Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the 1980s, a young woman from Arroyo Hondo was in the running to be the Taos Fiesta Queen. That summer, she visited the house of a renowned El Prado seamstress many times to get fitted for her elaborate, traditional outfit, always making sure to say “hi” to the woman’s 14-year-old son. She graduated from high school and moved to Albuquerque, where she attended the University of New Mexico. On June 22, 1988, 21-year-old Althea Oakeley was walking home from a party after getting into a disagreement with her boyfriend. It was around 8:15 when she crossed...

Police have charged a Colorado Springs, Colo., man in the September slaying of a 28-year-old U.S. Army captain from Santa Fe who was found fatally shot near an intersection east of the city’s downtown area. Gilberto Chavez Jr., 27, who was already jailed on unrelated charges, faces a count of first-degree murder in Army Capt. Daniel Chamberlain Lehman’s slaying, the Colorado Springs Police Department announced Friday in a Facebook post. Chavez is being held without bond in the El Paso County, Colo., jail. Police found Lehman’s body at the end of a trail of blood around 7 a.m. Sept. 15....

Questions keep coming about how the U.S. justice system responded to a New Mexico compound that housed five alleged would-be jihadists and 11 reportedly malnourished children along with the remains of a twelfth child who died on the compound. A federal grand jury recently indicted the five alleged jihadists on weapons and conspiracy charges, alleging the group created their compound in the desert outside Taos, New Mexico as a training camp and firing range to facilitate a “Common plan to prepare for violent attacks government, military, educational and financial institutions” and sought to “engage in jihad and form an army...

Judge Jeff McElroy on Wednesday dismissed all of the charges against three of the five defendants arrested in connection to a New Mexico compound linked to “extremist Muslims” because authorities violated the state’s “10-day rule.” This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

TAOS COUNTY, New Mexico - Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe walked out of a CNN interview after defending his decision not to search a squalid New Mexico compound for a missing boy, despite having the property owners' permission to comb it. The sheriff has been criticized by the owners of the property where the compound sits illegally. Jason and Tanya Badger believe a missing child, 3-year old Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, may have been alive on the compound when they say they alerted law enforcement months ago. The Badgers gave written consent for a search, but it was August 3 before authorities...

A New Mexico state judge ruled Monday that five alleged Muslim extremists accused of training children to conduct school shootings do not have to remain in jail while they await trial for child abuse. Judge Sarah Backus released the five defendants, Siraj Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhannah Wahhaj, Jany Leveille, and Lucas Morten, on a $20,000 "signature bond," according to the Albuquerque Journal. That means that the defendants will not have to pay money unless they violate the conditions of their release. Backus said that New Mexico state prosecutors were unable to show that the five defendants should have their bail...

Training camp for child terrorists has chilling connection to top Democratic Party operative. Siraj Ibn Wahhaj Jr., 40, of Clayton County, Georgia, was arrested along with his two sisters and two other adults last Friday in New Mexico on charges of felony child abuse ... But there is more to this story that is not appearing in the nightly news accounts we've all been following. Nobody is talking about Wahhaj's well-connected father, Siraj Wahhaj Sr., a radical Brooklyn imam who is the spiritual adviser to Democratic Socialist and Bernie Sanders supporter Linda Sarsour. The elder Wahhaj also has ties to...

ANOTHER SCREW UP: New Mexico Police Entered Terror Compound On Their Own After Being Tired of FBI Stalling. ( Full title ). ... New Mexico police entered a dangerous Islamist terrorist camp in New Mexico this month after they grew tired of FBI stalling. .... The FBI refused to act. Instead the FBI told a neighbor to wear a hidden camera and risk his life by approaching an armed Islamist extremist compound. This lack of urgency by the FBI forced the local police action. ... Siraj ibn Wahhaj is the son of a Brooklyn imam who was named as a...

Mentor Williams, a longtime Taos resident and nationally known singer-songwriter, died at 6:15 a.m. Wednesday (Nov. 16), according to a family source. Williams was best known for writing "Drift Away", a middle-of-the-road playlist classic performed by Dobie Gray in 1973. He is the brother of songwriter-actor Paul Williams, according to an online biography.

