Torraco Enters DA Race

We've been critical recently of the actions of DA Kari Brandenburg. It seems that her prosecutorial motis operendi is to grab the low hanging fruit, prosecute those protecting their families, and plea bargaining for convenience despite pledges to the contrary.

We were glad to hear that Tuesday Lisa Torraco announced her intention to challenge DA Brandenburg in the upcoming race for District Attorney of the 2nd Judicial District. It's time to have a District Attorney who will work with law enforcement and prosecute crime.

Welcome to the race Ms. Torraco. We've posted her campaign announcement below.

TORRACO SEEKS OFFICE OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY

It's time for strong leadership in the District Attorney's Office.

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Lisa Torraco today announced her candidacy for the office of Bernalillo County District Attorney.

"I can not in good conscience stand by and watch as our legal system continues to fail those it is designed to protect and prosecute those whose greatest crime is protecting their families and property from criminal predators," Torraco stated during a press conference on the steps of the District Court.

At a recent Crime Convention Conference sponsored by the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, it was noted that everyday 17 houses are broken into and every 95 minutes a car is stolen.

"Crime is an ever increasing problem in our city," added Torraco. "Yet, the District Attorney's office is focusing their efforts on sending message to law abiding citizens that it is not okay to protect their families by throwing a decorated Marine behind bars for protecting his family from being burglarized by a twice convicted felon.

"The DA zealously pursues cases against law abiding citizens and dismisses others against repeat offendors – there seems to be no rhyme or reason." Torraco adds "The police are doing their jobs, we deserve a District Attorney that does hers.

"I am stepping up to the plate to do the job that needs to be done. I live here, I'm raising my children here, and I will fight to throw criminals, not heroes behind bars."

Lisa Torraco is a 1991 graduate of University of New Mexico School of Law. Upon graduation Torraco worked as an assistant district attorney for the Second Judicial District. In 1993, she worked for the Santa Fe District Attorney's office where she was appointed to lead the Child Abuse Division for Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos Counties. A career prosecutor, Lisa Torraco has prosecuted all levels of felony and misdemeanor cases and was awarded "New Prosecutor of the Year" in 1993.

Meet the Candidates

As you all know by now, APS is in the midst of a search to find a new superintendent. APS has certainly got a multitude of problems and they won't be solved without finding a superintendent that has the courage to make the changes necessary to finally make education APS's top priority.

We received an email recently suggesting that we help to publicize an upcoming meeting that will give the public an opportunity to meet these candidates. We think it's a good idea. After all, we seem to spend a great deal of time complaining about the quality of the education offered at Albuquerque schools and not nearly enough time doing anything about it.

We'd encourage anyone interested in participating - in being part of the solution - to take the time to meet these candidates Friday March 7th, in the John Milne Board Room. If nothing else, you'll have the opportunity to visit APS's bastion of education and educators - the former City Center 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE.

In Justice

We’ve been watching New Mexico’s judiciary and the system that surrounds it for some time. It is with a growing sense of alarm that we have watched judges inexplicably dismiss cases, involve themselves in illegal behavior, and generally treat their offices and the public with disrespect.

Before we begin, we believe that there are a number of honest, hard-working judges in New Mexico that take their jobs seriously. Their devotion to the spirit and the letter of the law are admirable and deserve praise.

However, the reality is that judges hold positions of great power and little public scrutiny. They have the authority to punish offenders and the responsibility to protect the public from those same offenders.

Last week we all found out about the punishment recommended by the Judicial Standards Commission for Metropolitan Court Judge J. Wayne Griego’s 14 counts of judicial misconduct (ABQ Journal - Subscription). Griego was found to have misused his publically granted judicial authority to help friends, family, staffers, and colleagues avoid proper judicial review and potential punishment by intervening on their behalf.

Even though this wasn’t the first time that Judge Griego has been caught with his hand in the judicial cookie jar (ABQ Journal - Subscription), the Judicial Standards Commission recommended only a 90 day suspension without pay and a $12,000 fine to pay for hearing costs. Of course this is just a recommendation, the Supreme Court could decide on a stiffer punishment or none at all.

Our question is a simple one… If Judge Griego has run afoul of judicial standards not once but twice, how can the public trust any decision made by the Judicial Gerrymanderer?

Our system of justice is based on the faith that we the governed can receive a fair and impartial hearing on any civil or criminal charge. Judges that make exceptions for friends, staffers, and family call into question the impartiality and the essential fairness of the system.

We understand that court rooms often become a kind of members only club where the judges all know the defense lawyers and the district attorneys, the district attorneys know the defense attorneys and the judges, and the defense attorney’s know the district attorneys and the judges. It’s an incestuous little group that knows good from bad, favored from disfavored.

The result is that in places like Metropolitan Court where public scrutiny and/or attention are at the absolute minimum, judgments are often made based on the personalities of the players rather than the guilt or innocence of the accused.

It’s a sad fact of life that the public does not hold our judges to a higher level of scrutiny. A judge who engages in rigging cases either directly or behind the scenes should not be returning to the bench to have the opportunity to continue to wreak havoc on the court system and simultaneously destroy the public’s faith in the judicial system.

