Tag: new mexico

New Mexico Cops Fatally Shoot Homeowner After Showing Up at the Wrong House

Police in Farmington, New Mexico, fatally shot a man while responding to a domestic disturbance call at the wrong house. The man killed lived across the street from the house police had been called to.

“On April 5, 2023, at around 11:30 p.m., the Farmington Police Department received a call for a domestic violence incident occurring at 5308 Valley View Avenue,” according to the New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau, which is now investigating the incident. “Once on scene, officers mistakenly approached 5305 Valley View Avenue instead of 5308 Valley View Avenue.” Police knocked on the (wrong) door, no one answered, and “officers asked their dispatch to call the reporting party back and have them come to the front door.”

As they started to leave, 52-year-old homeowner Robert Dotson opened his front door holding a handgun—not an entirely unreasonable thing for someone to do when they get a strange knock on their door late at night.

No one alleges that Dotson pointed the gun at the police officers or threatened them.

Nonetheless, “at this point in the encounter, officer(s) fired at least one round from their duty weapon(s) striking Mr. Dotson,” the state police report. The Farmington officers did not even tell the man who answered the door to drop his weapon nor give him time to comply with their order before firing upon him, according to the statement from state police.

This would be an insane overreaction even if the police had been at the right house. That police weren’t even at the right house of course makes the shooting all the more senseless.

Dotson was pronounced dead at the scene.

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New Mexico Soros-Backed Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse-Oliver, Used Illegal Software to Combine Election Results and Tried to Cover It Up, Breaking Several State and Local Laws in the Process

As the Democrat-controlled New Mexico legislature barrels ahead with legislation that would put the nail in the coffin of honesty and transparency in New Mexico’s elections, the corruption of the Secretary of State (SOS), Maggie Toulouse Oliver, continues to be exposed.

After hearing public testimony during a November Torrance County public meeting, the Estancia News has done a deep dive on how election results in New Mexico are finalized, or “canvassed.”  It turns out the SOS has illegally centralized this process, cutting out the clerks, and breaking multiple state and federal laws in the process.

This series of articles will outline the framework put in place by Toulouse-Oliver and corrupt Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto that could be the mechanism used to illegally undermine elections in New Mexico.

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NM’s Secretary of State, Maggie Toulouse Oliver, Paid NM Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto Nearly $1 Million in Taxpayer Money When She Was a County Clerk – Why?

As revealed in Part 1 of this series, Daniel Ivey-Soto is a New Mexico Senator who also runs a non-profit called Vandelay Solutions which advises county clerks on technical matters related to elections and other duties.

This article will focus on partisan activities pursued by Ivey-Soto and the fact that he has received at least $925,000 in taxpayer dollars for consultation and assistance in drafting, promoting, and voting on legislation that directly benefits his clients and friends, but hurts the public.

Vandelay Solutions was previously known as “NM Clerks,” but that company was dissolved and rebranded as Vandelay Solutions in 2019 after some clerks complained that the original name could mislead people into thinking Ivey-Soto’s company was a government agency.  Ivey-Soto admitted as much in a recorded conversation that election workers were concerned that he was “running the clerks.”  Instead of clearly communicating his company is not a government agency, Ivey-Soto still uses the “NM Clerks” brand for the email list serve he runs with all 33 county clerks, according to public documents obtained by Estancia News.

While not all of the 33 clerks are paying clients, it is unclear whether the clerks understand that Ivey-Soto has no authority over them and is not acting in an official governmental capacity, given Ivey-Soto’s regular directives and backroom meetings.  For example, in June, Ivey-Soto met in a closed-door session with the Torrance County Commission directing them to certify the 2022 primary post-election results despite evidence that Dominion machines were not legally certified for use.

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Failed New Mexico GOP candidate arrested for allegedly paying gunmen to fire shots at several Democrats’ homes

An unsuccessful Republican candidate was arrested in connection to several gunshot incidents at Democrats’ homes in New Mexico.

Solomon Peña was arrested on Monday by Albuquerque police at his residence after a SWAT standoff.

The 39-year-old is accused of paying four other men to shoot at the homes of two county commissioners and two state legislators, all Democrats. The shootings were made between Dec. 4 and Jan. 5. In one incident from Dec. 11, twelve bullets were fired at the North Valley home of County Commissioner Debbie O’Malley.

“This type of radicalism is a threat to our nation, and it has made its way to our doorstep right here in Albuquerque, New Mexico,” said Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, a Democrat, in a media briefing.

Peña ran for a seat in the New Mexico House of Representatives as a Republican despite having been previously convicted in 2008 of smash and grab robberies and having served five years in prison. He lost in 2022 by a large margin, but on Twitter, he claimed that election fraud had stolen the contest from him.

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‘Serial Killer’ of Muslim Men Identified as 51-Year-Old Afghan Migrant

The suspect the media labeled a ‘serial killer’ of Muslim men in Albuquerque has been identified as 51-year-old Afghan migrant Muhammad Syed.

Now wait for the story to disappear completely.

On Sunday, President Biden tweeted about the murders, suggesting that they represented some sort of hate crime committed against Muslims.

“I am angered and saddened by the horrific killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque. While we await a full investigation, my prayers are with the victims’ families, and my Administration stands strongly with the Muslim community. These hateful attacks have no place in America,” tweeted Biden.

