You always know when an elected official has taken a very serious public relations hit whenever they make a special trip to the Albuquerque Journal Center and subject themselves to a wide-ranging interview with the Journal Editors and its reporters on a single topic.

It is called “political damage control” usually taken in the wake of a public controversy to make things right with the public and public perception and to salvage and repair a reputation.

A mere six days from the day in which District Attorney Raul Torrez did his late afternoon Friday press conference announcing that his office had negotiated a plea agreement with defendant Michelle Martens, Torrez made a trip to the Albuquerque Journal Center to have a conversation with the Albuquerque Journal Editors and its reporters about the pending criminal case and where the investigation is going.

You can read the full, front page Journal article here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1193335/details-emerge-in-search-for-4th-martens-suspect.html

Originally, Michelle Martens was charged along with her boyfriend Fabian Gonzales and her friend Jessica Kelly for the rape, murder and dismemberment of 10-year-old child Victoria Martens.

According to Torrez, his office’s investigation found Michelle Martens falsely admitted to committing the crimes when forensic evidence revealed she and her boyfriend were not even present and did not participate in the murder.

The plea agreement Torrez negotiated was to one count of child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12 and guarantees a 12 to 15-year sentence and dropping the most egregious charges.

The original charges of rape, murder and body dismemberment are still pending against Jessica Kelly and a fourth yet to be identified individual, and that is what is problematic.

There has been tremendous public outcry over the leniency shown a mother who many feel contributed to the most heinous crimes committed against her own child.

DISCLOSURES MADE TO THE JOURNAL EDITORS AND REPORTERS

According to the Journal report, Torrez says they have obtained DNA samples from 16 men as they seek to identify a fourth suspect in the Victoria Martens murder case with five of those persons of interest having been eliminated, with forensic test results for 11 still outstanding.

District Attorney Raúl Torrez reiterated what he said at his news conference that there is no evidence that the girl’s mother, Michelle Martens, was involved in Victoria’s death or dismemberment, or knew the identity of the fourth suspect police are now seeking.

Torrez told the Journal Editors that he hopes Michelle Martens will offer useful information now that she has accepted a plea deal that requires her to provide statements to authorities.

According to Torres: “She [Michelle Martens] may know who this individual is and not know that this individual [was involved in the crime]. … She may know who this individual is because he was there previously.”

What is very troubling is that Torrez said he hoped they will not have to make a deal with Jessica Kelley, the last of the original trio still facing rape and murder charges, in order to track down that unidentified man when he said:

“We are not prepared to do that yet. … And my hope is that we are not ever presented with that choice.”

According to an amendment to the Fabian Gonzales’ indictment, Gonzales tampered with evidence when he allegedly “removed V.M.’s arms from her body,” and “hid and/or placed and/or wrapped organs,” among other things.”

Torrez told the Journal editors he could not comment on the evidence that supports the charges set forth in the indictment of dismemberment, but he did say there is no evidence that Martens was involved in the process of dismembering her own child.

Forensic evidence such as DNA evidence test results must be turned over to defense attorneys once received by the prosecution, and Torres acknowledged more DNA testing is being done, so it is difficult to understand how Torrez can make the definitive claims.

Further, Torrez’s disclaimer is difficult to accept seeing that no one knows what he actually told the reporters and the Journal editors.

NEW MEXICO CODE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Torrez is not just another elected official, but is a licensed New Mexico Attorney and the Chief Law Enforcement official for the County.

As a licensed attorney and prosecutor, Torrez is held to strict standards of professional conduct, including being required to swear to and adhere to the Code of Professional Conduct.

The New Mexico Code of Professional Responsibility has a very specific rule that governs attorneys conduct and trial publicity:

“Rule 16-306 Trial Publicity

A. Extrajudicial Statements. A lawyer shall not make any extrajudicial or out-of-forum [or out of court] statement in a criminal proceeding that may be tried to a jury that the lawyer know or reasonably should know:

(1) is false; or

(2) creates a clear and present danger of prejudicing the proceeding.

B. Attorney’s Obligations With Respect to Other Persons. A lawyer shall make reasonable efforts to insure compliance with this rule by associated attorneys, employees and members of law enforcement and investigative agencies.”