In this case Judge Griego is charged with and been found to have engaged in practices directly related to the impartial implementation of his job; and for the second time. The State Supreme Court should act to restore faith in our judiciary by removing Judge Griego from the bench where he has repeatedly abused the authority entrusted to him.

Eye on the Grapevine: Another Castro Resigns?

The Eyes have it that rumors are flying downtown that yet another Castro is set to resign. No, not Raul Castro of Cuba but Michael Castro, Deputy Chief of APD's 5th floor. It's interesting because the deputy chief is known in the rank and file for his devotion to the mayor monetarily and otherwise. We don't quite know what this signals if indeed it signals anything, but we'll keep our Eyes on it.

----- Update -----
It looks like the Grapevine got it wrong. Our Eyes tell us that - as often happens - DC Castro's comments about being dissatisfied about recent happening were either exaggerated or misinterpreted to mean that like Fidel he was heading into the sunset. Apparently, those rumors were untrue and DC Castro will be staying right where he is.

Letters to The Eye: On the DWI Front

From time to time we receive letters about various events, happenings, miscarriages of justice, and various things that public officials don't want anyone talking about. We check the content and when we can verify the stories we like to publish them in their entirety.

The following is one such letter. As you know, we've got a problem with DWI here in New Mexico. Part of the problem is the most frequent offenders tend to somehow avoid incarceration. Sometimes it's not only the habitual offenders that somehow get off easy but those who have friends in powerful places.

On the DWI Front

New Mexico State Statute 66-8-102.1 NMSA 1978 reads “no other disposition by plea of guilty to any other charge in satisfaction of the charge shall be authorized if the results of a test performed pursuant to the Implied Consent Act disclose that the blood or breath of the person charges contains an alcohol concentration of: A. eight one hundredths or more”

It is the policy of the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office headed by District Attorney Kari Brandenburg that no charge of DWI will be allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge including any driving offenses that the offender may have committed. NO MATTER WHAT THE BREATH SCORE!!!

What all of this means is that if you are stopped for a traffic offense, like speeding, and then charged with DWI you cannot go to court and plead guilty to the speeding and have the DWI charge dismissed.

So why is it that Kari Brandenburg’s doctor was allowed to plead guilty to Careless Driving and have his DWI dismissed when he had a breath score of .08?

On August 7, 2007 Dr. Michael Flax was driving northbound on the frontage road to I-25. Dr. Flax struck a car that was stopped for a red light at Martin Luther King Ave. Dr. Flax struck the car so hard that it forced the car to hit the car in front of it resulting in one of the drivers being transported. An Albuquerque Police Department DWI officer saw the crash and stopped. When the officer talked to Dr. Flax she was concerned that he might be drunk. Dr. Flax was given Standardized Field Sobriety Test which he failed miserably. Dr. Flax could not even say his alphabet or count correctly either. The officer arrest Dr. Flax and he was later given a breath test. Dr. Flax blew a .08 and .07.

Dr. Flax was given “the deal of the century” and was allowed to enter into a plea that no other violator of a DWI would have been offered in Bernalillo County. Dr. Flax plead guilty to Careless Driving and the DWI charge was dismissed.

This was actually a case that was not the fault of the Metro Court Judge. Elizabeth Jaenicke is a special prosecutor that was brought in from another county to handle this charge because the DA’s Office was concerned that there would be a measure of impropriety if the case was handled by Kari Brandenburg’s office. ADA Jaenicke gave Dr. Flax a plea bargain that no Metro ADA would have been allowed to give. So was she called in to handle this case just for that reason? Having a special prosecutor gives Kari Brandenburg a certain amount of deniability. DA Brandenburg can say that her office was not responsible for this plea.

This plea bargain was in direct violation of the law and the policies of the 2nd Judicial District Attorney's Office. My question is whether the special prosecutor Elizabeth Jaenicke is incompentent or was she told to fix the case?

So folks unless you are rich like the Dasklos Family or the doctor of the District Attorney I suggest that you don’t drink and drive. They shouldn’t drink and drive either, but they know that they are above the law.

They're On - They're Off - They're On Again

The Mayor of Albuquerque continued to play his childish games today when he announced the return of his red light scam at high noon tomorrow. The Almighty One claimed that the scam has squirreled away enough money to keep it running for another 4 years before the "excess revenue" runs out - that is of course if the city's looming budget crisis doesn't catch up with him first.

For those of you who have some kind of political ambitions or are simply political junkies, since bringing the scam-eras online, Marty has provided you with an example of how not to implement a controversial public program.

Last week's attempt to stick it to Big Bill and the Legislature by taking his shovel... uh, scam-eras and going home has clearly failed. Now he's making the attempt to save face by turning the scam back on under the cover of needing the past week "to study the effects of the Legislature's action and what would happen if the cameras weren't sending people tickets (ABQ Journal - Subscription)."

