’s a toughact to follow.”

TONY MIERS, 38AlbuquerqueFormer drunken driver

Tony Miers doesn’t know howmany times he was stopped bypolice for drunken driving. Hethinks it was more than 20.

He certainly couldn’t calculatethe number of times he drovedrunk and didn’t get caught.

“It’s uncountable,” says Miers.“I drank and drank.”

He started drinking at age 13(unless you count the day whenhe was 3 and someone gave hima couple of cans of Coors) andwas drinking regularly by thetime he was 16 and had dropped

out of Rio Grande High School.Miers had DWI charges

dropped for a variety of reasonsover the years: The police offi-cer didn’t show up, the Breatha-lyzer had not been calibratedrecently, the arresting officerhad not filled out his paperworkproperly.

He also used a common ploy toavoid serious jail time: Hepleaded guilty to DWI as a firstoffense several times and wassentenced to alcohol treatmentprograms or counseling.

Miers gave little thought todriving with a 12-pack of Bud-weiser or bottle of Black Velveton the floorboard between hisfeet, or to getting caught.

“I figured that was just part ofgrowing up,” Miers says. “Thisis just the way life goes. Even ifI got caught, what’s going tohappen? I’m going to have to goto an AA meeting?”

It took a domestic violencecharge four years ago to getMiers’ attention. He sobered up,accepted Jesus Christ into hislife and opened his own smallbusiness, an automotive paintand body shop in the North Val-ley.

Miers has had three run-inswith drunken driving and thelaw in the past year, but theseare much different from his pastexperiences. Each time he hasseen a driver drinking, he hascalled 911 on his cell phone andkept track of the driver untilpolice arrived.

“I said, ‘God, I wantsomething out of life andthis isn’t it.’ ’’

“I figured if I didn’t drink and drive,I would be safe. I could get out of the way.”

mandatory jail time.At least 57 repeat drunken

drivers avoided jail or had theirtime reduced by pleading guiltyto lesser offenses.

The Sena case was one of atleast five where the driver wasconvicted of a misdemeanorDWI when his prior drunkendriving convictions made himeligible for a felony.

“This plea-bargain stuff isway out of hand,” says RichardNess, executive director of theNew Mexico Sheriffs and PoliceAssociation and a former Tor-rance County sheriff.

Santa Fe Police Chief JohnDenko, a former State Policechief and president of the NewMexico Municipal Chiefs ofPolice Association, says officers“feel slapped in the face some-times” by the court system.

“It’s a morale killer,” Denkosays.

‘No proof of priors’Sena was last arrested for

DWI in March 1999 by a StatePolice officer who stopped hisweaving pickup in Las Vegas.

The office of District Attor-ney Matthew Sandoval prose-cuted the case in MagistrateCourt. It was his third prosecu-tion by the local District Attor-ney’s Office — although thefirst two preceded Sandoval.

Sena was allowed to pleadguilty to nonaggravated first-offense DWI. He was sentencedto 90 days unsupervised proba-tion and fined $200. The finewas suspended.

“No proof of priors availablefor felony!” an assistant districtattorney wrote in the prosecu-tor’s file.

It’s a refrain often heard fromprosecution offices. But it’sreally not that difficult to findconviction records.

Prosecutors must show proofof a driver’s prior DWI convic-tions to obtain a repeat-offender

conviction.

The records should be avail-able either from the state MotorVehicle Division or the courtwhere the defendant was con-victed.

Sena’s case file shows theDA’s Office asked MVD forrecords of his convictions butreceived only a record of hisfirst conviction in 1980. Thatconviction couldn’t be usedbecause it didn’t show Sena hadsigned a waiver of counsel, San-doval says.

Sena’s other convictions werein Santa Fe Municipal Court in1990 and in Magistrate Court inLas Vegas in 1993 and 1994.

The case file at the DA’sOffice doesn’t show any effortto obtain records of those con-victions from the courts afterMVD’s response.

And prosecutors should haveknown MVD had additionalrecords, which the agency com-piles when it receives convic-

tion notices from courts. Lawenforcement can access an“index” of convictions, so prose-cutors should know whatrecords they will receive.

MVD provided records of allSena’s convictions in responseto an inquiry by the Journal.

Sandoval says he believes theoffice made a verbal request ofMagistrate Court for recordsbut was told they were unavail-able. He says no request wasmade of the Santa Fe court andthat was a mistake.

But the Journal recentlyobtained Sena’s case files in theLas Vegas and Santa Fe courts.

Sandoval says his office nowworks harder to find records ofprior convictions, checkingback with MVD when recordsare missing and getting recordsdirectly from courts when nec-essary.

“We’re far better than wewere in 1999,” he says.

Sena died this year of an alco-hol-related disease. He was 55.

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First-offense trap doorThere have been other cases

where prosecutors said theywere forced to allow drunkendrivers to plead to lessercharges because records of pre-vious convictions couldn’t belocated.

But activists in the fightagainst DWI say prosecutorssometimes just don’t look hardenough, as in the Sena case.

“We can find them,” saysNadine Milford, state chair-woman of Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving.

Public Safety SecretaryThomas English, who overseesthe State Police, says officersnow obtain court records of pri-or convictions after arrestingrepeat DWI offenders.

“We don’t accept, ‘We can’tfind it,’ ’’ he says. “We will findit. We are not waiting for the

DAs.”

English says he wants prose-cutors to stop bargaining downcharges against repeat DWIoffenders in cases where StatePolice provide the records. Inother words, they won’t havethe “missing records” excuse.

Steven Flint, a board memberof the nonprofit DWI ResourceCenter in Albuquerque and a

former chief of the state TrafficSafety Bureau, says he’s con-cerned about serious chargesbeing bargained down to nonag-gravated first-offense DWI.

The crime of nonaggravatedfirst-offense DWI is the onlydrunken driving charge thatdoesn’t carry mandatory jailtime.

“It’s a trap door,” Flint says.

“Everything can fall down tothat level and there are nomandatory penalties.”

System overwhelmedThere are, of course, reasons

other than records problems forprosecutors to enter into pleabargains with drivers accusedof DWI.

A DA’s office might be con-cerned about the legality of thetraffic stop that led to an arrestor could decide that having aconviction in hand is better thanrisking a trial.

Warren Sigal, an assistant dis-trict attorney in Albuquerque,says DWI offenders sometimesare permitted to plead guilty tolesser charges because somejudges don’t like having toimpose mandatory jail time formore serious DWI offenses.

Those judges are concernedhow jail time could affect suchthings as a defendant’s employ-ment and family, Sigal says.

“What about the family, the

job of the woman killed by thedrunk?” asks highway SecretaryRahn, whose wife was injuredwhen she was hit by a drunkendriver last year.

Terry Huertaz, state execu-tive director of Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving, says the groupdoesn’t object to plea bargainsas long as felonies aren’treduced to misdemeanors andas long as the plea-bargain cas-es don’t involve injury acci-dents.

“I think it is just they (prose-cutors) are overwhelmed,”Huertaz says.

District Attorney Kari Bran-denburg in Albuquerque, whoseoffice handles more than 6,000DWI cases a year, says it’s notonly the prosecution, but theentire criminal justice systemthat is overwhelmed.

The system is functioning rea-sonably well but not “as well asit should be to protect the citi-zens it represents,” Branden-burg says. “We could do a lotmore with resources.”


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MICHELLEJIMENEZ, 34BelenKilled by a drunken driver

Michelle Jimenez was alate bloomer, but she wasproving that the wait wasworth it.

In 1998, Jimenez was34, a recent college grad-uate with big dreams ofgoing to medical school,then volunteering as aphysician in Latin Ameri-ca.

She had dropped out ofhigh school at 15 and con-centrated on havingbabies and raising chil-dren. She had four boys,the youngest still in ele-mentary school, when she

decided it was time forher life to take on a newdimension. She enrolledin college at the Universi-ty of New Mexico’sValencia County branchand encouraged her moth-er to do the same.

Jimenez was seriousabout becoming a doctor.She became a certifiedemergency medical tech-nician and signed on toshadow a local doctor.Jimenez graduated withhonors in May 1998.

“She just wanted tolearn everything therewas to learn,” her step-mother, Cindy Valen-zuela, said. “She turnedher life around. She wasgoing to be someone andmake a difference.”

Two weeks later,Jimenez was crossing thestreet in the crosswalk indowntown Los Lunasabout 2:30 p.m. when a

pickup, running a redlight, hit her. Shebounced onto the pickup’shood and rolled off. Thedriver kept on going.

Jimenez died instantly.The pickup driver, DanielF. Gonzales, turned onto aditchbank. Witnessesfound him there throwingbeer cans out of his truck.

As part of a plea agree-ment that cut his prisonsentence to 14 years,Gonzales, a 38-year-oldwith seven DWI convic-tions, agreed to detail hisactivities on the dayJimenez died.

He had gotten off workin Albuquerque at 7 a.m.and started drinking beerwith friends, he said in astatement. They bought acase of beer in Albu-querque, played basket-ball, watched TV anddrank some more, hesaid. Then he got in histruck to drive home.

He did not rememberhitting Jimenez.

“I was so exhaustedfrom working and drink-ing beer,” Gonzaleswrote. “I could hardlystay awake. Next thing Iknow, I heard this noise.I’m thinking, and sayingto myself, ‘Oh, no. Whathave I done? Somethingisn’t right.’ ’’

DOUGLAS BINDER,

44AlbuquerqueTrauma center doctor

It took a couple ofyears pulling nightshifts in the Universityof New Mexico Hospitaltrauma center and thebirth of his son to sendDouglas Binder shop-ping for a new car. Helooked for the biggest,heaviest SUV he couldfind — something thatmight stand up well in acontest with a drunkendriver.