The New Mexico Rules of Criminal Procedure are also very clear that prosecutors have a very clear ongoing duty to disclose to accused defendants any exculpatory evidence in a case as well as scientific test results in a case before a trial proceeds.

COMMENTARY

The extended interview that Torrez and his lead prosecutor did with the Albuquerque Journal Editors as well as the reporters was no doubt recorded.

Whatever was said in that meeting by District Attorney Torrez discussing the case is problematic not withstanding Torrez’ disclaimer that he could not talk about the evidence.

What is extremely problematic is that District Attorney Raul Torrez in an interview with Journal editors and reporters, along with lead prosecutor Greer Rose, shared additional details as well as prosecution strategy on a pending criminal prosecution against two other defendants, one identified and one yet to be found, that where then splashed on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal.

Another problem posed is that Torrez did discuss conclusions based on the evidence that should be decided by a jury, not the prosecutor in the case.

You can bet the pretrial publicity in this case generated by Torrez himself with his press conference and briefing of the Journal editors will have an impact on the case and at a minimum will lead to suppression of evidence in the case or worse down right dismissal of the charges pending against the others.

No doubt Torrez ingratiated himself with the Albuquerque Journal and the media with his press conference and Journal meeting, but he sure did not help his cause in seeking justice for 10-year-old Victoria Martens.

The “Topgolf” project is one example of not picking your battles wisely and making sure you know how to count votes on the city council.

Mayor Tim Keller has vetoed the $2.6 million economic development package that would help Topgolf in constructing a $39 million entertainment complex at the site of the former Beach Waterpark.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1192145/keller-vetoes-topgolf-economic-development-package.html

It was front page news with an above the fold headline.

This is pointed out only because the Albuquerque Journal published such strong editorials in opposition to the top golf project.

The City Council vote was 8-1 to give the incentives after a 9-0 veto override Keller’s veto of a resolution expressing the city councils support.

You can expect the city council to once again override Keller’s veto.

Mayor Keller has called the incentive’s a “raw deal for taxpayers” which is probably the case.

However, Keller undercuts his own veto message when he says:

“From the beginning, we have expressed our desire to welcome Topgolf, but this project failed to meet our criteria for growing the local economy and creating good-paying jobs. While we were able to improve the deal, we’re still not there yet. … This deal also sends the wrong signal that we are prioritizing out-of-state companies over similar local efforts, and that a company can end-run an independent professional vetting process through a political process. It’s our job to protect taxpayers, and I know that we can do it better. We want to work together and take the time to get it this right.”

Democrat City Councilor Ken Sanchez, a major sponsor of the resolution, for his part said:

“The mayor says that ‘economic base jobs’ make Albuquerque’s economic pie bigger, well, generating more revenue from outside the city than inside is the very definition of growing Albuquerque’s economic pie.”

You can only be a taxpayer when you have money to spend.

When you do not have a job, you’re probably not interested in hearing economic doublespeak from government officials of creating high paying “economic based jobs”.

Eight out of nine city councilors have expressed strong support for the project arguing it will create 650 jobs, albeit short term and low paying, and that it will be a $39 million investment in Albuquerque’s future.

Democratic City Councilors Diane Gibson, Pat Davis, Isaac Benton, Ken Sanchez, Klaressa Pena and Cynthia Borrego will once again vote for the project over the Mayor’s veto proving the point once again that they are Democrats in Name Only acting like Republicans when they should be supporting the position of Mayor Keller so early in his administration.

I cannot recall a single Mayor who has been in office for just seven months where the city council has overridden a Mayor’s veto, especially a city council that has a super majority of 6 from the same political party.

This is one battle that may not be worth fighting over given the amount of the incentives involved.

$2.6 million is a lot of money, but in a $1 Billion-dollar budget, not much at all.

Keller is also going to need the City Council’s help big time when the Federal Transportation Administration does not come through with the $75 million grant for the ART Bus Project and taxpayers are going to be on the hook for the full $135 million.

But then again, the ART Bus project is a disaster of the Democrats own making when they went along blindly with the previous Republican Administration.

Mayor Keller needs to advocate a viable economic development plan the city council is willing to support and fund.

