The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • Page A001

Mostly sunny. High 63, low 32 Page C-8 A RIO VALUE The 2006 Kia Rio 5 SX flashy, but provides a no- frills vehicle for the average working person. Drive, E-1 STARTING SUNDAY Santa Fe police have seen a surge in domestic-violence cases this year, and nationally New Mexico is one of the most deadly states when people attack their partners. A four-day series by The New Mexican that begins Sunday will explore the causes of the problem and how officials hope to solve it. OBITUARIES Edward J.

Gano 86, Velarde, Oct. 3 Eliza M. Ortiz 91, Nov. 3 Otis Rosacker 95 Santa Fe, Nov. 3 R.C.

Gorman 74, Taos, Nov. 3 Page C-2 TODAY Index Mailbox Business Classifieds Comics Crossword Health Science Horoscope Local news Lotteries Movies Obituaries Opinion Police notes Religion Sports Stocks Main office Late paper Classifieds News tips Five sections, 40 pages TV Book, 56 pages 156th year, Issue No. 309 Publication No. 596-440 A locally owned and independent newspaper www.santafenewmexican.com Serving New Mexico for 156 years OVEMBER 5, 2005 ATURDAY 50 CENTS Luis New Mexican Alejandro Renteria Ruiz, left, a World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, gets a hug from Maria Rocco, wife of Louis Richard Rocco, a Vietnam Medal of Honor winner, after the dedication of the Wall of Honor on Friday at the state Capitol. Frances Gallegos Sonya Carrasco- Trujillo The New Mexican A Wall of Honor paying tribute to New 12 winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor was dedicated Friday in the Rotunda of the State Capitol Building.

The wall displays the medal and 12 bronze plaques inscribed with name, rank, branch of service and other information about the men who received the highest U.S. military award. The 12 are Vietnam veterans Drew Dennis Dix, Daniel Fernandez, Franklin D. Miller and Louis Richard Rocco; Korean war veterans Hiroshi H. Miyamura and Raymond G.

Murphy, and World War II veterans Alexander Bonnyman Joseph P. Martinez, Harold H. Moon Alejandro Renteria Ruiz, Robert S. Scott and Jose F. Valdez.

Miyamura and Renteria Ruiz, two of the four living recipients, attended the dedication. Bonnyman, Scott and Mur- phy lived in Santa Fe. State Veterans Affairs Secretary John Garcia said at the ceremony that the wall in tribute to these 12 individuals who are an integral part of New legacy of military service that dates back 400 State Sen. Lidio G. Rainaldi, D-Gallup, was instrumental in the passage of Senate Joint Memorial 20, which authorized the display.

Capital tribute for N.M. Congressional Medal of Honor recipients Governor appoints long-time S.F. lawyer to replace retiring judge Vigil By Steve Terrell The New Mexican Raymond Z. Ortiz, a longtime Santa Fe lawyer and past president of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association will replace retiring First District Judge Carol Vigil, Gov. Bill Richardson decided Friday.

Ortiz 52, was born in Santa Fe and graduated from St. High School. Ortiz is an outstanding attorney with extensive expertise in many diverse legal the governor said in a news release. more than 20 years of legal experience include involvement with tribal, criminal and juvenile law. He is also known as a man of outstanding character and integrity.

I am confident that Raymond Ortiz will make an excellent very humbled by the Ortiz said in an interview Friday. want to give back to the He said he probably will be sworn in next month. think the plan is that I will take over Judge (Daniel) docket in Family Ortiz said. Sanchez, he said, will take place in the Civil Division. The First Judicial District consists of Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties.

Ortiz is a general-practice attorney and partner at Roth, Van Amberg, Rogers, Ortiz and Yepa, where he has worked since August 1985 and been a full partner since 1990. His practice, he said, includes law involving real-estate issues, domestic relations, personal injury and businesses as well as Indian law. Ortiz was elected president of the New Mexico Hispanic Bar Association in 1989. He is on the board of directors of Children First, a nonprofit organization that provides counseling to Santa Fe elementary and middle-school students. Ortiz attended the University of Notre Dame and earned a law degree at the University of California, Berkeley.

Other finalists for the position were Margaret Kegel, the First Judicial domestic-relations hearing officer, who was a judge for a few months in 2002, and Santa Fe lawyers Ann Yalman and Sarah Singleton. Vigil announced her retirement in August, citing health concerns. A Tesuque Pueblo native, she became the first American Indian judge in 1998. Ortiz named to 1st District judgeship INSIDE Rio Arriba Magistrate Court vacancy filled Page A-6 Associated Press file photo A peyote button is displayed by an unidentified American Indian man. By Jason Auslander The New Mexican A schism may be brewing between the mayor and City Council over the upcoming appointment of a replacement for Municipal Judge Frances Gallegos, who resigned Thursday.

mayor has all the power to bring us a name (of a replacement), and we have to vote either thumbs up or thumbs said Santa Fe City Councilor Carol Robertson-Lopez. If Mayor Larry Delgado follows that procedure which is set out in the City Charter then a thumbs-down vote may result from an objectionable process rather than an objectionable candidate, she said. likely to happen because we would like to see Robertson-Lopez said. She said heard the front-runner candidate is Sonya Carrasco-Trujillo, whom he nominated and the council approved to take place while she served a New Mexico Supreme Court-mandated 90- day suspension with pay. Robertson-Lopez said concerned because term end until March 2008 and she wants to make sure the city has the best person for the job.

Delgado was unavailable for comment Friday but said Thursday that he planned to sit down soon with Carrasco-Trujillo and find out her plans as a part of the process of coming up Rift may emerge over Gallegos successor Please see SUCCESSOR, Page A-5 INSIDE A look at nine year public service career Page A-5 PERFECT TIMING S.F. Preparatory gets a big score in OT to send the Blue Griffins to state title game. Sports, B-1 By Diana Heil The New Mexican St. Vincent Regional Medical Center has cleaned up its act after a patient complaint sparked a federal investigation in August. On Friday, a team of investigators told the hospital that it was now in compliance with federal standards for patient care, St.

Vincent chief executive officer Alex Valdez said. did not raise any deficiencies. And that is Valdez said. management team and staff worked with incredible vigor and incredible focus. And this was the result.

We are very The New Mexico Health Department was contracted to investigate the complaint for the U.S. Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services, or CMS, which monitors quality at hospitals and controls a big part of their funding. A confidential complaint launched ST. VINCENT REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER Probe over, hospital back in compliance Please see COMPLIANCE, Page A-4 By Michael Kunzelman The Associated Press BOSTON A study of the effects of peyote on American Indians found no evidence that the hallucinogenic cactus caused brain damage or psychological problems among people who used it frequently in religious ceremonies. In fact, researchers from Harvard- affiliated McLean Hospital found that members of the Native American Church performed better on some psychological tests than other Navajos who did not regularly use peyote.

A 1994 federal law allows roughly 300,000 members of the Native American Church to use peyote as a religious sacrament. The five- year study set out to find scientific proof for the belief that the substance, which contains the hallucinogen mescaline, is not hazardous to their health even when used frequently. The study was conducted among Navajos in the Southwest by McLean psychiatrist John Halpern. It compared test results for 60 Study: Peyote not harmful in religious ceremonies Please see PEYOTE, Page A-4 A place of honor.