After every San Juan County Magistrate recused themselves from the DWI case of the ousted Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield, the case has been assigned to Sierra County Judge Thomas Pestak.
Hatfield, 59, is charged with a misdemeanor driving while under the influence alcohol or drugs and of possessing an open container.
Hatfield was a public defender and attorney in San Juan County before running a law practice in Durango and being appointed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis as Montezuma County district attorney. Voters in Montezuma County ousted Hatfield in the November elections, give his former assistant DA, Jeremy Reed, 67% of the vote.
Hatfield waived his Jan. 8 arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty. His attorney, Arlon Stoker, said “it’s a non-prosecutable case because of all the errors made by law enforcement.”
The errors Stoker refers to have to do with blood evidence collected from Hatfield nearly 12 hours after his Aug. 30, 2024, accident in which he crashed his SUV near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and San Juan County Road 5099.
The blood sample then was found four weeks later on Oct. 3, 2024, “sitting in the fridge,” at the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, because “it never made it through LERMS (the law enforcement records management system),” according to an Oct. 3 email sent to investigators by Elijah Montoya, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office evidence custodian assistant.
The blood evidence was sent and then, received by the New Mexico Health Department Scientific Laboratory on Oct. 11, 2024, for testing, and it took 16 weeks to process.
The results were mailed Dec. 9, 2024, to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.
“The results show 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,” the law enforcement report states.
Formal charges were filed against Hatfield on Dec. 20 as the Sheriff’s Office waited until for the blood test results.
However, reports and a video found that Hatfield was found “unresponsive and barely able to stand” about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64, the report detailing the crash states.
Investigators and medics noted a “pungent” odor of alcohol coming from Hatfield, and investigators found “an open 12-ounce can of Mexican Lager with residual liquid inside,” an “empty wine glass” and a “bottle of Ambien prescribed to Christian,” according to the report.
A pretrial hearing is set for 10 a.m. Feb. 11 at Farmington Magistrate Court.
