Free Republic

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday announced a new public health order that, she said, will ban people from carrying firearms, either open or concealed, in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days, regardless of whether they have a permit. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, issued an executive order Thursday evening declaring gun violence a public health emergency. During a news conference Friday, she said she expects legal challenges to the public health order and expressed uncertainty about whether the order would prevail in court. The order states "no person, other than a law enforcement officer or licensed...

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...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez says Facebook has repeatedly refused to turn over account information pertaining to members of the New Mexico Civil Guard.The self-declared militia started showing up to Albuquerque protests last summer. Massive protests were held across the country after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. The New Mexico Civil Guard claimed they were keeping the peace at local protests.In July 2020, Torrez filed a civil lawsuit against the New Mexico Civil Guard. He's hoping to get a ruling from a judge that will ban milita groups from organizing and operating in New Mexico.As part...

The family of the two victims who were killed in a DWI crash are speaking out for the first time. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office said Cuba police officer Brandon Barber was off-duty, driving drunk and going the wrong way on I-25 when he crashed head-on into an SUV and killed two people. Diego Robles Arellano, 21, and Alfredo Escaname-Hernandez, 50, died at the scene. Their relative, Fernando Arellano, was also in the vehicle. He remains in critical condition at the hospital.Prosecutors filed to keep Brandon Barber in pretrial detention, but a judge denied that request.

State and local leaders reacted with swift condemnation Tuesday to reports that President Donald Trump may send federal forces to the Duke City. Sheriff Manuel Gonzales, meanwhile, headed to the White House, ensnaring himself in the controversy. Gonzales is scheduled to meet with Trump Wednesday – a visit that is being condemned by Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is calling for his resignation, and other fellow Democrats. The news set off a firestorm among city and state leaders, who expressed concern that the federal officers were being sent here to quell protests and would use violent tactics that have been shown...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- The Bernalillo County district attorney filed a lawsuit Monday against the New Mexico Civil Guard, a group that has showed up at protests in military-like uniforms, carrying guns, and telling people they are there to protect property. "When you have self-appointed police officers and military units out there advancing their own form of justice, there is no democratic accountability," District Attorney Raul Torrez said.  The lawsuit asks a judge to order the New Mexico Civil Guard to stop representing itself as a police force. "What is affected is their ability to organize, train and operate as an unlawful...

Out of 13,000 provisional and in-lieu-of ballots, Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said today she has only qualified 3,000 as legitimate votes. "We have about eight boxes that didn't qualify," Herrera said today. "They were not registered to vote." Another 2,000, she said, were in a "questionable" category, and would be reviewed and certified today. Provisional ballots were the final hang-up for Bernalillo County in counting votes for the 2004 election. The paper ballots are given to people who show up on Election Day but whose voter information does not appear immediately on the voter registration lists. Likewise, in-lieu-of ballots...

Bernalillo County voters who registered through a third party and did not show identification when they registered will have to do so at the time they vote, a state district judge ruled in Albuquerque today. Judge Robert L. Thompson agreed today to issue a temporary restraining order that in essense challenges the way the secretary of state has interpreted a law requiring identification for all first-time voters, either at the time they register by mail or at the time they vote. "We're all finding that every vote counts," Thompson said this morning in disclosing his decision. The temporary restraining order...