Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • A5

METRO NM ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2021 PAGE A5 Top court reverses conviction in child abuse case Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal BY MATTHEW REISEN JOURNAL STAFF WRITER In 2016, Christopher Garcia was sentenced to more than three decades in prison for not calling 911 after a 14-month-old boy he had been babysit- ting was fatally injured. On Friday, the New Mexico Supreme Court wiped all that away by reversing the conviction. The decision, following a yearslong appeal, states that there was insufficient evidence to prove in the 2015 death of Isaac Arevalos. The court dismissed the child abuse and conspiracy charges to a double jeopardy has been a heartbreaking and tragic said Justine Fox-Young, attorney. appreciate that the Supreme Court took a hard look at the legal issues involved and reversed Mr.

Attorney General Hector Balderas struck a different tone on the reversal. Mexico is already one of the most dangerous states in the nation for children and this ruling will make it even more difficult to hold child abusers he said in a statement. Legislature should immediately review our child abuse statutes to address this ruling and give law enforcement any tool necessary to prosecute child In March 2015, Garcia and his wife, Lizy Portillo, 31, were babysitting Arevalos when the boy was injured and lost consciousness at their South Valley home. Garcia did not call 911 or seek medical help and told the mother that the boy his head on a and asked her not to tell police the child was with the couple. The boy suffered brain injuries and was taken off life support two days later.

A jury acquitted Garcia of inflicting, or permitting Portillo to inflict, the fatal injuries, but found him guilty of child abuse by He was sentenced to 34 years in prison. Portillo later pleaded no contest to child abuse and conspiracy charges, and was sentenced to 18 years in pris- on. During sentencing hear- ing, according to a Journal report, it was alleged Garcia had thrown Are- valos into the air with such force that See TOP COURT A6 Defendants in Yazzie- Martinez suit push back Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal BY SHELBY PEREA JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Defendants in the high-profile Yazzie-Martinez education law- suit are pushing back on claims that the state has failed to pro- vide all at-risk students the tools needed for remote learning. The Yazzie plaintiffs filed a motion last month arguing that thousands of at-risk students have the devices or infra- structure necessary for distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. They called on the 1st Judicial District Court to order the state to provide internet and computers.

At-risk students in this case are those who are from low- income homes, are English lan- guage learners, Native Ameri- cans or have a disability. But lawyers for the defendants including the state Public Education Department assert that school districts shown taken advantage of funding streams already in place for technology. should first seek to fund education technol- ogy under the available options before demanding additional funding from defendants and before seeking redress from this the document said. The response also says that the state has worked to make sure New Mexico students have technology access by distribut- ing laptops and hot spots and working with internet provid- ers, among other efforts. They also noted that school districts got federal stimulus dollars for this purpose.

Melissa Candelaria, a lawyer representing the Yazzie plain- tiffs, said be responding in court, but unfortunate that we have to continue to liti- gate children need a state- wide response that fixes this problem once and for she added. Another argument in the Technology remedies up to school districts, not PED, they say RICHARD The Chino Mine is 12 miles east of Silver City. A $1.3 million Silver City sewer improvement project will use the last of a $13 million settlement by the Freeport McMoRan Mining which owns the Chino, Tyrone and Cobre mine sites that leaked hazardous chemicals into surface water and groundwater. RESTORATION Silver City sewer project marks end of mining pact Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal BY THERESA DAVIS JOURNAL STAFF WRITER Nearly 30 Silver City homes will be connected to municipal sewer lines as the final project using settlement funds from the Freeport McMoRan Mining Co. The Town of Silver City will use $1.3 million from the settle- ment for the Indian Hills neigh- borhood project.

In 2011, the mining company settled with the New Mexico Office of the Natural Resources Trustee and agreed to pay $13 million for groundwater damage. Natural Resources Trustee Maggie Hart Stebbins said the office asked area residents how they wanted the money to be used. a priority for me to see how we can get these dollars working for the communities that were injured by these (hazardous) she said. The Chino, Tyrone and Cobre cop- per and iron mine sites date back more than a century. For decades, the sites have leaked a long list of hazardous chemicals into surface water and groundwater.