Otherwise we can expect the city council to ignore him and just consider the same old practice of awarding incentives to companies that will not produce economic base jobs.

For more see “Mayor Keller’s Lackluster Economic Development Department:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/06/07/mayor-kellers-lackluster-economic-development-department/

ABQ Reports: Injustice For All: APD Homicide Unit’s Legacy of Shame

July 2, 2018

By Dennis Domrzalski and Dan Klein

The past and present leadership of the Albuquerque Police Homicide Unit are an embarrassment to the citizens of Albuquerque.

Over the past 13 years the unit has amassed a legacy of shame that should shock, disgust and outrage everyone – liberals, conservatives, just everybody – who believes in one of the most basic tenets of human liberty: that innocent people should not be charged with crimes they didn’t commit and that they shouldn’t sit in jail for crimes they didn’t commit.

In those 13 years APD’s homicide unit has complied a shameful legacy of not doing complete investigations, misleading the public, feeding confessions to people with low IQs, getting investigations dead wrong and letting innocent people rot in jail.

The latest bombshell in this shameful legacy came last Friday when Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez said he was dropping murder charges against Fabian Gonzales and Michelle Martens in the horrific 2016 killing and dismemberment of 10-year-old Victoria Martens.

Torrez said witnesses and cell phone technology prove that Michelle Martens and Gonzales were not home at the time Victoria was murdered! Torrez went on to say that Martens has a very low IQ (sound familiar) and that her confession was just a repeating of what APD homicide detectives were telling her.

And then Torrez dropped an absolute nuke on the community and on APD: There is DNA from another person at the murder scene. DNA that does not match anyone in custody. When did Torrez and APD know this? When did the defense know this?

Who figured all this out (APD? DA? or defense attorneys?) When were the defense attorneys made aware? It is suspicious that the charges were dropped just a ten days before Martens was due to go on trial. And why wasn’t the public told of this when the DA first discovered it?

That we weren’t told until Friday shows that everyone in Albuquerque is in danger of being charged with a crime they didn’t commit. In danger because APD’s homicide unit is inept or corrupt, and in danger because the county’s top prosecutor didn’t think anybody needed to know about the inept/corrupt investigation into the Martens case until just days before she was to go on trial.

Two years and just days before trial, before the DA thought to tell the citizens that APD Homicide had gone the wrong direction. Down a rabbit hole of their own making. Management of the APD Homicide Unit was completely absent.

But as we’ve said, APD has a history of ignoring basic human rights. Here are a few cases from not-so-distant past:

– 2005 to 2008 Robert Gonzales, a mentally retarded young man was arrested by APD and charged with the rape / murder of an 11 year old neighbor. Weeks after the arrest DNA evidence confirmed Gonzales was not the offender. Yet APD Homicide and the Bernalillo County DA never turned this evidence over to the court and defense attorneys. Only after Gonzales spent 965 days in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and and only after he was released by the judge was the DNA evidence was exposed. Along with this came the announcement that Gonzales confession was simply him repeating facts that the APD homicide detectives had fed him during the interview. The NM State Supreme court fined the DA $45,000 and in a civil case Gonzales won over a million dollars from Albuquerque taxpayers.

– 2007 to 2011, Michael Lee and Travis Rowley, young men in Albuquerque working as a group of salesmen, were arrested and charged with the murders and rape of an elderly Korean couple. Both Lee and Rowley had below normal IQs. Lee confessed to the murders, Rowley did not. Shortly after the arrests, DNA evidence excluded both men and confirmed that Albuquerque serial killer, Clifton Bloomfield was the offender. Bloomfield subsequently confessed. Yet APD and the DA kept both men locked up for over a year, convinced that they had something to do with the murders even though DNA excluded them and even though the confession was once again found that Lee was just repeating what APD Homicide detectives were telling him. Yes, the city paid out $950,000 to settle with Lee.

– 2015 o 2016, Christopher Cruz and Donovan Maes are wrongly arrested for the murder of Jaydon Chavez Silver. They spent10 months in jail before the Bernalillo County DA reviewed the entire case sent to them by APD Homicide, finding that there was not evidence that Cruz and Maez were involved. APD Homicide is alleged to have fed witnesses information for them to repeat in interviews, threaten witnesses to provide false information.