Through media collaboration, The Taos News has learned that a 19-year-old man is clinging to life in a Santa Fe hospital after he was shot six times during a robbery Monday morning (July 16). The Taos County Sheriff's Office failed to return a dozen phone calls from The Taos News about the incident. In addition, no report has been filed and no arrest made in the incident that occurred on Blueberry Hill Road — the same neighborhood where The Taos News reported last week that residents were turned away when asked for an investigation into a series of early morning...

Officials with the Taos Police Department say they are still working to get to the bottom of the alleged beating of a Taos landowner over the removal of political signs from in front of his property. In an interview with The Taos News May 25, property owner Roy Cunnyngham and his wife Joni recounted the events when they returned home, across from Casa los Córdovas May 1. “I don’t know how many people hit me,” Cunnyngham said of the incident. According to the police report filed the same day, Eighth Judicial District Court judge candidate Ernestina Cruz was having a...

Hotel Owner to Workers: No Spanish! By MELANIE DABOVICH, AP TAOS, N.M. (Oct. 26) -- Larry Whitten marched into this northern New Mexico town in late July on a mission: resurrect a failing hotel. The tough-talking former Marine immediately laid down some new rules. Among them, he forbade the Hispanic workers at the run-down, Southwestern adobe-style hotel from speaking Spanish in his presence (he thought they'd be talking about him), and ordered some to Anglicize their names. No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Whitten's management style had worked for him...

Gov. Bill Richardson has asked state engineers to look into ways to prevent suicides at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge near Taos. Since 1999, about three people a year have leaped to their deaths from the 650-foot-high span. Seven suicides were reported in 2005, and the most recent such death occurred last month. Rescuers who have had to climb into the steep, rocky gorge complain that the job of retrieving bodies puts them at risk. The governor "is very concerned about the problems up there," Richardson spokeswoman Alarie Ray-Garcia said. "It's not a new problem. He's heard of the stories...

TAOS— This small mountain town is known for leaving its celebrities alone. That's why Julia Roberts can shop for yarn at La Lana Wools and Anthony Hopkins (aka Hannibal Lecter) can thumb through the pages at Brodsky Bookshop undisturbed. But Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense? That's a different story. While living in Taos, Rumsfeld has suffered a number of public indignities, from being burned in effigy to being refused a hot chocolate by a bartender. But last week's description of a verbal fracas aimed at Rumsfeld by writer Jeff Conant, posted on an Internet political newsletter at www.counterpunch.org, may...

Taos County administrators plan to talk next week to one of their Adult Detention Center officers — an unidentified employee who released an inmate Dec. 22 without first checking his paperwork. Jerry Trujillo, who is now at large, was arrested Dec. 12 by Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Wardlow on three counts of burglary, one count of larceny and two counts of criminal damage to property. Trujillo was being held pending a preliminary hearing scheduled Dec. 23. He did not attend that hearing. There are two open warrants against Trujillo. Victor Robles, one of two assistant county managers, did not know what...

TAOS— The town of Taos might not approve of a banner emblazoned with the words "Fire Rumsfeld," but it can't keep a community group from hanging it prominently over the town's main drag, a state district judge ruled Monday. The town had sought to keep the words— referring to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who lives in Taos part time— off a banner advertising a peace rally slated for March 19. That prompted Action Coalition of Taos to go to court seeking a temporary restraining order against the town. At Monday's hearing, District Judge Peggy Nelson said the words are not...

Jan 8, 2005 Julia Roberts buys land from Rumsfeld NEW YORK - With newly born twins, it looks like Julia Roberts needs some extra space. The actress has bought 13ha of Taos, New Mexico, real estate from Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, People magazine reports. According to the magazine, since taking up part-time residence in New Mexico in 1995, Roberts has bought other pieces of property adjacent to hers. The plot purchased from Rumsfeld in an area of Taos known as Des Montes neighbours the 32ha Roberts already owns. Messages left at the Taos Country Clerk's home and with Julia...

Sunday, November 16, 2003 Police Say Taos Ripe for Gang War By Kathryn HolzkaFor the Journal    TAOS— Nestled in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, Taos is known worldwide for its celebrities, art galleries, scenery and one of the world's best ski areas.     But violence and gang warfare have descended on this county of about 30,000, which once attracted peace-loving hippies.     A State Police officer's recent affidavit after a string of burglaries and a triple homicide says an "active gang war climate exists in Taos."     Law enforcement agencies from around the state have helped in the crackdown on...