Bregman's office to prosecute all misdemeanor shoplifting cases (Albuquerque NM District Attorney)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | September 5, 2023 | Gino Gutierrez / Journal Staff Writer

[CedarDave]

Second Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman said the justice system’s current approach to prosecuting shoplifting cases isn’t working, so his office is going to change its approach.

Bregman on Tuesday announced that his office has started prosecuting all shoplifting cases, including misdemeanors, which began at the start of the month.

With these attorneys now handling shoplifting cases, the plan will free up more officers who were previously having to prosecute shoplifting cases themselves.

According to a news release from Bregman’s office, 40 to 70 misdemeanor shoplifting cases are going go through Metropolitan Court every month.

“Residents of Bernalillo County have made it clear, they have had enough,” Bregman said from his office at a Tuesday news conference. “People should be able to go into the store without being afraid.”

Last year, the county had 662 misdemeanor shoplifting case filed in Metropolitan Court, all of which were officer-prosecuted.

The conviction rate of 15% was “unacceptable,” Bregman said. While he didn’t blame the officers for the conviction rate — most of them are trying to prosecute crimes they didn’t witness — Bregman did say changes needed to be made.

The passage of House Bill 234 in this year’s legislative session is a new tool being utilized in this fight against retail crime, according to Bregman.

The new law gives his office the ability to “aggregate” the total retail market value of merchandise shoplifted by an individual who does it more than once during a 90-day period, meaning a misdemeanor charge can turn into a fourth-degree felony or greater, depending on the value of the merchandise stolen.

“The days of shoplifting without consequences are over in Bernalillo County,” Bregman said.

[CedarDave]

“The days of shoplifting without consequences are over in Bernalillo County,” Bregman said.

We shall see. Democrat promises need to be followed up to ensure action. Bregman is a longtime Democrat NM attorney and IIRC not totally Soros supported like his predecessor, now NM AG Raúl Torrez.

[CedarDave]

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[MtnClimber]

Whut? Letting them go didn’t work?

[Yo-Yo]

Wow, actually eforcing the law. In a Blue State.

What a concept...

[cgbg]

“The new law gives his office the ability to “aggregate” the total retail market value of merchandise shoplifted by an individual who does it more than once during a 90-day period, meaning a misdemeanor charge can turn into a fourth-degree felony or greater, depending on the value of the merchandise stolen.”

This is a stunningly excellent idea.

Now if they made the penalty hard agricultural labor then we are talking about a 95% or greater reduction in shoplifting.

[CedarDave]

Unfortunately, conviction doesn’t mean incarceration. However multiple offenses making it a felony does increase the odds that the repeat offender does some time, even if only in the county jail.

[GrannyAnn]

Biden’s DOJ will be all over this in no time.

It won’t last.

[CedarDave]

BTW, the Bregman family does have a very athletic son who is a key player with the Houston Astros baseball team.

[EastTexasTraveler]

Wow what a concept! Prosecutors prosecuting real crimes rather than making up crimes to prosecute innocent people.

[Boogieman]

Take one finger for each instance of shoplifting, and the problem solves itself pretty quickly.

Arabs take a whole hand (or a foot if they run out of hands), so they solve it very quickly.

[cgbg]

One nail would probably be good enough—then you can move to fingers if the habitual offender does not get the message.

;-)

[jagusafr]

the plan will free up more officers who were previously having to prosecute shoplifting cases themselves.

Hunh?

[CedarDave]

Misdemeanor shoplifting cases are filed in Metropolitan Court. All were prosecuted by police officers (similar to them presenting evidence for a traffic ticket they issued.) However, not all of the shop-lifting cases were witnessed by the officer prosecuting the crime. And no doubt the defendant had a court-appointed defense attorney (the AMC series “Better Call Saul” had Jimmy performing that service in his early days as an attorney). The article said that attorneys were already prosecuting DWI and domestic violence cases in that court and they would take over the shop-lifting cases too.

[jagusafr]

I’ve been a municipal court prosecutor as part of my practice for 30 years. It’s not rocket surgery, but it still needs a litigator to do properly (though that’s where a lot of baby lawyers get their initial experience). And how does a cop handle being cross-examined by an attorney on his own testimony? It’s awkward at very best.

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks Dave. Hopefully this will have some impact on the criminal sh!t hole that ABQ has become.

[CedarDave]

Thanks for your insight. It appears an attorney should always present the case as a court prosecutor with maybe misdemeanor traffic tickets as an exception.

[Crusher138]

I’ve gotten to work with Bregman when he and his wife owned the New Mexico Thunderbirds. She was...a piece of work. He was a nice guy for a lawyer. Tough, but fair.

The grapevine says he wants to run for governor. I could see it. He would definitely be an improvement over the piece of crap we have now.

I have worked with a lot of Democrat politicians in my life. Some are just total scum...Gephart, Biden, and my old boss come to mind. Some, like Bob Graham, a former Governor and Senator from Florida, were actually good people. I don’t know if I would classify Bregman as “good”, but I don’t get “scum” vibes from him either. Ruthless, yes. Ambitious, absolutely. Does he say and do political things? Of course. Would I vote for him? Probably not...the Republican would have to be a hot mess for that to happen...but I could see him working with the Republicans to get things done.