A district court judge has thrown out the blood draw evidence in the drunken driving case of former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield.
Hatfield, 59, is charged with petty misdemeanor charges of a first DWI and an open container of alcohol in connection with a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 near County Road 5099 in Bloomfield.
Defense lawyer Arlon Stoker filed a motion on Feb. 17, stating the results of a blood draw taken from Hatfield after the crash “are the fruit of an illegal warrant.”
Eleventh Judicial District Chief Judge R. David Pederson agreed, throwing out the evidence during a motion hearing March 25.
“There’s not a case,” Stoker said. “They don’t have anything.”
Stoker argued that the blood draw warrant was illegal because in New Mexico a driver must be charged with a felony to have their blood drawn.
The search warrant for blood sample was issued in violation of New Mexico State Statute 66-8-11, and therefore the “search was unlawful,” Stoker said.
Under the law a “search warrant for a blood draw from a DWI suspect” can only be approved by a judge if there is “probable cause that the suspect caused great bodily harm or death of another while driving while intoxicated,” or if there is “probable cause that the suspect committed a felony while intoxicated,” according to the motion.
Special Prosecutor Stephanie Story argued the warrant was legal, because the “blood draw was lawfully seized under exigent circumstances, which is an exception to the search warrant requirement.”
Story stated in her response to Stoker’s motion that “probable cause existed” that Hatfield “committed a felony, justifying the issuance of the warrant.”
The alleged felony was criminal damage to public property, because Hatfield reportedly crashed “his vehicle into a highway guard rail,” allegedly causing more than $1,000 damage to the property, according to Story’s response.
However, Hatfield was not charged with criminal damage to property.
Hatfield was charged with a first DWI, which is a misdemeanor in New Mexico, and he was the only person in the vehicle at the time of the single-vehicle crash, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant and police reports.
San Juan County Sheriff’s deputy Avery Killifer responded to the scene and stated in his report that Hatfield had an “odor of an alcoholic beverage,” had “blood shot/watery eyes,” a “lack of dexterity” and an “open container in driver’s possession.”
The New Mexico State Police report said there was “an alcoholic beverage located on the front right passenger floorboard labeled Mexican lager,” and there was a “pill bottle with several pills inside next to this open container.” It was labeled Ambien and was prescribed to Hatfield.
Stoker argued that deputy Killifer “failed to allege any circumstances required by 66-8-11, and none of the required circumstances were present, the warrant should be quashed and the test results excluded from evidence.”
A warrant for a blood draw was needed because Hatfield was seriously injured in the crash and was unable to provide his consent to draw his blood to test for alcohol or other illegal substances, according to the search warrant.
The blood was drawn 11 hours after the crash and after Hatfield was treated by doctors with such chemical substances as “Fentanyl, Midazolam and Zolpidem,” which are “narcotics and hypnotics” that affect “the metabolism of alcohol,” Stoker said.
The blood sample also was left in a refrigerator at the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office for more than a month before it was sent to the New Mexico Health Department for testing, according to documents obtained through an Inspection of Public Records request.
When the Sheriff’s Office received the results, it showed “that at the time of the blood draw, which was approximately eleven hours after the time of the crash due to medical issues, were 0.05 g/100 ml of Ethanol and 0.04 mg/L of Zolpidem (Ambien). Both Ethanol and Ambien are Central Nervous System Depressants,” according to law enforcement reports.
Because of the “lapse of time and medical procedures,” Stoker says there are questions about the tests “reliability and relevance,” so he asked that the evidence be suppressed.
Stoker said the case against Hatfield “should be dismissed,” because no crime was committed.
“Accidents happen without there being a crime,” Stoker said.
The case is set for jury trial at 9 a.m. July 22.