Contami- nants include arsenic, sulfuric acid and lead. One major breach in 1999 at the now-closed Cobre mine site released 8 million gallons of mine waste into Hanover Creek and nearby streams, according to the 2011 consent decree. The document states that the money be used to replace, rehabilitate acquire the equivalent of groundwater resources injured, destroyed or because of the toxic leaks. The latest project will also decom- mission the existing septic systems and build a sewer lift station. Freeport McMoRan also paid $5.5 million for wildlife and habitat damage in a 2012 settlement with the Office of the Natural Resources Trustee and the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service. The settlement money has funded $5 million for Silver City groundwater pro- tection projects and connected nearly 220 of the residences to sewer systems. The office also recently reached a $150,000 settlement with Fronk Oil Co. for a 2016 fuel spill into the Cimarron River. was pleased that Fronk Oil became a partner in this restoration project, because I think it sets an example for other companies by displaying an understanding that companies have the responsibility to make residents Hart Stebbins said.

nately, $150,000 does not buy a lot of res- See SILVER CITY A6 See DEFENDANTS A6 Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal BY DAN BOYD JOURNAL CAPITOL BUREAU SANTA FE The field for an Albuquerque-based congressio- nal seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Deb Haaland is continuing to expand, with Victor Reyes, the leg- islative director for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, becoming the fifth Democrat to officially enter the race on Friday. In addition, former state Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn has also filed the necessary paperwork to run in the special election as an independent candidate.

Dunn was elected land commis- sioner as a Republican in 2014, but later changed his party affiliation to Libertarian. The 1st Congressional District seat could soon be vacant, as Pres- ident-elect Joe Biden announced last month that he will nominate Haaland to lead the U.S. Depart- ment of Interior, which would make her the first Native Ameri- can Cabinet secretary. While Haaland does not have to give up her congressional seat until confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the prospect of an open seat has already generated wide- spread interest.

Reyes, an El Paso native who worked for Lujan guber- natorial campaign before joining the Office, said Friday he would be a voice office staffer, ex-land commissioner join CD1 fray Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal BY ISABELLA ALVES JOURNAL NORTH SANTA FE The case against a San- ta Fe man involved in a demonstration that saw the historic obelisk torn down in October is back on. Magistrate Donita Sena, who dis- missed the case last month because a Santa Fe police officer failed to show up for a motions hearing, agreed to resched- ule that hearing after learning the court failed to give the officer proper notice of the hearing. Sean Sunderland, 24, is charged with criminal trespass and resisting an offi- cer, and is one of six people charged for their alleged part in the Indigenous Peoples Day demonstration on Oct. 12. The new date of the hearing is Jan.

25. In a news release Friday, Santa Fe police say it first learned that the charges against Sunderland had been dismissed from an Albuquerque Jour- nal article published earlier this week. learning of the dismissal and the reason for the dismissal, we imme- diately initiated our internal inquiry to determine why the officer in question did not attend the Motions the release states. is established protocol for the Courts, as well as Attorneys, to send any notices, subpoenas and dis- covery requests directly to the Santa Fe Police Department via a standalone email dedicated solely for the receipt and service of Court and Attorney docu- ments, at which point it is the responsi- bility of SFPD to complete the service to the officer and verify that the service had been But that protocol apparently followed and, understanding that officer Jesse Campbell never received notice of the Dec. 28 hearing, Judge Sena agreed to reset the hearing.

The hearing concerns a motion to exclude witness testimony filed by Sun- defense attorney, Kitren Fisch- er. The motion came after prosecutors failed to file a witness list by the Judge agrees to reset hearing for SF protester SFPD officer had not received notice of the prior hearing Christopher Garcia Justices concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove Maggie Hart Stebbins See TWO MORE A6 See JUDGE A6 Rep. Deb Haaland expected to be named Interior secretary Victor Reyes Aubrey Dunn.