As clinical director ofthe emergency roomthat treats the mostsevere injuries fromacross the state, Bindersees firsthand how oftendriving and alcohol mixwith tragic conse-quences.

Five years at Univer-sity of New Mexico Hos-pital and two yearsbefore that as a doctorin Gallup have turnedthe native New Yorkerinto a self-described

“ranting and ravingmaniac” on the subjectof drunken driving. Hisexperience patching updrunken drivers andtheir victims has taughthim that New Mexico’sDWI problem is horren-dous.

“It’s not getting bet-ter. Cars are gettingsafer, and we’re gettingmore sophisticated attreating people,” Bindersays. “The problem istremendously underrat-ed. It’s awful. It’sabsolutely awful.”

And Binder seesthings others do not:Drunks who havecrashed their cars andgotten to the hospitalwithout being detectedby police. Under statelaw, Binder cannotreport them. He patches

them up and sends themback to the streets.

“You feel like it’s arevolving door,” Bindersays. “And it is.”

When a trauma patientarrives, Binder gets athumbnail sketch ofwhere the accident hap-pened, who hit whomand what vehicle thevictim was in. Thatinformation haschanged the way thedoctor lives his life.

He and his wife stayoff two-lane roads afterdark. They stay homemore often. And theyput their faith in a big,heavy truck.

“I get to see this first-hand in a way that otherpeople don’t. It’s not anabstract concept to me,”says Binder. “I’m terri-bly nervous.”

“This wasn’t goingto happen to us. Thiswas something thatwas in thenewspapershappening to otherpeople.”

C I N D Y V A L E N Z U E L A ,

S T E P M O T H E R O F

M I C H E L L E J I M E N E Z

“Alcohol is thereason we’re inbusiness.”


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She adds, “To some degree,we’re giving lip service” tobeing tough on drunken driving.

Rahn says those in the crimi-nal justice system will continueto deflect blame until the publicdemands change in how it dealswith DWI offenders.

“When the system believesthat something has to be done, itcan respond,” he says, pointingto the progress the state madeagainst drunken driving afterthe much-publicized crash onChristmas Eve 1992 that killedMilford’s daughter and threegranddaughters.

Failure to complySheriff’s

Deputy ShawnBeck said hespotted AnthonyG. Rodriguezdriving reckless-ly just south ofSanta Fe on May16, 1999.

Rodriguez thenled Beck on achase at speedsof up to 117 mphon busy N.M. 14,according to thedeputy.

It was his second arrest fordrunken driving in threemonths, and Rodriguez was con-victed a month later of a second-offense DWI and other crimes.

Magistrate Bill Dimas senthim to jail for 15 days, ordereda year of probation and finedhim more than $1,000.Rodriguez also was ordered toget alcohol treatment, perform48 hours of community serviceand attend DWI school.

But Rodriguez failed to com-plete alcohol treatment andcommunity service.

He also violated his probationwhen he was arrested again inFebruary 2000 for drunken dri-ving, driving with a revoked

license, receiving stolen proper-ty, careless driving, resistingarrest and negligent use of afirearm.

State law sets mandatory jailterms ranging from two days to60 days for drivers convicted ofmisdemeanor DWIs who don’tcomply with their sentences.

For a second-offense DWI,which Rodriguez had been con-victed of, the mandatory time isseven days.

But Dimas imposed no time,despite having Rodriguezarrested twice on bench war-rants for noncompliance andbrought back before the court.

Dimas also could haverevoked the remainder ofRodriguez’s probation and puthim in jail. He didn’t.

The Rodriguez case isn’tunusual.

The Journal review of DWIcases found at least 114 of the226 drivers convicted didn’tcomply with their sentencesand only a handful received jailtime.

“We’d be sending all theseguys to jail” for noncompliance,Dimas says. “The county wouldbe yelling at us because theyhave to pay for it.”

He says he often extends com-pliance time for DWI offendersbut keeps newly set deadlineswithin their probation periods.

“We’ll work with them,” thejudge says. “We’re not here tothrow them in jail every timethey look the wrong way.”

Social workLinda Atkinson, executive

director of the DWI ResourceCenter, says courts don’t recog-nize that their job is to applythe laws.

“They think their role is socialworker,” she says.

Flint adds:“They’re doing social work

with the wrong people. The onesthat most need the help (victimsof DWI) are invisible to thecourts. Our judicial systemviews DWI as a victimlesscrime and treats it according-ly.”

Senate Judiciary ChairmanMichael Sanchez, D-Belen, sayshe has been telling fellow law-makers and the governor foryears that courts need morehelp in monitoring complianceof those they sentence.

Most courts do the best theycan with the money they have,and jail crowding is a legitimateconcern, Sanchez says.

“There is so much pressure onthe system,” he says.

He says he opposes mandato-ry sentencing but expectsjudges to follow such laws if

passed by the Legislature.Dimas, one of three judges in

Magistrate Court in Santa Fe,says the court has just one per-son monitoring DWI offendersfor compliance.

He says he has started to givelengthier probation periods todrunken drivers to avoid thecourt running out of timebefore it can obtain compliance.

Rodriguez, now 27, eventuallycomplied with the judge’s orderfor alcohol treatment. Herecently said he had stoppeddrinking.

“I’m not an alcoholic,” he said.

Case dismissedThe accident report says this

is what happened:About 10 on the night of May

21, 1997, Jerome Brown of RioRancho got off Interstate 40near Downtown Albuquerquebut didn’t stop for a red light ashe headed onto Fourth Street.

Brown hit a cruiser driven bya Bernalillo County sheriff’ssergeant. The sergeant appar-ently wasn’t hurt, but the cruis-er was heavily damaged.

Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Lujan,who was called in to investigate,arrested Brown for DWI. It wasBrown’s second arrest fordrunken driving in less thantwo years.

“We’d besending allthese guys tojail (fornoncom-pliance). Thecounty would be yellingat us because they have topay for it.”

M A G I S T R A T E B I L L D I M A S

PHIL GRIEGO, 53San JoseConvicted twice of DWI

Phil Griego’s days wentlike this: Up in the morn-ing, bleary-eyed andregretful. An argumentwith his wife and a 45-mile drive from his homein San Jose into Santa Fe.An hour or two behindthe desk at the title com-pany he owns, then lunchat 11 a.m. at one of hisfavorite bars — the BullRing, the Palace Bar orTiny’s.

He would start withbeer. After six or seven,he would switch toCrown Royal and DietCoke and drink 10 ormore of those. At 6 or 7p.m., he would drive the45 miles back to San Jose— drunk, every time. “I’dhave a couple moredrinks at home, and I’dget up in the middle ofthe night and have anoth-er one.”

Everybody knew thatGriego, a successfulbusinessman and a long-time state senator, wasan alcoholic. Except him.

After his truck slippedinto an acequia early oneFebruary morning in2000, Griego wascharged with DWI. Hefought the charge, sayingsomeone else was dri-ving. He was convictedand served no time injail.

And he continued todrink. A year later,Griego was swerving on

Interstate 25 when hewas stopped and arrest-ed.

Griego isn’t sure whathappened over the next48 hours, but it has led toa new life.

He remembers hisdaughter bailing him outof jail and driving himhome in stony silence.When Griego got home,he asked his wife, Janey,“What am I gonna donow?”

“You’re just going tohave to deal with it,” shesaid.

The next day hisdaughter sent over afriend, a recovering alco-holic and a born-againChristian.

Something clicked dur-ing their meeting, andGriego finally admittedhe was not in control ofhis drinking. Instead ofgoing to the bar that day,he went home. The nextday he drove to Good Fri-day services in Albu-

querque and raised hishand when the preacherasked if anyone wasready to be saved.

It has been a year sinceGriego accepted the DWIcharge, spent three daysin jail and agreed toinstallation in his truckof a device that locks theignition if it detects alco-

hol on his breath.

“That barking dog isalways going to bethere,” Griego says. Buthe attends AlcoholicsAnonymous meetingsand has not had a drinksince his arrest. He haslost 54 pounds, his dia-betes is under control,and he is in the office

every afternoon and lov-ing it.

“To come home in theevening and talk to mywife, not argue. To ridemy horse in the moun-tains and remember it.Today is a whole newworld. My life is too goodright now.”

“There were timeswhen I’d black out,and I’d wake up athome and say,‘Geez, how did I get here?’ ’’

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RODRIGUEZ:No jail timeimposed fordisobeyingcourt


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MIGUEL MARTINEZ, 79Velarde Killed by a drunken driver

Miguel Martinez spent hisentire life in Velarde, a stripof rich farmland where theRio Grande spills out ofEmbudo Canyon and begins toempty into the Española Val-ley.

Even though he seldom leftthe snug valley, he was knownby people throughout NewMexico. Martinez ownedMike’s Cash Store, a grocerystore and gas station inVelarde, for most of his life.He squeezed every pennyfrom the business, and heloved to chat with customersfrom behind the counter.

“The best gift he gave mewas the gift of gab and how tosell,” said his son, Michael.

Martinez remembered theGreat Depression. Eventhough his business did well,

he encouraged his wife tomend his pants and shirts longafter his children thought theyshould go in the rag bag.

Martinez worked until wellinto his 70s, then closed thestore and settled into retire-ment. He was up with thecrows every morning, hadbreakfast with Sylvia, his wifeof 56 years, and then headedout on a three-wheel ATV tofeed his pigs and chickens andcheck on his orchards.

He was riding the ATV togive a message to his son,Michael, on Nov. 19, 1996,when a driver turning off acounty road onto N.M. 68

struck his vehicle andknocked him to the ground.Martinez sat on the road andtold his son he wanted to betaken home to bed. Instead, hewas airlifted to University ofNew Mexico Hospital wherehe died the next day.