Horsepuckey! We'd love to hear the Almighty One's technical explanation of how the operation of the scam-eras would affect an audit of the system and a review of the legislation. Those damn cameras have been flashing away since 2005 and the administration has been making all sorts of claims about their effectiveness. They haven't had to pull the plug to manufacture those numbers... Why now?

Even more unbelievable is the claim that "Red-light and speeding violations doubled after the cameras were turned off, Chávez said (ABQ Journal - Subscription)." That's an even bigger load than that "study" crap. We don't know about you but we didn't observe any madcap rush to go out and run red lights. Besides, how could we believe any numbers presented by the city after their recent history of using creative math (intersection crash statistics, the number of police officers at APD, the number of animals in shelters, greenhouse gas emissions, etc.).

Marty's claims are simply idiotic. We should all be insulted by his attempt make us swallow this crap. More importantly, we should also be terrified that this impulsive, vindictive, childlike mayor is making the decisions that directly affect our wallets and our safety.

Upside Down and Backwards

Tuesday's Albuquerque Journal featured an editorial penned by the Journal’s editorial board that chastised the Governor, the Legislature, and the Almighty Alcalde himself for their actions regarding Albuquerque’s red light scam-era program. Their apparent position is that the Legislature is trying to grab the money, the mayor has pulled the plug too quickly and Governor Richardson is simply playing politics because he vetoed a similar measure last year (ABQ Journal – Subscription).

The whole editorial is based on the assumption that the program is fair and working to reduce accidents at scam-era enforced intersections. Despite numerous attempts to cook the books, countless news conferences, and even a Task Farce report, the city has not provided one shred of evidence that the scam-eras have been working in the interests of public safety. The only thing that the scam-eras have demonstrated is an unblinking ability to fill the city's coffers with "excess revenue."

To be fair, The Journal’s editorial board has long been supportive of Marty and his scam. They have repeatedly (and we believe intentionally) overlooked some of the very real problems with mercenary style law enforcement as a replacement for live police officers whose only motivation is enforcing the laws that they have sworn to uphold. To make matters worse the STOP program based on nuisance abatement ,deprives defendants of their right to a fair and impartial hearing.

We have never been able to understand why many in our society are so quick to defend the rights of convicted murderers and terrorists yet fail to fight for the common everyday rights of their fellow citizens. The scam-era program is a perfect example of how we’ve got everything upside down and backwards.

It’s the everyday rights of ordinary people that are being relentlessly stripped away not the rights of murderers and terrorists. The STOP program is a perfect illustration of how the Constitution is being shredded for the claimed benefit of “public safety.” Even if claims of accident reductions are true (which there has been no conclusive evidence to support), the system of “justice” created by the STOP ordinance strips the accused of their rights as fast as a scam-era can snap a photo.

It all starts with that first flash. More often than not, drivers are unaware of a "violation." The first clue that a motorist may have violated the administrative law created by the city is the “citation” they receive in the mail some ten days after the fact. Ask yourself, can you remember where you drove ten days ago and if you can the specifics of any particular intersection?

It’s our contention that most drivers cannot remember the alleged offense and as a result are not only deprived of the ability to gather evidence in their defense but are even deprived of the ability to accurately and truthfully testify in their own defense.

To further aggravate the problem, Redflex receives a bounty for each citation issued. That’s little different than hiring someone off the street to write down license plate numbers at intersections and paying them per vehicle. There’s a direct incentive to deprive the accused of their right to a fair trial by delaying notification and forcing the accused to rely on the accuser’s evidence for their defense.

When the citation is contested, the recipient is forced to go before an administrative hearing officer whose primary objective is the same as the accuser’s – to find the accused guilty. If you have any doubt about the veracity of that statement, why does the city continue to prosecute “violations” even when they know that there is a high probability that many of the citations issued over a particular time period, were in fact issued in error. The drivers who failed to contest their citations were simply "convicted" and their money taken illegally.

Unlike criminal allegations, if you wish to appeal an administrative decision the burden of appeal rests with the accused who is in essence, required to sue the city in District Court in order to get their money back. When you study the process, it doesn’t take long to realize that the burden of proof lies squarely with the accused.

Tuesday's Journal editorial continually disregards the most offensive components of the scam-era system consistently defending the indefensible.

Governor Richardson needs to sign SB442 not to pay for courts, but to make sure that criminal violations of New Mexico’s traffic law end up there. Marty needs to leave the program’s suspension in place not because he’s trying to out-maneuver the governor, but because his golden goose has been revealed to the pig it really is.

More importantly, it’s long past the time to right our concept of justice by placing the emphasis on everyday rights and freedoms. If we are courageous enough to protect our everyday rights and those of our fellow citizens, then we will be protecting the rights of those who are accused of far more serious crimes while simultaneously protecting the rights of their victims. Otherwise we will remain upside down and backwards, frittering away our daily liberty for the promise of security while letting murderers and terrorists walk freely among us.

----- Update -----
We originally identified the Legislature's raid on Albuquerque's traffic scam as SB422. The correct bill is SB 442. Thanks to a reader with a sharp "eye" we have corrected the error above.