New Mexico

NM governor shares draft proposal for forced mental health treatment • Source New Mexico

Published

1 year ago

June 27, 2024

NM governor shares draft proposal for forced mental health treatment • Source New Mexico

More details are emerging about the changes to state law being proposed by New Mexico’s governor for a special legislative session planned in July.

Two high-ranking members of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s staff discussed five legislative proposals with a panel of lawmakers from the House of Representative and the Senate on Wednesday afternoon.

“What the governor is looking to do with the bills I’m going to discuss, first, is to really take some small, necessary steps to really help those people who are either an extreme danger to themselves, or an extreme danger to others,” the governor’s general counsel Holly Agajanian said.

Agajanian and Benjamin Baker, the governor’s senior public safety advisor, presented the discussion drafts to the legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee.

The final proposals could significantly change between now and when the special session begins on July 18 in Santa Fe.

One of the proposals would require judges to advise a local district attorney in New Mexico to consider starting the process of involuntary commitment in a locked mental health facility.

Under the nine-page draft shared with the committee, the court could confine someone for up to a week whenever they determine that person is not competent to participate in their own legal defense, they aren’t dangerous, and the judge dismisses the criminal case.

The draft also proposes that if any of the criminal charges are a serious violent offense, or involve a gun, or if the defendant has been found incompetent to stand trial at least twice in the past year, a judge could put that person into a locked mental health facility for up to a week.

Agajanian said the draft bill is trying to solve the problem of cases getting dismissed due to defendants being incompetent to stand trial.

“You have certain people who cycle through, and through, and through, who are very likely either going to get worse and harm themselves in one way or another, or harm someone else,” she said.

The proposed changes to the state law are meant to allow for the assessment of those people “to see whether or not they do need to be committed for separate mental health treatment,” she said.

“Because obviously there is something going on, and the crimes they’re committing aren’t violent enough or dangerous enough to keep them in a facility until they can establish competency,” Agajanian said.

Another related proposal would change the legal definitions of “harm to self” and “harm to others” in the state law that governs commitment in a locked mental health facility.

Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Albuquerque) said she read the proposed definitions and thought, “Boy, this would apply to half the legislators I know.”

“This is really, really broad language,” she said. “It’s going to sweep up so many people who I don’t think it would be appropriate for them to get swept up in this.”

Duhigg asked about the meaning of the term “extreme destruction of property” used in the draft, and pointed out it doesn’t specify property of others.

Agajanian said “that’s a great distinction that we could certainly add.”

“Historically, this language is meant to pull in people like arsonists,” Agajanian said. “You could set your own house on fire. Narrowing it to the destruction of property of another might fix one problem and cause another, but I’m certainly open to conversation about that.”

Winter Torres, CEO and founder of the New Mexico Eviction Prevention and Diversion Program, attended most of Wednesday’s hearing in person and gave public comment at the end of the day.

“I don’t think this session is about public safety, I think it’s about criminalizing homelessness,” Torres said. “That is the primary target of the majority of the bills that are introduced.”

There hasn’t been community interaction or public consultation about that, Torres said.

“We know the answer to folks who churn: it’s permanent supportive housing,” she said. “We know what the evidence is: we know criminalizing doesn’t work.”

Instead, state officials should be using Medicaid funding to pay for housing, she said.

“Housing is a primary social determinant of health, and locking folks up is not a treatment modality,” she said.

Peter Cubra, a retired attorney who helped dismantle the state-run institutions that held people with developmental disabilities in New Mexico, also gave public comment via Zoom. He asked the committee to “please slow this down.”

“What I heard today, in terms of changing the entire civil commitment statute, is more controversial and more impactful than things we have spent literally eight sessions trying to sort out with respect to forced treatment,” Cubra said. “It really would disserve every person with a disability in New Mexico for you to act, under these circumstances, so swiftly.”

In addition to harming people with disabilities who aren’t eagerly seeking treatment, if lawmakers were to enact the administration’s proposal, “there are hundreds of people begging for treatment who would not have access to the beds that they’re begging to get into.”

“Instead, we would be holding people against their will in a form of involuntary treatment which is almost never effective,” Cubra said. “Please slow this down and let the regular session address these issues.”

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New Mexico

Family clarifies why they believe missing New Mexico man is dead

Published

6 hours ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

Family clarifies why they believe missing New Mexico man is dead

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – KRQE News 13 has learned more about the disappearance of 36-year-old Joel “Deano” Valdez, and why, nearly three months after he went missing, his family believes he is dead. Valdez went missing on September 18, on his way home after a job on the other end of the state. After weeks of searching, on Monday night, Valdez’s family announced their loved one was dead, but did not provide information to support their claim.