His family buried him in thebest casket they could buy.

“This was the first time hecould not come back at us andsay we spent too much mon-ey,” Michael Martinez said.

The man who hit Martinezwas charged with drunken dri-ving and vehicular homicideand sentenced to three yearsin prison.

Less than four years later,and only a mile up the roadfrom where Miguel Martinezwas hit, another drunken dri-ver killed another member ofthe Martinez family.

Janelle Martinez, the 37-year-old wife of Miguel Mar-tinez’s son, Joseph, died whena drunk pulled in front of her,causing her truck to roll.

That driver had just comefrom court, where he hadpleaded innocent to his sev-enth DWI charge.

“He could sell anything.And he saved everypenny.”

M I C H A E L M A R T I N E Z ,

M I G U E L M A R T I N E Z ’ S S O N

CHERYLRODGERS, 16Moriarty Killed by a drunken driver

Cheryl Rodgers washeadstrong and opin-ionated and had littlepatience for peoplewho complained ormade excuses fortheir failings. Drunk-en driving, her moth-er says, was one ofCheryl’s pet peeves.

She was only 16, ajunior at MoriartyHigh School, but shealready had her goalsset and her plans inmotion: To attend theUniversity of Col-orado at Boulder and

then go on to medicalschool to become anorthopedic surgeon.

Rodgers served upall that strong willand drive with atremendous grin. Itwas her trademark —along with an infatua-tion with MickeyMouse, her love ofred roses and her ded-ication to aerobicsclasses and volleyball.

“She was famousfor that big smile,”says her mother, ToniCarrejo. “And sheliked boys — toomuch.”

Rodgers had beenfriends with Precil-iano Narvaiz allthrough high school,but they had juststarted going out as acouple. They were allset to go to the promand decided to make atrip into Albuquerqueon April 19, 1996, tofinalize some promplans and to have din-ner and see a movie.

At 10:30 that night,

Narvaiz’s small pick-up was stopped onIndian School atTramway waiting forthe light to turn greenwhen Gene Adams, a30-year-old heavy-equipment operatorwho had been drink-ing with his boss,slammed his largerpickup into themfrom behind.

His truck rode upon Narvaiz’s truck,and its front endcrashed into the cab.

Narvaiz suffered abroken neck. Rodgerswas killed.

The hardest thingToni Carrejo had todo after rushing intoAlbuquerque and say-ing goodbye to heryoungest daughter atthe hospital was totell her older girlstheir little sister wasdead.

A year later, Car-rejo agreed to meetAdams in Moriartyand lead him to thecemetery whereCheryl was buried.He was remorsefuland soon to be sen-tenced to prison forseven years, and hesaid he wanted toapologize and ask forforgiveness.

“I have so muchpain in my heart fromthe loss of my daugh-ter,” Carrejo told him,“I don’t have anymore room to hateyou.”

“I never worriedabout her.”

T O N I C A R R E J O ,

C H E R Y L R O D G E R S ’

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He denied the charge and wasnever convicted.

When the case went to trial inJanuary 1998, Lujan didn’tappear.

“Possibly in training,” wrotethen-Metropolitan Judge NeilCandelaria, who was forced todismiss the charge.

Lujan said recently he hates tolose any case, especially onewhere an officer was hit.

He said he couldn’t recall whyhe wasn’t available for the trialbut said officers miss courtdates for a variety of reasons.They may be off work, in train-ing, or before another judge, hesaid.

“That’s something that hap-pens,” he said.

Of the 300 DWI casesreviewed by the Journal, therewere 50 dismissals or not-guiltyfindings. At least 33 of thosewere dismissed because of theprosecution. Officers failing toappear at trials and “state notready” for trials were the mostcommon reasons given in casefiles.

Prosecutors also failed tobring some cases to trials withinthe required six months andfailed to prosecute or droppedother cases.

Of the 33 cases dismissedbecause of the prosecution, 24were in state MetropolitanCourt for Bernalillo County. Thecounty handles far more DWIcases than any other county andalso has one of the worst convic-tion rates.

Brandenburg says her officestruggles daily with the issue ofhow it can work better withjudges and police to preventcases from being dismissed.

But the bigger issue is alcoholabuse, and the criminal justicesystem can’t be expected tosolve that problem when familyand schools have failed, shesays.

New Mexicans need to changetheir attitudes about alcohol, shesays.

“Even if our system worksperfectly, will it prevent thedeaths and nightmares” causedby DWI? Brandenburg asks.“Maybe some, maybe not.” ■

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Motorists who drive drunk are supposed tolose their licenses for at least 90 days, regard-less of what happens in court.

Increasingly, that isn’t happening.New Mexico, like many states, has what is

called administrative license revocation that isseparate from the court process.

Administrative revocations ranging from 90days to one year are automatic unless chal-lenged before state hearing officers.

Terrance Schiavone, a state highway officialand former executive director of the NationalCommission Against Drunken Driving, saysadministrative revocation was created becauseof failures in the court system.

It is the only part of the DWIsystem that now delivers some-thing close to swift and surepunishment, he says.

But more drivers accused ofdrunken driving are fighting theloss of their licenses in adminis-trative proceedings.

And more are winning.“The defense has figured out

we have a pretty offender-friendly system,” says stateTaxation and Revenue SecretaryGlenn Ellington.

Those DWI offenders who winadministrative revocations butare convicted in courts still faceloss of their licenses.

Drivers convicted of first-offense DWI lose their licensesfor one year if they don’t attendDWI school. Repeat offenderslose their licenses for a period of one to 10years.

Ellington oversees hearing officers who ruleon appeals from drivers fighting administrativerevocations. The length of revocation dependsupon a driver’s age, whether a blood-alcoholtest was refused and the driver’s DWI record.

The state must show at the hearings that:■ The arresting officer had reasonable

grounds to believe the person was drivingunder the influence of alcohol or drugs.

■ The driver was arrested.■ The driver refused to take a blood-alcohol

test or if the driver submitted to a test, theblood-alcohol content was at least .08 for a dri-ver 21 or older or at least .02 if the driver wasunder 21.

A total of 4,782 drivers challenged adminis-trative license revocations in 2000, the mostappeals since 1993, according to a study by theDivision of Government Research at the Uni-versity of New Mexico.

The hearing officers sustained revocations in52 percent of the cases but rescinded revoca-tions in 48 percent.

It was the highest percentage of rescinded

revocations since at least 1985, the study says.“This is another way for people to get out

from under” DWI penalties, says Santa FePolice Chief John Denko, a former State Policechief and president of the New Mexico Munici-pal Chiefs of Police Association.

The overwhelming majority of the rescindedrevocations were caused when police officersfailed to attend hearings on their arrests.

Also a problem is a law requiring that a hear-ing be held no later than 90 days after the divi-sion notifies a driver of revocation.

Some in law enforcement complain about theburden of police attending the hearings.

They also say hearing officers treat policewith disrespect and that defense attorneys areallowed to question officers about issues not

germane.Denko and others support

doing away with administrativelicense revocation and leavinglicense suspensions and revoca-tions for drunken driving up tothe courts.

“The person has to go to courtanyway,” he says.

Currently, however, adminis-trative license revocation ismore successful than the courts.

More than 89 percent of dri-vers arrested for DWI in 1999lost their licenses in administra-tion revocation. That was farabove the court conviction rateof 65 percent recorded in thatyear, according to the state DWICitation Tracking File.

Administrative license revoca-tion is considered by experts to

be one of the most effective tools in deterringdrunken driving.

But Ellington says it needs to be reformed orabandoned.

Prosecutors don’t attend the hearings, leavingpolice officers on their own to face defenseattorneys.

Ellington says defense attorneys, in question-ing officers, are using the hearings to find evi-dence to bolster their cases on the criminalside.

“It’s all about fighting the conviction,” hesays. “The real frustration is that this hasturned into a minitrial.”

Ellington tried but failed this year to get theLegislature to approve a bill that would havechanged procedural and evidence rules for thehearings.

He also wanted hearing officers to have theoption of holding hearings by telephone, makingit easier to accommodate police schedules andsaving some cases that otherwise would havebeen lost to the 90-day rule.

Schiavone says he opposes doing away withadministrative revocation but agrees thatchanges are needed.

Not All Licenses YankedREVOCATION IS AUTOMATIC WITH DWI ARRESTS, BUT

DRIVERS ARE MORE SUCCESSFUL IN FIGHTING PENALTY

ELLINGTON:State Taxation andRevenue secretary

SCHIAVONE:State highway official andex-director ofthe NationalCommissionAgainstDrunken Driving

“The defense has figured out we have a pretty offender-friendly system.”

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HEADED HOME: Ray and Christine Hobb’s pickup, right, was tornin two by the force of a DWI collision.

RAY HOBB, 36CHRISTINE HOBB, 33SAFAWNTYRA HOBB,

8 monthsNavajo, N.M.Killed by a drunken driver

Ray and Christine Hobbworked hard, selling andinstalling television satellitesystems on the Navajo reserva-tion and making and selling sil-ver jewelry in their spare time.

Not that they had much timeto spare. Not with seven chil-dren — one in diapers, two inhigh school and four inbetween.

Ray and Christine had beenmarried for 18 years and stillenjoyed spending their daysworking together and theirevenings watching one of theirchildren play basketball or tak-ing the kids into Gallup forhamburgers.

On March 13, 2000, Ray andChristine got a paycheck andheaded into Gallup in the after-noon. The older kids were stillin school, so only the 8-month-old baby, Safawntyra, camealong.

They cashed the paycheck,bought groceries and did somemore shopping, putting a com-puter and some clothes for thekids on layaway. Then theyheaded to McDonald’s for alate dinner.