– 2016 to 2018 Victoria Martens, APD Chief Gorden Eden, his PIO Celina Espinoza and APD Officer Fred Duran, knowingly lied to the public regarding a CYFD call five months before Victoria was murdered. The lies go so far as to put words in Victoria’s dead mouth, words she never spoke, simply to protect people at APD.

An investigation showed that Eden was briefed, and told APD never responded, but he allowed Espinoza and Duran to craft a house of cards lie that finally collapsed upon them in 2017. Eden also went before the TV cameras after Victoria was murdered to tell the public that there were no other other offenders no arrested. That was another big lie. Eden, Espinoza and Duran’s statements may ultimately put APD on trial instead of Jessica Kelly. This did not have to happen, but when the chief of police and his staff knowingly lie they put everything at risk. All for the selfish reason of self-protection. Lying about Victoria Martens is sick.

– 2017 to 2018 This on the heels of APD, at first defending, destruction of DNA-soaked underwear of a 7-year-old girl who was being used as a prostitute by her parents! Wouldn’t we have liked to have that DNA to compare to this unknown DNA from Victoria! But APD tossed it out and a ridiculous bullshit reason. Now Geier and Keller have said they were misled, but were they? We know the outcome of CYFD investigation into this event, but so far APD has only reluctantly started an investigation. Is it just a dog and pony show to get the media and public to go away?

Mayor Keller and Chief Geier need to answer this question. After APD PIO Drobik contradicted what Geier and Keller said (when they reversed course) and Drobik doubled down that it was the right thing to do to destroy the DNA laden underwear, I have my doubts as to whether APD really thinks they did anything wrong. They have had plenty of time to finish their investigation, where is it?

And we haven’t even talked about APD and the DA not arresting people when they have video of them committing murders. The families of Jaquise Lewis and Earl Roybal are still waiting for justice that they will never receive because the criminal justice system in Albuquerque is a joke.

When DA Raul Torrez announced to Albuquerque citizens that “much of what has been reported about the brutal rape and murder of 10 year old Victoria Martens is simply not true!” he handed the defense attorney for Jessica Kelly their game plan.

But it wasn’t Torrez fault. He needed to come clean, although there are a lot of questions still, about the Martens case. In doing so it slapped the citizens in the face with something those in local law enforcement have known for over ten years. The APD Homicide unit is ill-trained, too young, and poorly led. Chief Geier should do a complete house cleaning from top to bottom. Get rid of any deputy chief of police who was in charge of Homicide during the last ten years. Yeah, that guy is still around and making over $100,000 per year.

Until Geier cleans out the crud in the Homicide unit, every one of you could find yourselves sitting in jail for a crime you didn’t commit, or watching your loved one murdered, shot in the back, and the assailant allowed to walk away free.

Mayor Keller and Chief Geier, what are you going to do? Double down and circle the wagons? Or clean house?

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/07/02/Injustice-For-All-APD-Homicide-Units-Legacy-of-Shame

In a late Friday afternoon press conference, District Attorney Raul Torrez standing alone in the DA’s conference room announced that his office had negotiated a plea agreement with defendant Michelle Martens, the mother of 10-year-old Victoria Martens who was raped, strangled, murdered, dismembered and then burned in the bath tub of her home.

Elected officials often do late Friday afternoon press conferences to announce controversial decisions in an effort to deflect some negative press coverage, but it usually does not work very well with highly controversial decisions such as the one announced by District Attorney Raul Torrez.

The defendant Michelle Martens and two others have been behind bars now for two years awaiting trial.

THE PLEA AGREEMENT

Torrez announced that the most egregious charges against the defendant Michelle Martens including murder and rape were dismissed.

The plea agreement Torrez negotiated was to one count of child abuse, recklessly caused, resulting in the death of a child under 12.

The plea agreement guarantees a 12 to 15-year sentence.

Because Martens has cooperated and turned state’s evidence and given her significantly reduced mental capacity, there is a real chance the court will sentence her to 12 years and not the full 15.

Raul Torrez and his prosecutors agreed that Martens’ crime will not be classified as a serious violent offense, meaning she could see her sentence cut in half for good behavior and serve as little as 6 years if she is sentenced to 12 years.