And with much of the media no doubt waiting with sick anticipation for the killer to be revealed as a white man, they’re probably crestfallen by the revelation of the actual culprit.

Indeed, tweets by major media outlets refused to name the suspect, with CNN merely calling him a “51-year-old man.”

After police in Albuquerque received tips from the Muslim community about the suspect, officials announced that Muhammad Syed had been taken into custody.

Syed, a Sunni Muslim, reportedly targeted the victims because he was angry over his daughter marrying a Shiite Muslim.

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Possible serial killer targeting Muslim men in New Mexico

Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are investigating a possible serial killer case involving three young Muslim men who were shot to death within a 5-mile radius over the past nine months.

Each slaying was an ambush outside during evening hours, and it doesn’t appear that the men knew each other. Police are working with the FBI and are open to the idea that these could be hate crime killings, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

“While we won’t go into all the specifics of why we think that, there’s one strong commonality in all victims: the race and religion,” Deputy Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock with the Albuquerque Police Department said Thursday. “We are taking this very seriously. We want the public’s help in identifying this cowardly individual.”

All three men reportedly were immigrants who worked hard to make better lives for themselves in America. One man wanted to bring his fiancee to Albuquerque from Pakistan and start a family.

“We can’t call it a [hate crime] until we have someone identified and really know what their intention is in doing this,” Hartsock said. “And we don’t know enough yet to clearly say that — but that could change.”

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Feds Admit Starting Two Fires Now Merged Into Largest In State’s History

Two New Mexico wildfires now merged into the single biggest blaze in the state’s history were both started by a federal government agency, officials admitted Friday.

Both blazes were sparked by “pile burns,” fires set to get rid of wood and debris from thinning and reforestation projects, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Although those fires are meant to be controlled burns, in both cases they have raged out of the control of the Santa Fe National Forest Service. The two wildfires, the Calf Canyon Fire and the the Hermits Peak Fire, have now merged. Between them, they have burned more than 312,00 acres and destroyed nearly 800 structures, including hundreds of homes.

“The Santa Fe National Forest is 100 percent focused on suppressing these fires with the support of the Type 1 incident management teams who are fully prepared to manage complex, all-risk situations,” SFNF supervisor Debbie Cress said. “Our commitment is to manage the public lands entrusted to us by improving the forest’s resilience to the many stressors they are facing, including larger, hotter wildfires, historic levels of drought, rising temperatures, and insects and disease.”

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What Happened When New Mexico Ended Civil Asset Forfeiture?

In 2015, New Mexico scrapped its civil asset forfeiture laws and replaced them with a criminal process requiring a conviction before forfeiture can commence. Law enforcement lobbyists warned that ending civil forfeiture would cause crime to skyrocket. So, what actually happened?

In a nutshell, nothing.

When the legislature was debating the 2015 reforms, law enforcement came out with dire warnings. The New Mexico Department of Public safety claimed that ending civil forfeiture would have “a negative impact on public safety” and could trigger a “reduction in criminal investigations.” In the bill analysis, the department testified, “This bill directly jeopardizes the most basic and fundamental key to successful narcotics investigations.”

The chair of the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association simply asserted, “You’ll get less law enforcement,” without civil asset forfeiture.

It didn’t turn out that way.

The Institute for Justice compared crime rates in neighboring Texas and Colorado for its Policing for Profit report and determined that “New Mexico’s overall crime rate did not rise following the implementation of strong forfeiture reform in 2015, nor did arrest rates drop.”

In fact, the overall trend in New Mexico’s offense rate was “even flatter than those for the control states.”

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Mysterious deed claims new ownership of Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch

Zorro Ranch south of Santa Fe was shrouded in secrecy. The billionaire behind the sprawling ranch is gone. Only Epstein and his accusers know the dark details of what went on there near Stanley, New Mexico.

Records show Epstein and the Zorro trust bought the ranch from the Gary King family, then built his 33,339 square foot mansion there in the 90s. Since 1993, the Epstein trust had state lease agreements for grazing cattle on public lands near his mansion.

New Mexico State Land Commissioner, Stephanie Garcia Richard, said it wasn’t completely clear how that land was being used.

“One can only speculate … you know this has been a difficult topic for us to tackle,” said Garcia Richard. “Thinking about what state land might have been used for has been you know, has been difficult.”

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NM Dem gov’s campaign pays at least $62K in settlement to ex-staffer who says she grabbed his crotch: report

The Albuquerque Journal reported Monday that documents show Lujan Grisham’s campaign has made four payments of $12,500 “as part of a settlement” with former campaign spokesman James Hallinan, who accused the governor of “pouring a bottle of water on his crotch and then grabbing his crotch through his clothes as she laughed, an incident he said took place in front of other campaign staffers.”

The outlet noted that Hallinan made the claims in late 2019, roughly a year after he left the campaign. The former ex-staffer says he was talked out of reporting the incident by the campaign manager, Dominic Gabello, who now serves as a senior adviser in the governor’s office.

Current campaign spokesman Jared Leopold told the newspaper that Gov. Lujan Grisham, Gabello, and the campaign organization itself “strenuously deny that there is any merit or truth to Mr. Hallinan’s claims, including his claims about difficulty finding or keeping work after the campaign.”

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