Ray Hobb was driving thepickup as they pulled out ofMcDonald’s in downtownGallup and, on a green light,pulled onto U.S. 66, the mainstreet that bisects the town.

Johnny Caballero had beendrinking at a nearby bar thatevening and drove out of theparking lot without his lightson and led police around Gallupside streets for several minuteswhen he pulled onto U.S. 66.

Police backed off, butCaballero was running redlights and going an estimated100 mph when he slammed intothe side of the Hobbs’ pickup.The truck was torn into twopieces, and Ray and Christinewere dead. Safawntyra diedhours later.

At home, six children waitedfor their parents, frightenedand alone. Grandparents andaunts and uncles stepped in totake care of the five older girlsand little Ray Jr.

After the funerals, ChristineHobb’s mother, Marie Corn-field, said the family could takeat least some comfort in Rayand Christine’s decision to nottake the entire family into townthat afternoon.

Caballero pleaded guilty tothree counts of vehicular homi-cide.

“Maybe it’s like they knewsomething. They didn’ttake the kids this time.”

M A R I E C O R N F I E L D ,

C H R I S T I N E H O B B ’ S M O T H E R

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By Thomas J. ColeJournal InvestigativeReporter

Noelle Arrangoiz andSteve Smith were dri-ving from Denver toSanta Fe for a long week-

end when they stopped forgasoline in Las Vegas, N.M.

“The last thing I remembersaying to Steve was, ‘I thinkthis is theway back tothehighway,’ ’’Arrangoizsays.

She was atthe wheel of asilver HondaAccord whenit was hitbroadside atthe intersec-tion of Grandand Universi-ty avenues bya drunken dri-ver speeding through a redlight.

Smith, 38, died instantly inthe crash on the evening ofFeb. 17, 2001.

The drunken driver was arepeat DWI offender. Andshe was just 15.

New Mexico’s juvenile jus-tice system is failing childrenand society when it comes todealing with minors arrestedfor drunken driving.

Juveniles repeat as drunk-en drivers at about the samerate as adults. But only one infour minors arrested for DWIends up with a conviction onhis driving record.

When juvenile DWI offend-ers repeat as adults, judgesare less likely to know abouttheir arrests as minors. Thatoften translates into lightersentences.

Krystle Duran, the drunkendriver who killed Smith,entered into a consent decreefor her first DWI arrest.Under the decree, the casewould be dismissed after sixmonths’ probation.

She crashed into Arrangoizand Smith before the sixmonths had ended. Duran isnow serving two years in ajuvenile facility for homicideby vehicle.

Arrangoiz, 41, is stillreceiving physical therapyfor injuries suffered in theaccident. And there is theemotional hurt of losingSmith. The couple, both rockclimbers, had lived togetherfor a year.

“I’m having a hard timewrapping myself around thefact that he is gone,” Arran-goiz says. “I knew he was aperson I was going to spendthe rest of my life with.”

Arrangoiz says juveniledrunken drivers need to beheld accountable and thatconsent decrees like that inDuran’s first DWI arrestaren’t adequate.

“I definitely think it sendsthe wrong message,” shesays.

She now warns friendstraveling to New Mexicoabout the state’s problemwith drunken drivers.

“You live in a beautifulstate, but I never want to goback there,” she says.

The next generationNew Mexico has one of the

worst teen-age crash deathrates in the nation. About5,000 teen drivers areinjured or killed every yearin the state.

DURAN: Injuvenile facility forhomicide byvehicle

Stopping Those Who Start Young

JUVENILE JUSTICE SYSTEM FAILS TO PROTECT PUBLIC OR PREVENT REPEAT OFFENSES

COURTESY OF DENVER POST

KILLED IN CRASH: Steve Smith makes his way up Mount Tollin the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Boulder, Colo. He waskilled by a drunken driver a few months later in Las Vegas, N.M.➔

Drinking and driving is a bigpart of the problem. In fact,DWI is the leading cause ofdeath and injury in New Mexicofor people between the ages of 1and 44.

The amount of alcohol minorsconsume and their inexperiencein driving can lead to cata-strophic results.

“We can’t accept this,” saysLeroy Garcia, director of theJuvenile Justice Division of thestate Department of Children,Youth and Families.

A person who begins drinkingat age 16 or 17 has a four to fivetimes greater chance of becom-ing involved in an alcohol-relat-ed crash as an adult.

“That’s our next generation ofdrunk drivers,” says TerryHuertaz, state executive direc-tor of Mothers Against DrunkDriving.

For the years 1990 through1999, there were 4,532 arrests ofminors for DWI in New Mexico.About 300 were arrested morethan once.

For those minors who had arecorded blood-alcohol levelwhen arrested, the average wasnearly .13, well above the legallimit of .08.

When a minor is arrested fordrunken driving, the matter isreferred to Garcia’s division.

The division has the option ofhandling the case informally —meaning no permanent recordor time in a juvenile lockup.

Or, Garcia’s division can refera juvenile DWI arrest to a dis-trict attorney, who in turn cantake the case to Children’sCourt. That happens in mostcases involving minors arrestedfor DWI.

Didn’t get the messageRobert R. Chavez of Albu-

querque was first arrested forDWI in 1988 at age 17. Hisblood-alcohol content was astaggering .19 — more thantwice the current legal limit.

Like Duran in her first drunk-en driving arrest, Chavezentered into a consent decree.He agreed to probation for sixmonths in exchange for thecharge being dismissed.

The probation agreementcalled for Chavez to attend analcohol-treatment program,report to a probation officer atleast once a month, obey hisparents, go to school, be homeby 1 a.m. on Fridays and Satur-days, and not drink or takedrugs.

He completed the probationbut apparently didn’t get themessage about drinking and dri-ving.

Chavez was arrested fordrunken driving again in 1993as an adult. That case was dis-missed when the arresting offi-cer failed to appear for trial.

Chavez drove drunk for thelast time on the evening of Feb.3, 1995.

He was heading south onTramway Boulevard on a motor-cycle shortly before 10. He wasspeeding, estimated between 85and 122 mph.

A teen-age girl heading northon Tramway turned west ontoAcademy Road, unaware of themotorcycle’s high rate of speedand believing she had enoughtime to clear the intersection.She didn’t.

Chavez was dead in an instant.His body was torn apart. A sev-ered leg struck the traffic lightsome 18 feet above the intersec-tion.

Process complicatedThere were 475 juvenile DWI

arrests in the 12 months endedJune 30, 2001, according to datafrom the Department of Chil-dren, Youth and Families.

About 100 of those cases nevermade it to court or were dis-missed by judges once they did.Another 147 arrests resulted inconsent decrees like thoseentered into by Chavez andDuran.

“You aren’t doing any favorsfor these kids,” says Santa FePolice Chief John Denko, a for-mer State Police chief and presi-dent of the New Mexico Munici-pal Chiefs of Police Association.

“We’re sending the oppositemessage,” Denko says. “We stillhave a propensity to say kids arekids.”

Some of the cases are stillpending and other files hadincomplete information.

Of the finalized cases in thedata provided by the Departmentof Children, Youth and Families,117 of the arrests resulted injudges finding the juveniles to bedelinquent and imposing proba-tion.

Judges imposed time in a juve-nile lockup in 30 cases.

The important thing aboutjudges sentencing juveniles toprobation or jail time is that theconviction usually goes on theoffender’s driving record. Thatmeans judges have something toconsider if the driver repeats thecrime as an adult.

The way juvenile DWI arrestsare handled by the justice systemcan be discouraging to lawenforcement.

“They know it’s the black hole,”says Linda Atkinson, executivedirector of the nonprofit DWIResource Center in Albuquerque.

Arresting juveniles for DWI ismuch more time consuming thanarresting adults.

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STARTING YOUNG

ANGELA PORTILLO, 21AlbuquerqueKilled in crash

Angela Portillo hit her bumpsin life early. A dropout from theAlbuquerque Public Schoolsalternative School on Wheels,she was the divorced mother oftwo girls by the time she was21.

But Portillo doted on herdaughters, 3-year-old Evie and1-year-old Tanya. And she wasintent on making a good life forthem. She got her own apart-ment in Albuquerque in thespring of 1998 and decorated itwith sunflowers. She receivedher high school equivalencydiploma and got a job as a secu-rity guard. Within two monthsshe had been promoted to

supervisor.Portillo worked a night shift,

and her mother, Lisa Meek,stayed with the girls after shegot off work as an operatingroom technician.

On a rare night off in August,Portillo and two friends decidedto take the girls to the fiesta inEspañola. Instead of Portillotaking them in her Chevy Cava-lier, they decided to go in herfriend’s new Jeep.

They spent the evening at thefiesta and then stopped in SantaFe and had some drinks at a rel-ative’s house. Portillo wasfiercely protective of her girls,but she was drunk in the backseat of the Jeep when the groupleft Santa Fe and headed downInterstate 25 that night, accord-ing to Meek.

“It just took one time to putthose girls in danger,” Meeksaid. “You’re not in the positionto make decisions when you’reso loaded.”

Near La Bajada, the Jeepcrossed into the highway medi-an and rolled. All three adultswere thrown from the vehicle.The children, buckled in seatbelts in the back seat, werefine.

Gov. Gary Johnson and a NewMexico State Police officercame upon the crash within sec-onds. Johnson held Portillo, helater told her mother, and shedied in his arms.

The owner of the Jeep,Denice Godinez, initially toldpolice she was driving, then lat-er said she was not. Her blood-alcohol level was above thelegal limit, and she pleadedguilty to two counts of aggra-vated battery for her role in thecrash and was put on probation.