The defendant will get credit for the two years of time already served because she has been in jail for two years pending trial, so it is possible that Martens could be out of prison in 4 years.

AN OVER INDICTED UNRAVELING CASE

District Attorney Raul Torrez is now taking considerable heat and experiencing tremendous public outcry regarding the plea agreement he and his office negotiated with the defendant Michelle Martens.

According to Torrez, the physical evidence and forensic evidence established the Defendant Martens and her boyfriend Fabian Gonzales, who was also charged with the murder, were not even present at the time of the child’s murder.

DA Torrez said APD officers did not have the psychological profile at the time of the initial investigation was completed and APD detectives thought they could “trust what Martens was telling them” when she admitted to the crime of killing her own child.

The state’s own forensic psychiatrist said Michelle Martins did not realize she was also incriminating herself when she talked to police.

The forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner, who worked with the District Attorney’s Office, said a combination of Martens’ passive and naive personality, the way officers presented themselves as on her side and the context of her daughter’s recent death, led Michelle Martins to admit to a crime she did not commit and admitting to having witnessed the crime she never saw.

Dr. Welner was quoted as saying:

“In the course of questioning her about specifics and going over details, the officers in the questioning revealed certain details within the case that Michelle later incorporated into her story. … Incorporating them into her story gave the impression of some legitimacy of what she was saying.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1191300/expert-martens-statements-to-police-were-contaminated.html

To complicate matters, Torrez announced in his press conference that a fourth yet unidentified defendant had been indicted as a “John Doe” for the child’s murder.

STUNNING ADMISSION

DA Raul Torres is quoted as saying during his press conference:

“With each new round of testing and each new piece of information, more and more doubt was cast on Michelle Martens’ direct involvement in the murder of her daughter Victoria … And we were forced to consider the possibility that Michelle Martens had falsely incriminated herself and [her boyfriend] Fabian Gonzales in this heinous act.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1191031/michelle-martens-pleads-guilty-to-child-abuse-faces-12-to-15-years.html

https://www.krqe.com/news/crime/mother-of-victoria-martens-accepts-plea-deal-awaits-judge-s-approval/1274041779

Torrez announced that he removed the two original prosecutors from the case and assigned more experienced trial attorneys by saying:

“It was my sense that we needed to have a more experienced team involved and we need to have dedicated resources. … I’m not going to second guess at this point what information they had access to.”

With his words and actions, District Attorney Raul Torrez admitted he and his office at the very least made the classic mistake and engaged in a level of prosecutorial overzealousness by “over indicting” a case based on witness statements and confessions before all the physical and forensic evidence had been processed and reviewed by his office.

All to often, especially when DNA evidence is involved, witness’s statements are found to be false and contradicted by DNA evidence.

Many defendants have sat on death row based on false eyewitness testimony and even confessions only to be released years later because DNA proves they did not commit the crime.”

Just two years ago on June, 2, 2016, the murder charges against Donovan Maez, 22 and Christopher Cruz were dismissed when eye witness testimony was proven to be false.

https://www.krqe.com/news/charges-dismissed-in-jaydon-chavez-silver-murder/1019769798

The decision to assign more experienced trial attorneys to the case and dedicate more resources is indeed very noble and absolutely necessary, but it took Torrez a full 18 months to come to that conclusion.

Torrez does not have to “second guess … what information they had access to” seeing as he admitted he knew within a few months after taking office there were real problems with the case.

A MAYOR HAS NO ROLE IN A CRIMINAL PLEA AGREEMENT

Briefing a Mayor in civil case settlements where the city or its employees are named party defendants and involving settlements in the millions of dollars, such as deadly use of force and deadly force cases involving APD, is necessary because it is the Mayor who is held ultimately responsible for preparing the city’s budget.

However, when it comes to prosecuting criminal cases, it is the District Attorney that has the exclusive authority to determine whether a case is to be charged.

It is the District Attorney who has the authority to negotiate and agree to plea and disposition agreements.

Torrez said he talked with Mayor Tim Keller, Police Chief Michael Geier, the deputy chiefs and officers about what the evidence revealed and issues he found with the Marten’s criminal case.