On Tuesday, the family issued a follow-up statement saying they hired a private investigator who obtained interviews from several people who confirmed Valdez’s death. They said that Valdez, a Marine vet and father of three, was headed from Silver City to Coyote back in September but had stopped at a Santa Fe gas station before he vanished.

Media reports described an incident where Valdez may have been preyed upon in his white Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Valdez’s family believes that “something nefarious happened” to him, leading to his demise. Bank statements show Valdez stopped at a gas station and an ATM in Santa Fe before he vanished. His family also said that his credit cards were used by someone else after he went missing.

In the statement released Tuesday, the family said in part, “Waiting for his remains to be found makes it difficult to start the grieving process.

Monday night, a family member said, “To go so long without answers has been heart-wrenching and heartbreaking for all of us. We still don’t have all the answers and hope to one day have some clarity and peace.”

KRQE News 13 asked the Santa Fe Police Department about the incident. They said on the day that Valdez went missing, they received a 911 call about three people breaking into a white pickup truck. The caller said they heard someone inside the truck yelling for help. Before they arrived, Santa Fe police officers were diverted to a higher-priority call.

According to police records, when an officer finally arrived at the scene 45 minutes later, there was nothing to report. KRQE News 13 is cautioning viewers that it is not clear if the 911 incident had anything to do with Valdez or his pickup truck.

New Mexico State Police are in charge of the investigation, and they told KRQE News 13 they are still treating Valdez as a missing persons case.

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New Mexico

New Mexico Lottery Powerball, Pick 3 Day results for Dec. 15, 2025

Published

18 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

The New Mexico Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big. Here’s a look at Dec. 15, 2025, results for each game:

Powerball

23-35-59-63-68, Powerball: 02, Power Play: 4

Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 3

Day: 2-3-6

Evening: 4-5-5

Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.

Lotto America

08-11-29-36-50, Star Ball: 07, ASB: 02

Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.

Pick 4

Evening: 2-5-0-2

Day: 7-2-1-6

Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.

Roadrunner Cash

01-12-17-26-29

Check Roadrunner Cash payouts and previous drawings here.

Powerball Double Play

20-23-38-42-65, Powerball: 19

Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results

This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Las Cruces Sun-News editor. You can send feedback using this form.

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New Mexico

New Mexico expanding use of gun and bullet scanning technology to more easily link crimes

Published

1 day ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

New Mexico expanding use of gun and bullet scanning technology to more easily link crimes

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – State-of-the-art tech, credited with cracking some of the metro’s highest profile gun crimes, is now getting deployed across the state. A handful of new bullet casing scanners are being deployed in four new regional hubs stretching from Farmington to Roswell. The goal is to link evidence from shooting cases across city and county lines in rural communities. “What makes this different is that we very intentionally distributed these machines and the personnel necessary to run the machines across the state, so that the state itself could conduct its own comprehensive analysis,” said New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez.

The New Mexico Department of Justice will be at the center of the effort with their new Crime Gun Intelligence Center. He said they’ll be the only AG’s office in the country managing a statewide program that scans bullet casings and guns found at crime scenes. Analysts will then figure out what crime scenes could be connected. The AG is deploying the scanning machines to Farmington, Gallup, Roswell, and Las Cruces. The scans get uploaded in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN database, to see if the same gun was used at different scenes.

It’s the same technology the Albuquerque Police Department used to figure out and arrest the people tied to shootings at elected officials’ homes in Albuquerque. “Instead of waiting weeks and months to connect discovery, investigators now can link shootings from firearms, shell casings, and suspects in a matter of hours or days, and cases that once appeared isolated can now quickly be connected, helping us identify repeat offenders and patterns of violent activity more quickly,” said San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari.

Right now, almost every community outside the metro has to bring in its bullet casing evidence to Albuquerque in order to get it scanned and sent into the federal NIBIN system. The process can take six to 12 months. “Rural communities often cover large geographical areas with limited resources, and crime does not stop at the city limits,” said Sheriff Ferrari.

The attorney general said the machines being deployed will be used as regional hubs, available for any New Mexico police agency to use.

The New Mexico Department of Justice got a million dollars from the feds, with the help of Senator Martin Heinrich, to stand up the system, which they said is ready to start on Tuesday. AG Torrez called out state lawmakers for not helping fund the initiative. “It is a system that is broken. It’s a system that can be fixed. and the only thing we lack at this moment is the political will to do so,” said AG Torrez.

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