A cross stands at the site Por-tillo died, and her mother hasdecorated it with the wings ofan angel.

“I felt like somebodyripped out my heart. Oh,God, it was the worst dayof my life.”

L I S A M E E K , A N G E L A

P O R T I L L O ’ S M O T H E R


EULYNDA TOLEDO-BENALLI, 48AlbuquerqueInjured by a drunken driver

After the head-on collision, after the two-hourordeal of being cut out of her van, after thethree weeks in the hospital, the 13 surgeries andthe three months at the rehabilitation center,Eulynda Toledo-Benalli went home in a wheel-chair.

An elementary school teacher and a runner ofhalf marathons before the accident, Toledo-Benalli had to learn to walk again with a cane.Running was out of the question. Climbingstairs was a painful and exhausting chore. Evensitting for more than 20 minutes was hard.

Toledo-Benalli, a member of the Navajo tribewho had grown up in Fort Wingate, had sur-vived a collision with a drunken driver on a two-lane reservation road. People told her she wasfortunate. But she didn’t feel lucky. Within afew months of coming home, depression hit.

“I was crying all the time,” Toledo-Benallirecalled. “‘Why is this the end of my runningcareer? Why can’t I teach anymore? Why is thisso hard? Why has my whole life changed so dra-matically?’ ’’

Toledo-Benalli had been driving with five stu-dents from the Cañoncito elementary school inpreparation for a summer wilderness campexpedition on June 10, 1993, when the van was

hit. The driver of the truck that hit her waskilled.

Toledo-Benalli had a crushed pelvis, a torn liv-er, two collapsed lungs and a crushed right leg.She also had three children at home — a 13-year-old daughter, a 2-year-old daughter and a1-year-old son.

The people of Cañoncito sent meals to thehouse and Toledo-Benalli’s mother took care ofher and the children during the day. At night,her husband, David, managed the household.

It took a therapist’s help for Toledo-Benalli toaccept that she would never go back to thephysically active life she had before.

Her activity now is mental and intellectual.She is completing her doctoral dissertation atthe University of New Mexico and producesdocumentaries for KUNM-FM.

Three years ago, as she was making headwayin her emotional healing, Toledo-Benalli ven-tured out after dark to attend a lecture at UNM.On her way home, four blocks from her house,she was hit by a car that ran a red light. Policetold her the driver’s blood-alcohol level was fourtimes the legal limit.

“My physical pain feels like a ball and chain. There’s a weight that holdsme down.”

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Intoxicated minors must bechecked by doctors before beingplaced in juvenile facilities, andmany counties don’t have suchfacilities. That means some offi-cers must make long drives toother counties just to place thejuvenile in detention.

“All law enforcement can do ispick them up and put them intothe system and hope for the best.That’s what they do, hope for thebest,” says Richard Ness, execu-tive director of the New MexicoSheriffs and Police Associationand a former Torrance Countysheriff.

“The whole system is loaded upto benefit the juvenile,” Nesssays.

He and others suspect someofficers charge juvenile drunkendrivers with the lesser offense ofbeing in possession of alcohol toavoid the hassles.

Repeat offenderIke Trujillo of Española was

first arrested in August 1995 fordrunken driving when he attempt-ed to pass on a curve on N.M. 76,lost control and flipped his car. Hewas 16.

Trujillo’s second arrest for DWIcame a month later when he drovea car into an irrigation ditch.

There is no record either ofthose arrests ended up in court.

Trujillo’s next DWI arrest camewhen his car swerved and nearlystruck another vehicle. Trujillowas 17 then. His blood-alcoholcontent was .20.

A children’s judge ordered Tru-jillo to serve 48 hours in detentionand two years on probation.

The judge also ordered him toobtain a high-school equivalencydegree, attend treatment and per-form 100 hours of community ser-vice.

Trujillo didn’t comply with thesentence, and juvenile authoritiesreported he still had an alcoholproblem when they recommendedtermination of his probation in1998.

None of Trujillo’s three arrestsas a juvenile resulted in a record-ed conviction.

But even if they had beenrecorded, they could not havebeen used to enhance his sentenceas a repeat DWI offender as anadult.

Trujillo was arrested for DWI afourth time in 1998. Then 20, hewas found guilty of first-offensedrunken driving in EspañolaMunicipal Court.

Trujillo spent nine days in jailfor not complying with the judge’sorders to attend DWI school and avictims panel on the impact ofdrunken driving.

The juvenile justice system’s

ineffectiveness in dealing withTrujillo isn’t unusual.

Of the juveniles arrested forDWI from 1990 through 1994,about 40 percent were arrestedagain for drunken driving beforethe end of the decade — aboutthe same as the rate for all dri-vers 18 and older arrested forDWI.

Age specificDante Gonzales of Los Lunas

was arrested once for DWI at age15 and twice atage 17. None ofthe arrestsresulted in a con-viction on his dri-ving record.

He was pickedup again fordrunken drivingin March 1992.By then he was21.

Just a few daysafter the arrest,an alcohol coun-selor sent a letterto Gonzales’ employer andmailed a copy to the state magis-trate handling the DWI case.

“Mr. Dante Gonzales has takenit upon himself to begin weeklyindividual counseling,” the lettersaid.

“Mr. Gonzales is receptive tocounseling and stated the drink-ing on March 27, 1992, which ledto a DWI was an isolated inci-dent,” the letter added.

Whether the judge believedGonzales’ drinking was an isolat-ed incident isn’t known. (He waslater busted again for DWI.) Butthe case is an example of whatsome people believe is a problemwith the way many juvenile DWIarrests are handled.

Of the 4,532 arrests of minorsfor drunken driving from 1990through 1999, only 1,174, or 26percent, resulted in recordedconvictions on driving records.

And judges aren’t aware ofDWI arrests unless they result inrecorded convictions. When Gon-zales was arrested for DWI as anadult, there was no way for thejudge to know of his threearrests as a minor since noneresulted in recorded convictions.

Even a conviction for DWI as ajuvenile can’t legally be usedagainst an adult for purposes offinding the adult guilty of arepeat drunken driving offense.

However, a judge can takejuvenile convictions into accountwhen sentencing.

“The amount of interventionwe provide could be increased,”says J. Michael Kavanaugh, aMetro Court judge in Albu-querque.

For example, Kavanaugh says,if he were aware of a juvenilearrest for DWI, he could order

STARTING YOUNGlife sentences by Leslie Linthicum

SONJA BRITTON, 62MoriartyDWI activist

In Sonja Britton’s dream,everyone who comes in and outof New Mexico along Interstate40 is confronted by the terribleprice New Mexicans pay forallowing drunks to drive.

In her dream, a field of whitegravestones rises along the sideof the interstate. Each grave-stone represents one personkilled in an accident thatinvolved alcohol in New Mexicoin the past five years.

In her dream, there are morethan 1,000 of the headstonesmarching across the plains.

Britton’s dream is based onreality. Drunken driving rou-tinely costs more than 200 livesa year in New Mexico.

Britton, who runs a self-stor-age business with her husbandin Moriarty, hatched the idea ofa roadside memorial to honorthe dead and confront the liv-ing.

“I want their eyes to be open

to the devastation of the liveslost to DWI and the high pricethat we pay here,” Britton says.

Britton has applied for non-profit status, calling the memo-rial “DWI Memorial of Perpetu-al Tears Park.” The group islooking for 3 to 5 acres along I-40 in or near Moriarty.

An architecture student hasdesigned the park. And Brittondesigned the markers, each onea simple powder-brushed steelheadstone etched with threeteardrops. Tears, she says,

because “you never stop cry-ing.”

Britton knows.In 1991, her only son was rid-

ing his motorcycle outsideDurango when a car crossedthe center line and plowed intothe car that was in front of him,killing the two women occu-pants.

He hit that car and, althoughhe was wearing a helmet, theforce of the crash tore hisfemoral artery and he bled todeath.

Monty “Butch” Britton was 30years old and had an 11-month-old son.

The 24-year-old driver thatcaused the crash had lost hislicense because of prior drunk-en driving convictions.

He was sentenced to 16 yearsin prison for DWI, vehicularhomicide and other charges inthe crash that claimed Britton’slife.

Her son’s death opened Brit-ton’s eyes to the ongoing car-nage that results from the mix-ture of alcohol and driving. Shehopes the memorial will do thesame for others.

“We need to recognize thefact that we’re in a war here,”Britton says, “and we need torecognize the victims of thiswar.”

“I would like to see NewMexico start something.”

RONNY FRAZEE, 31MoriartyFormer drunken driver

Ronny Frazee never thought much about thesequence of events that landed him in court fourtimes in a little more than 10 years.

“You go to the bar, have a few beers and yougo home,” Frazee says. “And you drive.”

Arrested for DWI for the first time in Truth orConsequences when he was 19 and again inAlbuquerque when he was 24, Frazee went tocourt, paid his fines, accepted the court’s coun-seling and got right back on the road.

“I’d go talk to my counselor,” he says, “stopand get me a quart and drink it on the way home.”

Then Frazee, a dropout from Rio Grande HighSchool, turned 30 and realized he had a good jobthat he liked and a girlfriend committed to stay-ing with him despite his drinking binges.

Back-to-back DWI arrests in Albuquerque andMoriarty last year got Frazee’s attention. He did90 days in the Torrance County Detention Cen-ter and was enrolled in a Metropolitan Courtprogram in Albuquerque that combinedacupuncture, regular urine and blood screen-ings, counseling and community service.

More than a year later, Frazee says he nolonger drinks or drives. The court has taken his

driver’s license away, and Frazee knows he cannever touch alcohol again if he is going to keephis record clean.

