{"id":15698,"date":"2025-11-11T20:59:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T03:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-da-claims-defamation-false-arrest\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:50:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:50:36","slug":"former-da-claims-defamation-false-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-da-claims-defamation-false-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Former DA claims defamation, false arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield has filed a lawsuit against the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, alleging false arrest, malicious prosecution and defamation after being acquitted of a 2023 drunken driving charge.<\/p>\n

Hatfield claims deprivation of his civil rights and defamation of character, saying the alleged \u201cfalse arrest\u201d by Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Avery Killifer and the \u201cmalicious prosecution\u201d caused him to lose \u201chis bid for reelection,\u201d according to the complaint filed Nov. 3 in 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit stems from an Aug. 30 single-vehicle crash at the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and County Road 5099. A New Mexico State Police report stated there was an open can of Mexican lager and a bottle of Ambien with pills inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n

However, during a two-hour Sept. 17 bench trial, it was revealed that the can, which was not seized as evidence, was crushed and the liquid had not been tested.<\/p>\n

What was tested was Hatfield\u2019s blood, which, according to the lawsuit, was obtained after Killifer allegedly \u201cfiled a false affidavit for a blood warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deputy reportedly was acting under the orders of his superior, Capt. Justin Reiker, and the lawsuit claims that both knew \u201cthe law prohibited a blood warrant under the circumstances of the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Mexico State Statute 66-8-11 states that a \u201csearch warrant for a blood draw from a DWI suspect\u201d can only be approved by a judge if there is \u201cprobable cause that the suspect caused great bodily harm or death of another while driving while intoxicated,\u201d or if there is \u201cprobable cause that the suspect committed a felony while intoxicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatfield was the only individual \u201cseriously injured\u201d in the crash, and he was charged with a misdemeanor DWI, not a felony, according to court records.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite both (Reiker and Killifer) knowing that a blood draw under the circumstances was not lawful, Killifer obeyed the instructions of his superior and applied for the blood warrant,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>\n

Hatfield\u2019s blood was drawn 11 hours after the accident, while he was unconscious in a bed at San Juan Regional Medical Center, according to court records.<\/p>\n

The blood sat in a refrigerator at the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office until Oct. 4, after the request to process it did not make it through the Law Enforcement Records Management System, according to emails obtained by the Tri-City Record through an Inspection of Public Records Act request.<\/p>\n

When it was tested by the New Mexico State Laboratory, \u201cthe results show that at the time of the blood draw, which was approximately eleven hours after the time of the crash due to medical issues, were 0.05 g\/100 ml of Ethanol and 0.04 mg\/L of Zolpidem (Ambien). Both Ethanol and Ambien are Central Nervous System Depressants.\u201d<\/p>\n

This evidence was thrown out during a March 25 motion hearing by 11th Judicial District Chief Judge R. David Pederson, who agreed with a motion filed by defense attorney Arlon Stoker, who said the warrant was \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatfield was initially arrested and charged in San Juan County Magistrate Court.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, this was based upon \u201cwritten statements\u201d from law enforcement that \u201cclaimed the officers detected the odor of an alcoholic beverage\u201d on Hatfield when they responded to the accident.<\/p>\n

Hatfield\u2019s case was dismissed Feb. 6, but the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office refiled it the same day at the district court level. Stoker wrote in the lawsuit that the refiling was \u201cimproper, prejudicial, unlawful and fundamentally unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims the transfer was done \u201cat the behest\u201d of the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Killifer, Reiker and the DA\u2019s office, and that it was done \u201cwith malice and intent to harm him, and to receive favorable publicity for obtaining a criminal conviction of a public official.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, Hatfield\u2019s campaign adviser resigned, and Hatfield claims in the lawsuit that \u201che was forced to return the campaign contributions as a result of the press coverage\u201d in newspapers in both Montezuma County, Colorado, and San Juan County.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims Hatfield has \u201csuffered emotional distress, loss of reputation and loss of income,\u201d and he is seeking \u201cjust compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hatfield files lawsuit against SJCSO, names deputy, captain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19794,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions\/19794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15698"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}