The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government has joined the Tri-City Record in an effort to obtain access to public records involving the car crash and possible DUI case involving Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield.
In a letter dated Dec. 9, Amanda Lavin, legal director of NMFOG, states the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office “has unlawfully denied” three requests for records pertaining to this case, and therefore is in violation of the state Inspection of Public Records Act.
The Tri-City Record of Farmington on Sept. 3 requested incident reports, dashcam and lapel-cam video of the crash, which happened at 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 near County Road 5109. Since the request 14 weeks ago, the newspaper has not received the public video evidence.
IPRA requires the records custodian to permit inspection of requested records “immediately or as soon as is practicable under the circumstances, but not later than 15 days after receiving a written request,” according to Lavin.
A second request for video evidence was made Oct. 23.
A response was received Oct. 25 from Elijah Montoya, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office evidence custodian, stating, “I am reaching out to let you know that our department is currently critically understaffed and requests for bodycam are severely backlogged. It will be an extreme delay before we are able to process your request.”
Also on Oct. 23, the Tri-City Record requested the blood warrant, search warrant and arrest warrant of Hatfield. The Tri-City Record waited seven weeks for this evidence and has repeatedly received emails from the Sheriff’s Office stating the evidence is “pending.”
However, other public documents suggest a draft arrest warrant and a blood warrant exist, because the initial incident report dated Sept. 5 states that a “blood warrant was signed by Judge Bradford on Aug. 30 and executed the same day.”
The report also states that a “warrant will be sought for (redacted) in reference to DWI and consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages in a motor vehicle.”
The New Mexico State Police’s crash report noted that there was “an open container of an alcoholic beverage located on the front right passenger floorboard labeled Mexican lager. The container was crushed from the sides but still had residual liquid.”
State Police also noted there was “a pill bottle with several pills inside next to this open container,” and the label on the bottle contained Hatfield’s name and the drug name Ambien.
In an email Sept. 30 between San Juan County Sheriff’s records tech Megan Mitchell and 11th Judicial District Attorney’s clerk specialist Rachel Barker, Mitchell wrote, “I have attached the blood warrant for this case, I don’t think it got sent over to you guys after we received it.”
Barker responded by asking for the blood results and stating that the San Juan County District Attorney’s Office “got all of the paperwork through intake.”
It has been seven weeks, and the Sheriff’s Office still has not released the paperwork. It did send an email Nov. 13 stating that the office is “still waiting for results.”
A follow-up email from Jennifer Coponiti, Sheriff’s Office civilian operations supervisor, arrived on Dec. 2 stating, “These results are still pending. I have made a couple calls and left messages with the state lab but have not heard back as of right now.”
The reasons given by the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office for not making the documents available were addressed in a Dec. 9 letter written by Lavin to the office.
The office stated the records were not disclosed because the “documents are still pending” and that “the department is currently critically understaffed and requests for bodycam are severely backlogged,” and that “it will be an extreme delay before we are able to process your request.”
NMFOG attorney Lavin responded that “none of these purported reasons for refusing to allow inspection of the requested public records are valid under IPRA,” because “the Supreme Court has made clear that a public body may only withhold documents from inspection under IPRA because of a specific exception contained within IPRA, or statutory or regulatory exceptions, or privileges adopted by the court or grounded in the constitution.”
Lavin wrote that even draft documents are considered public record “and must be made available for inspection under IPRA.”
NMFOG made similar requests for records on Dec. 9. Lavin asked “to inspect public records in possession of the San Juan County Sheriff's Office related to the Aug. 30, 2024, car accident involving Christian Hatfield, including any and all warrants, investigative reports, and laboratory reports.”
Lavin received a response Dec. 12 from Coponiti, who stated, “We will contact you to arrange for an inspection appointment when the response is ready for you to inspect.”
However, Lavin pointed out that she requested the documents in electronic format under New Mexico Statute Annotated 1978 § 14-2-9, which “requires the county records custodian to provide them to the requester in that format.”
Lavin also requested to inspect all video public records in the sheriff’s office’s possession related to the Aug. 30 car crash involving Christian Hatfield, specifically any related dashboard camera footage, lapel camera footage and other video footage.
She received a response stating that “Property & Evidence-Video-BodyCam will contact you to arrange for an inspection appointment when the response is ready for you to inspect.”
Lavin stated she wanted the video in electronic format, at which time she was told she would need to pay $10 for a disk copy.
When Lavin agreed, she received an email from the sheriff’s office stating that it’s unable to provide “electronic correspondence of video at this time.”
Lavin also sent a request on Monday to the Department of Health State Laboratory, which conducts blood testing for cases involving drugs and alcohol.
She noted in the request that “even if a final report is not yet available,” she’d like to be provided with "electronic copies of any available reports, notes, drafts, warrants, written requests to conduct the analysis, or any other available records related to the analysis of the blood sample submitted in connection to the arrest or investigation of Christian Hatfield.”
Draft documents are not exempt from disclosure under the Inspection of Public Records Act, per the New Mexico Court of Appeals ruling in Edenburn v. New Mexico Department of Health, 2013-NMCA-045, 299 P.3d 424, Lavin wrote.
Lavin’s request was denied Monday. The state lab cited medical privacy laws for withholding the records.
“Federal HIPAA regulations at 45 C.F.R. § 164.502 and 45 C.F.R. § 160.103 prohibit the Department of Health from disclosing individually identifiable health information that relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual, and that either identifies the individual or can be used to identify the individual. Your request seeks such information and cannot be fulfilled,” wrote Susan Montoya, chief records custodian at the state Department of Health.
Lavin disagrees.
“The blood sample is evidence in a criminal investigation and not related to administration of health care services. The requested records relate to analysis of a blood sample that was obtained via a criminal warrant signed by an Aztec Magistrate judge and the requested report is of a type commonly used as evidence in DWI cases,” Lavin wrote on Tuesday.
As of Friday, the Health Department has not responded.
In her letter, Lavin urged the sheriff’s office “to permit inspection of the requested records as soon as possible to avoid consequences for failing to comply with IPRA.”
No other response has been received by Lavin or the Tri-City Record concerning these requests.