“I love to shoot pool but I can’t,” he says. “If Igo into a bar and shoot pool, I’ll drink a beer.And if I drink a beer, eventually I’ll drive. So Ijust can’t.”

Frazee, a carpenter, has also evolved into anadvocate for tougher DWI laws.

“If it was up to me, you’d do five to 10 years inprison for the first one,” Frazee says. “There’s alot of people getting hurt and dying, and it’s gotto stop.”

“Everybody else had a problem,but I didn’t.”

GONZALES:Judge notaware ofjuvenilearrests

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BREANN WILSON, 19MagdalenaKilled by a drunken driver

Arch and Cecilia Wilson had done their jobs.Their younger daughter, Breann, had breezed

through high school, winning belt buckles andsaddles on the rodeo circuit and being namedSocorro County Fair Queen in 1999.

She worked hard on her family’s 15,000-acrecattle ranch, riding the range on one of herhorses any time she could find a reason to.

Wilson had found a good boyfriend, 18-year-old Tommy Rosales from nearby Lemitar. Theyhad put off wedding plans so Rosales could fin-ish diesel mechanic training in Colorado.

Wilson was a freckle-faced beauty with asunny smile who loved family picnics and tookher responsibilities seriously. She went withher friends to keg parties in high school butalways volunteered to be the designated driver.She was proud to have turned 18 and cast hervote in a presidential election.

“She was just about the most responsible per-son you could imagine,” Arch Wilson said. “Wewere really proud.”

Wilson, Rosales and Rosales’ cousin were dri-ving from Colorado to Socorro for the funeralof Rosales’ grandfather on March 21, 2001,when their lives collided with Ramon RicoEstebane on Interstate 25 south of Santa Fe.

According to prosecutors, Estebane had fin-ished some beers at a friend’s house and wasdriving north in the southbound lanes of theinterstate when his Cadillac collided with Bre-ann’s Buick Regal. She died instantly and thetwo boys were seriously injured.

Estebane, a Mexican national, had been dri-ving without a license or insurance and had acriminal history in Santa Fe dating back to1989, according to prosecutors.

He fled the scene and was captured after anextensive manhunt.

Estebane eventually pleaded guilty tocharges stemming from Wilson’s death andinjuries to Rosales and his cousin.

The crash has left the Wilsons with a hole intheir lives.

“Things you thought were important, theydon’t mean a damn thing,” said Cecelia Wilson.“There’s a sadness that wasn’t there before.She was just getting going.”

supervised rather than unsuper-vised probation for an adultoffender.

He says he doesn’t like havingdifferent courts for juvenile andadult DWI offenders but saysjudges who handle minors needto be qualified to do so.

“DWI is one of those crimesthat doesn’t respect age bound-aries,” Kavanaugh says.

Changes urgedNew Mexico spends millions of

dollars a year trying to convinceminors not to drink and to catchthem if they do.

Under a law enacted in 1994,drivers under 21 need only havea blood-alcohol content of .02 tolose their licenses for six months.

But some people believe morework needs to be done.

Atkinson says minors arrestedfor drunken driving should betried in adult courts.

“If you’re old enough to drive,you’re old enough to suffer theadult consequences,” she says.The adult court system “willmake more of an impression onjuveniles.”

A minor found to have been dri-ving drunk in a fatal accident canbe committed to a juvenile facili-ty for a maximum of two years.

Nadine Milford, state chair-woman of Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving, says that is sim-ply not enough punishment forsuch a serious offense.

But District Attorney KariBrandenburg in Albuquerquesays she doesn’t believe adultcourts are an alternative forjuveniles accused of DWI.

“Are you going to say the adultsystem is better?” Brandenburgasks.

Some propose some sort ofmandatory sentencing for juve-niles similar to that in place foradults.

“We need to have them (juve-niles) jump through hoops so theydon’t do it again,” says DistrictAttorney Matthew Sandoval inLas Vegas, who also heads thestate association of DAs. “Weneed to raise the bar.”

Alcohol-abuse screening ismandatory in all adult cases, andcommunity service is requiredfor some repeat offenders.

The state this year also enacteda law mandating ignition inter-locks for some first-time adultoffenders and all adults foundguilty of a repeat DWI. The locksdisable a car when a driver isintoxicated.

These laws don’t apply to juve-nile drunken drivers.

A federal guide for prosecutorsand judges says minors accusedof drunken driving need to behandled in a way that protectsthe public, holds them account-able to the community and vic-tims, and provides education andtreatment.

David Schmidt, executivedirector of the New MexicoCouncil on Crime and Delinquen-cy, says he opposes changing theChildren’s Code to have juvenileDWI offenders treated as adults.

But Schmidt says the Chil-dren’s Code could be amended toinclude mandatory sentencing forminors and to create specialcourts to handle juvenile DWIarrests.

Also, he says, some mechanismcould be created that would alertadult court judges to the juvenileDWI arrests of drivers who comebefore them.

“Certainly something has to bedone,” Schmidt says.

Garcia, of the Juvenile JusticeDivision, says he would like tospeed up the normal timebetween a juvenile’s arrest forDWI and court action.

“Kids get a real serious mes-sage right away,” Garcia says.“He’s held accountable immedi-ately. The longer we wait themore apt they are to get intotrouble again.”

Cases can take months to makeit to court, he says.

Garcia says consent decreesare appropriate in DWI arrestswhere there aren’t other signs oftrouble — such as bad grades inschool and trouble at home.

“People are worth taking achance on,” he says. “The vastmajority are kids. They are goingto be OK.”

But, Garcia says, consentdecrees are inappropriate whenjuveniles repeat as drunken dri-vers.

Communities need to getinvolved in the juvenile DWIproblem by changing their per-missive attitudes about kids andalcohol and by providing commu-nity-service opportunities forchildren who get into trouble,Garcia says.

“A lot of communities don’twant to take responsibility,” hesays. “We can’t give up.” ■

“There was people that met her once,and they came to the funeral.”

A R C H W I L S O N , B R E A N N ’ S F A T H E R

BILLY POWELL, 67Albuquerque Killed by a drunken driver

Billy Powell was born on theplains of eastern New Mexicoand fell in love with horsesfrom the first time he wasplaced in a saddle. He was rid-ing as a jockey at the racetrackin Raton as soon as he got outof high school.

Photos from the winner’s cir-cle — and there are many —show a slim, handsome manwith a faint smile. He raced allover the Southwest and, at age40, when his weight got the bet-ter of him, moved into the busi-ness of training race horses.

Eve Scolavino was a retiredballerina fresh from the Ameri-can Ballet Theater in New York

and was looking for a job withhorses in her home town ofAlbuquerque when she metPowell in 1985 at the Downs atAlbuquerque. She was 27 andhad been hired on by some ofPowell’s hands to help exercisehorses. It was several days lat-er when she finally introducedherself to Powell, her new boss.

“I told those guys not to hiresomeone,” Powell said.

“Am I fired?” she asked.“No,” he said, “you can stay.”Within a year, Powell and

Scolavino were inseparable.They moved in together, andPowell began teaching Scolavi-no about thoroughbred horses.He gave her her first racehorse, and the two traveled toraces in New Mexico, Arizonaand Texas, breeding and racingtheir own horses and training

horses for other owners.“Bill was a real horseman,”

Scolavino said. “He understoodwhy horses did what they did.”

Powell was happiest at aracetrack, on a golf course orin the cab of a pickup on a clearday. “He loved to drive,”Scolavino said.

Powell left Albuquerque ear-ly on July 19, 1997, to haul ahorse to the Downs at Santa Fe.He was heading north on Inter-state 25 at the Santo DomingoPueblo exit when a car passedhim, swerved into the medianand back into his lane.

Jurors who convicted the 20-year-old driver of that car onvehicular homicide chargesheard evidence that he hadbeen drinking all night and waslegally drunk that morning.

Powell jerked his truck to theright to avoid the car, scrapedthe concrete wall and could notcontrol his truck and the 32-foot trailer he was pulling. Histruck broke free and flipped.

Powell, who hated to wear aseat belt, was thrown from thetruck and run over by its backtires.

Scolavino knows Powellwould have been happy to haveknown that the horse survived.

“Of all the people thatpass through your life,there’s always one thatgets under your skin.”

E V E S C O L A V I N O , B I L L Y

P O W E L L ’ S G I R L F R I E N D

“DWI is oneof thosecrimes thatdoesn’trespect ageboundaries.”