Torrez is quoted as saying:

“I’ve had extended conversations with APD and the mayor’s office about some of the issues that came to light in this case. … It’s my hope that we can all improve in the criminal justice system based on some hard lessons that need to be learned about these cases.”

What is glaring is that Torrez has had the case for 18 months.

Mayor Keller and Chief Geier have been in office for only 7 months.

Torrez did not disclose if he ever discussed with former Mayor Berry or former Chief Gordon Eden during their last full year in office the problems with the case nor APD’s failures in investigating the case.

Former Chief Eden for his part refused to comment to the media saying he was retired.

It is totally appropriate for a District Attorney’s Office to discuss a pending criminal case and the evidence with the APD command staff and its personnel and the victims and witnesses in a case, but not civilians such as the Mayor.

The appropriate protocol would have been for the APD command staff or chief to brief Mayor Keller on the Marten’s case and not District Attorney Raul Torrez.

District Attorney Torrez is seriously mistaken when he says he needed to talk with the Mayor and discuss with him in private evidence in a pending criminal case and what that evidence revealed in order to improve the criminal justice system.

Torrez did not disclose if he sought Mayor Keller’s approval of the Marten’s plea and disposition agreement, nor if the Mayor gave his approval of the plea, which would have been the ultimate reason for Torrez really wanting to talk with Keller.

TORREZ COMMENTS OF EHTICAL RESPONSIBILITY RINGS HOLLOW

Torrez said he feels that his office did the right thing in negotiating the plea agreement and dropping the most serious charge of murder.

Torrez said that while Martens is not innocent, she is not a murderer and said:

“She did contribute to a situation that allowed her daughter to be killed, and she needs to be held accountable for that. … This gets into fundamentally the role of the prosecutor in the community. … It touches directly on our ethical obligation to hold everyone accountable for what they did, but to make sure we’re only pursuing cases and charging people for what they’ve committed.”

Torrez defense of the plea agreement based upon ethical consideration and the fundamental role of a prosecutor rings very hollow seeing as just one year ago Torrez was blaming the Judiciary for Albuquerque’s rising crime rates and questioning the sentencing and leniency of the courts in criminal cases.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1025697/judges-court-deadlines-arent-to-blame-for-rise-in-crime.html

A year ago, Torrez claimed that our judicial system was broken stating the decisions by the judges to dismiss cases were “absurd”.

Torrez had his District Attorney Office issue a report that outlined the so-called problems he perceived since the issuance of the Case Management Order in February 2015.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1025697/judges-court-deadlines-arent-to-blame-for-rise-in-crime.html

Main points in the DA’s report were that defense attorneys were “gaming” the court mandated discovery deadlines to get cases dismissed by demanding evidence they were entitled to under the law and the Rules of Criminal Procedure and asking for trials instead of entering into plea agreements.

Torrez went so far as to say that defense attorneys were getting their clients off and getting cases dismissed on technicalities.

Torres proclaimed defense attorneys were “gaming the system” to get their clients off.

Torrez claimed he was frustrated with elected District Court Judges blocking his efforts to keep dangerous criminals in jail.

A District Court analysis found that it was the District Attorney’s office that was voluntarily dismissing more than twice as many cases as the judges were dismissing.

COMMENTARY

Perhaps District Attorney Raul Torrez has learned in a year that the courts have as much of an ethical responsibility as he does to see that justice is served when he asks the courts to approve plea and disposition agreements his office negotiates in cases like the Martens case.

What is extremely problematic is that it appears DA Torrez attempted to bring Mayor Tim Keller into the process for reviewing and approving plea agreements.

Any criminal defense attorney worth their salt and with a client facing an upcoming trial for murder will want to know what was said to and what role the Mayor’s office had in a plea and disposition agreement made in a case involving defendants where charges were dismissed such as the Martens case.

Briefing Mayor Tim Keller, Chief Geier and the Deputy Chief’s on the evidence in a pending case that did not occur on their watch amounts to nothing more than DA Torrez trying to spread the blame around to as many people as possible to avoid being held responsible for a botched prosecution and to be able to say he was given approval and consent from others for a plea agreement he negotiated.