J . M I C H A E L K A V A N A U G H ,

M E T R O C O U R T J U D G E

STARTING YOUNG

COURTESY PHOTO

COURTESY PHOTO



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Abeita, JanetAcosta, JuanAcosta, LeonelAdame, MariaAdame, SandraAdobe, RobertAguilar, Beverly J.Aguilar, Virgil J.Aguilera, FernandoAguino, GeorgiaAlbert, LorendaAllsup, AndreaAllsup, ShannonAlonzo, LolitaAnchondo, EustoliaAndrews, EdwardAngelino, JoeAnglin, AndyAnthony, ClementAntonio, HerbertApachito, FelixAragon, CiscoArchuleta, Art J.Archuleta, RoxanneArellano, DanielArenas, JoseArmendariz, JoseArmendariz-Oroz, HectorArmstrong, JamesArmstrong, PaulArnold, KrespenAtem-Begay, GeorgeAustin, Ann BethAwelagate, MarloBaca, AnthonyBaca, CatherineBaca, GaryBaca, TinoBahe, BrennaBahe, DavidBaldonado, LawrenceBales, DonaldBarela, DavidBarnaby, GeraldBarnes, JimmyBarr, JonBarraza, LorenzoBarriga, RaulBayley, BrettBecenti, VirginiaBeck, KimberlyBeckett, DestinyBegay, EddieBegay, JohansonBegay, Michael C.Belone, Dallas R.Ben, JustinBenally, EdvernBenally, JamesBenally, Wilbert Sr.Benavidez, PatrickBia, AdrianBillie, SophiaBilly, DarrelBitsilly, GeraldBlackie, ChesterBonomo, Reno J.Borjurquez, MaggieBoulware, DonaldBradley, CharlesBrown, Joliene

Brown, TerrellBrown, WinifredCalabaza, StephanieCambridge, CarlasCambridge, LarryCandelaria, Steve

Capuccilli, GinoCarman, LesterCasarez, TeresaCasaus, JosephCastillo, GuadalupeCastillo, Ramon

Castro, AloataCastro, DimasCates, RichardCharles, FarrellCharles, OlinCharley, Jerome

Charley, WoodyChavez, DennisChavez, JohnnyChavez, JuanChavez, RobertChee, Isabelle

Claw, EdisonCleveland, BenjaminColeman, ShawnConcha, Seven GiftsConcho, LloydContreras, Abe R. ➔

LIVES LOST 1999-2001

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Cornejo, GabeCostello, DadrianCote, CraigCoucke, MaartenCouder, SalvadorCrank, NataliaCrespin, RobertCrespin, WilliamCrum, RashaanCruz, SylviaCrystal, JimCullen, William L.Curley, GeraldCurtis, ThomasDakin, TheodoreDale, JerryDaniels, DerickDann, DennisDaves, ThomasDay, TyroneDean, RonnieDelgado, LuisDenetclarence,

Irvin M.Dennison, AlexDennison, GilbertDiJulio, Mary LouiseDoe, JohnDominguez, HermanDominguez, JohnDrennen, Cheryl JenDuqkuette, Ovid D.Duran, Edward T.Duran, FranciscoDuran, JamesDutchover, MarthaElcitty, KathleenEmote, ElsaEnjady, JamonEnjady, JarmonEnsminger, CodyEsitty, DerickEspinosa, TammyEsquibel, DerrickEsquibel, LeonardEsquibel, LucyEsquibel, TanyaEsquivel, ValentinEvans, NicoleFairchild, WileyFerreira, KarenFlores, DanielFlores, RolandForeman, ScottFoust, RalphFranco, NicholasFranklin, JanineFrohlich, DwayneFuller, RenaGabaldon, JamesGalindo, IgnacioGallegos, BrianGallegos, EricGallegos, James, FredGallegos, JosephGallegos, MartinGallegos, MarvinGallegos, RocchinaGallo, LucianoGanadonegro, AlfredGarcia, BobbyGarcia, Davion

Garcia, JesusGarcia, MikeGarcia, PatrickGarcia, RaymondGarcia, SantiagoGarcia, SiobhanGarcia, YolandaGarcirita, JuanGlenn, KennethGomez, ShoreyGomez-Pimental, JuanGonzales, AndreaGonzales, DanielGonzales, JulianGonzalez, AntonioGonzalez, MaximilianoGonzalez, RicardoGraves, MichaelGray, SamGreen, JamesGreen, LawrenceGriego, KennyGuerin, MichelleGuilez, GenevieveGunter, EdwinGurule, FrankGurule, RichardGutierrez, DannyGutierrez, JoaquinHannah, LorraineHarris, RosemarieHarrison, JaredHarvey, EvelynHarvey, HarrisonHeard, RobertHeiland, DonaldHeiland, RobertHenio, SampsonHernandez, Don JavierHernandez, EricHernandez, PhillipHernandez, RafaelHerrera, ChristineHerrera, DavidHerrera, JoeHerrera, ReginaHerring, John E.Hines, SamuelHinojos, LydiaHinshaw, DouglasHobb, ChristineHobb, RayHobb, ShafawntyraHollowell, RhondaHood, ElsieHooper, JohnHoover, DeborahHouston, StephanieHoward, JohnHowell, WiltonHull, BillyHull, DustyHunner, LeighHurtado, CeasarIbuado, JuanIrwin, KyleJack, EarlJackson, James E.Jackson, JimJacquez, IsabelJames, AlvaJames, Timothy

Jameson, EvanJarvison, AlfredJeffery, Cindy AnnJim, HarlanJim, JeremyJim, RoxanneJim, VanceJimenez, JavierJiminez, ArturoJoe, ScottJohnson, Brad AllanJohnson, CaseyJohnson, KellyJohnson, RogerJohnson, RosieJohnson, TobyJohnson, WillieJojola, ManoaJones, AlfredJones, JasonJones, JerryJones, ShawnJuanico, MerlinKachichov, AngelKelsey, LydelKidman, MaryKidman, RussellKing, DianeKing, ToddKinkade, JoshuaKinlicheenie, JaneKnudson, BradKoglin, Chris T.Kovatchev, LubomirKvamme, Sandra K.Laate, CletusLajueness, LouisaLambert, ChadLambert, MartinLander, LynsiasLansford, ZacharyLasiloo, WilliamLawrence, Karen K.Leekity, DarinLeguigou, EmilyLenz, StephanLivingston, RaymondLogan, IanLong, AndrewLopez, AngelaLopez, Isidro A.Lopez, MarkLopez-Ruiz, JoseLovato, HalenaLovato, MikeLovato, StephanieLucero, BenjaminLucero, DannyLucero, FrederickLucero, JoeyLucero, SteveLucero, WendyLujan, FredLuna, SeveroMachado, DonnaMadero, DebbieMadrid, JulianMaes, ElizabethMaes, JoeManning, EricMapula, NoemiMarano, Tiffani

Marr, MichaelMartin, JermmaineMartinez, AdrianMartinez, AnthonyMartinez, CandidoMartinez, CherylMartinez, FerminMartinez, GilbertMartinez, JanelleMartinez, JohnMartinez, JohnnyMartinez, JoseMartinez, JoyvetteMartinez, MarcosMartinez, MatthewMartinez, RuebenMason, BryonMason, HeidiMattox, ThomasMaynes, JimmyMcCann, John F.McElroy, RickMedina, AdolfoMedina, DanielMedina, JanMedina, MartinMenasco, AngelaMendez, AdrianMendez, AlexanderMendez, JoseMendez, RogelioMendoza, PatriciaMeza, CeciliaMinitrez, DennisMiranda, BeatriceMoad, Sheena MarieMolina, CarlosMontano, NickMonte, VelvaMontoya, AndrewMontoya, EarlMontoya, LeonardMoody, DavidMoore, BrandonMoralez, FidelMoreno, EliasMorgan, ClintonMorgan, VirgilMuller, CarlosMuller, MercedesMunos-Serrano,

MartinMunoz, ArturoMunoz, James F.Munoz, RobertMunson, ErickMyers, ChandlerNabahe, TommyNaranjo, EdwardNaranjo, JeremyNasdahl, RichardNavarette, ReyNero, Clement M.Newood, AnthonyNez, JohnathanNieto, PabloNolasco-Marquez,

RogelioNorris, NathanOcana, DonaldOlguin, SamOre, Chris

Orona, DavidOrozco, IsabelOrr, StephanOrrantia, MichaelOrtega, FabianOrtega, JosephOrtega, Sharon ReneeOrtiz, MarkOutland, MariaOwnbey, NancyPadilla, LeePadilla, LoraPadilla, MatthewPadilla, ShielaPapamarkos, GeorgePecos, Theron L.Perez, LorenzoPerez, Paul AaronPerry, RichardPerry, Steven LeePete, JimPeterson, ChrisPiaso, RosePine, LashukaPino, GretaPino, LeandroPinto, RoyPlacencio, GeoffreyPlatero, LarryPomeroy, MichaelPope, LynnePoyer, ThomasQuesada, Mary M.Rayas, SandraReano, CherylRedford, ShannonRedhouse, OscarReed, TimothyReese, WallaceReyes, RamonReynolds, CharlesRieden, CharlesRios, AvelRios, JoseRivera, Allen M.Rivera, BenRivero, IsmaelRoanhorse, Lee Jr.Roberts, JaradRodarte, AaronRodarte, FernandoRodriguez, PatriciaRodriguez, RobertRodriguez, StanleyRomero, AdamRomero, AnastacioRomero, EstellaRomero, Herman A.Romero, KennethRonayne, JohnRoper, JosephRosas, JustoRoybal, Danny PaulRoybal, RonaldRoybal, XavierRussell, TheresaRutledge, RandySage, BillSagustama, AlexanderSalcido, HeraclioSalgado, AnitaSalt, Julius

Saltwater, WaylonSamora, JeremySamora, OraldoSanchez, ChristinaSanchez, ChristineSanchez, ChristopherSanchez, EluidSanchez, JoeSanchez, Nicolas M.Sanchez, PeterSanchez-Villa,

Juan JoseSandoval, LindaSandoval, RandySanford, BillSargeant, KathrynSchell, JamesSeamon, MichelleSelph, JosephSena, MarcosSerna, ErnestSerna, FrancesShelley, GarySherlin, EulaSherman, JamesShi, Jing XuanShonrock, DaleShrout, LawrenceSilversmith, EdisonSilversmith, FrankSimsovic, BrianSliney, WilliamSmith, CalvinSmith, HarrisonSmith, JessieSmith, StevenSnow, MikeSnow, PhillipSosa-Pereyra, RogelioSotelo, JoseSpatzier-Gilmor,

ReneeSpears, JamesStevens, EvaStone, EffieStorey, TodSwendah, JobethTaber, TeddyTafoya, MauriceTawney, TeresaTaylor, JericoTellez, MartinTenorio, ChristopherTenorio, MatthewTerrell, JaredThomason, Joe HenryThomson, CelesteThornhill, DamionToledo, CestinoToledo, Diane M.Tolth, ClaritaTolth, TimothyToya, IrvinTozcano-Gomez,

BenjaminTrotter, BrentTrujillo, AndreaTrujillo, AndrewTrujillo, BonnieTrujillo, CrystalTrujillo, DanielTrujillo, Dennis

Trujillo, JabesTrujillo, JohnTrujillo, ManuelTrujillo, RichardTrujillo, RobertTsinajinnie, TomTso, LorenzoTsosie, PaulineTsosie, RichardTsosie, VictorUrioste, GeorgeValdez, MichaelValley, ShaunaVarela, JuanVasquez, JoseVasquez, MartinVelasquez, DiegoVelasquez, DonnieVelasquez, GinaVicenti, ErnestVickroy, JohnVigil, CharlesVigil, EugeneVigil, JohnnyVigil, JoseVigil, LeroyVillegas, FaustoVincent, ShirleyVincent, WilliamVogel, KarenWaconda, JenniferWagnon, DouglasWalker, RossWaltrip, WayneWatchman, CharlotteWatson, RobertsonWaunka, SharonWelch, MitchellWhipple, NelsonWhisenant, JamesWhite, CharlieWhite, JuanWilliams, DerwinWilliams, JeromeWilliams, ShawnaWillie, DarrelWillmart, JoanWilson, BasilWilson, Breann F.Wilson, ErnestWilson, MichaelWoodrich, PhillipWu, XumingWynne, ArthurYazzie, BenjaminYazzie, MaryYellowhair, AmosYoung, NkosiYoungman, JamesZamora, AnnetteZavala, JavierZellers, Allison

— Source: State Traffic

Safety Bureau

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SUNDAY, MAY 5, 2002

New Mexicans were heartbroken whenMelanie Cravens and her three youngdaughters were killed by a drunken driverjust west of Albuquerque on Christmas Eve1992.

Then they got mad.New Mexicans demanded action to com-

bat the state’s DWI problem — and they gotit.

Lawmakers lowered the legal blood-alco-hol limit, toughened penalties for drunkendriving and set aside millions of dollars tofund local anti-DWI efforts.

The state also began widespread use ofsobriety checkpoints and passed a “zero tol-erance” law that strips minors of their licens-es when they are caught drinking and dri-ving.

DWI arrests soared, the number of alco-hol-related crashes dropped and fewer peo-ple died in drunken driving wrecks.

Then New Mexico fell asleep at the wheel.DWI arrests have dropped, conviction

rates are down, alcohol-related crashes areon the rise and the number of dead is inch-ing back up.

Two of the most valuable tools in combat-ing drunken driving — fear of arrest andswift and sure punishment — have beenweakened.

And the result is predictable: Every coupleof days, another life in New Mexico is sacri-ficed to drunk driving:

■ A mother of four training to be a doc-tor.

■ A man who spent most of his lifecoaching and educating youngsters.

■ A high school senior planning toattend an elite university.

■ A veteran jockey and horse trainer.As one billboard says, “DWI Kills Our

Families.”Then there is the yearly financial cost of

DWI — more than $500 for every man,woman and child in this state. It is a stun-ning price tag of $1.1 billion a year —about double what state government isspending this year to run the University ofNew Mexico, New Mexico State Universi-ty and all other state universities and col-leges.

But the wasted lives and wasted moneyneedn’t be.

There is no reason New Mexico has tobe one of the worst.

As problems go, DWI isn’t that tough.New Mexico just needs to get back towork, showing the resolve it did after the

deaths of Cravens and her daughters.Here’s what the experts say we need to

do:■ Demand that local and state officials

establish goals for law enforcement in thefight against DWI and that they supportthose goals. For example, officials couldset a goal of 10 percent more drunken dri-ving arrests this year.

■ Demand high-visibility law enforce-ment such as sobriety checkpoints andsaturation patrols. Alamogordo police, forexample, run about two checkpoints amonth.

■ Demand that alcohol sales laws beenforced. Few bars are ever cited for serv-ing drunken drivers.

■ Demand that prosecutors and judgesbe effective and consistent in dealing withdrunken drivers.

■ Demand improvements in the qualityand accessibility of DWI records. Repeatoffenders shouldn’t get off easy becauseprosecutors “couldn’t find” records of pastDWI convictions. In most cases, they arethere. All it takes is persistence in making

sure the records get before the court.■ Demand increased enforcement of

the zero-tolerance law for minors.■ Demand the juvenile justice system

hold DWI offenders accountable and pro-vide education and treatment.

DWI is a New Mexico problem, butmany of the solutions are local.

You have a right under the state Inspec-tion of Public Records Act to review DWIarrest and court records in your commu-nity. You have a right to watch prosecu-tors and judges in courtrooms.

You can check a person’s driving recordat the state Motor Vehicle Division, butthe information is not available on theInternet to the general public. It shouldbe.

The state Highway and TransportationDepartment has a database that can iden-tify the most dangerous roads in yourtown for alcohol-related crashes.

The most important question New Mex-icans can ask is, “Why?”

■ Why do some law enforcement agen-cies make so few DWI arrests?

■ Why do some law enforcement agen-cies not apply for money for sobrietycheckpoints and saturation patrols?

■ Why are so few bars and restaurantscited for serving intoxicated people?

■ Why is the conviction rate for DWIoffenders down?

■ Why are repeat drunken drivers per-mitted to plead guilty to lesser offenses?

■ Why do so few juvenile DWI offend-ers end up with convictions on their dri-ving records?

■ Why is administrative license revoca-tion for drunken drivers increasingly fail-ing?

Many of these questions have beenanswered in this special report. Changescan be made to better combat DWI.

Some steps are being taken to re-ener-gize New Mexicans in the battle againstDWI.

State Police say they are encouragingthe creation of local anti-DWI groups.

State and federal highway agencies areorganizing a statewide traffic safety sum-mit Tuesday through Thursday in Albu-querque in part to try to get New Mexi-cans refocused on the problem.

The state this year enacted a law requir-ing ignition interlocks for all repeat DWIoffenders. The locks disable vehicles ofintoxicated drivers.

Of course, at the root of the state’s DWIproblem is its alcohol-abuse problem.

New Mexico’s death rate for alcohol-related diseases and injuries is among thehighest in the nation.

Experts say we need to change our atti-tudes and behavior when it comes to alco-hol.

It is no more acceptable for a casualdrinker to drive drunk than it is for analcoholic who has been repeatedly arrest-ed for DWI. Two-thirds of all alcohol-relat-ed crashes are caused by drivers whohave never been arrested for drunken dri-ving.

It also can’t be acceptable for peopleunder 21 to drink. Beginning drivers andalcohol are a deadly mix. New Mexico’srate for alcohol-related teen fatalities onthe highways is among the nation’s worst.

When it comes to the fight against DWI,no one has been more active and visiblethan Nadine Milford, Melanie Cravens’mother. She has been criticized as beingheavy-handed, but she makes no excuses.

“It could be your family next,” shewarns.

Solutions Demand InvolvementNEW MEXICO CAN TAKE STEPS TO STOP THE SACRIFICE OF LIVES

AND MONEY TO DRUNKEN DRIVING PROBLEM

MIKE STEWART/JOURNAL

CALL FOR CHANGE: Four crosses mark the spot on Interstate 40 where MelanieCravens and her three young daughters were killed by a drunken driver on Christ-mas Eve 1992. The crash resulted in several changes to New Mexico’s DWI laws.

COMMENTARY

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KEVIN MARTINEZ, 17DixonKilled by a drunken driver

The meticulous little boy —the toddler who cleaned thetire treads of his Tonka truckwith a toothpick before heput it away — had grown intoa serious young man.

Kevin Martinez loved niceclothes. Six of his favoritewords were, “Grandma,there’s a sale at Dillards.”

He kept his friends atEspañola Valley High Schoolin line with an understandingear and words of caution.

Martinez had been consid-ering a career in automechanics after he graduatedin December, but then the 17-year-old became a little moreambitious about his future.He sent an application to theUniversity of California atBerkeley.

“Kevs,” as his family andfriends called him, doted onthe white Toyota Tercel hereceived for his 16th birth-day. Like his toy trucks whenhe was a kid, he kept it clean.

Martinez had gone to workat his part-time job at thePojoaque Pueblo hardwarestore on Sept. 11, 1994. Afterwork he had picked up hisgirlfriend and taken her tothe movies in Española. Mar-tinez was headed home toDixon a good half hour before

his 9:30 p.m. curfew and wasonly a few feet from his dri-veway when he came over ahill crest and was met by thelights of a pickup truck in hislane.

Martinez jammed on hisbrakes and skidded for 32feet before his Toyota hit thepickup head on. The driver ofthe pickup, who told police hehad been drinking at anuncle’s house that day andwhose blood-alcohol contentwas more than twice the legallimit, never hit the brakes.

Steve Martinez was calledout of the house by a neigh-bor and held his only child ashe died.

The driver, Rodney Arel-lano of Chamisal, was sen-tenced to six years in prisonand served three yearsbefore he was paroled.

The acceptance letter fromUC-Berkeley came to theMartinez house that spring.“Calling and telling them hehad been killed was one ofthe hardest things we’vedone,” Marcia Martinez said.

She tells convicted drunkendrivers about Kevin at victimimpact panels and hopes thestory of his short life andphotographs of his violentdeath will influence them thenext time they are in the posi-tion to drive drunk.

“My whole world was takenand turned upside down,”Marcia Martinez says. “Ihave nothing else.”

“All he was doing was trying to get home that night.”M A R C I A M A R T I N E Z , K E V I N ’ S M O T H E R


ONLY SON: Kevin Martinez with the car his parentsgave him for his 16th birthday.

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