{"id":22147,"date":"2025-05-21T20:36:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T20:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-trial-set-for-cortez-district-attorneys-dui-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:11:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:11:41","slug":"farmington-trial-set-for-cortez-district-attorneys-dui-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-trial-set-for-cortez-district-attorneys-dui-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington trial set for Cortez district attorney\u2019s DUI case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A jury trial is set in the drunken driving case of former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield, after a judge denied a motion to dismiss all charges.<\/p>\n

Eleventh Judicial District Court Judge David R. Pederson stated in his ruling that \u201cthere is enough evidence to be introduced at trial for a reasonable jury\u201d to find Christian Hatfield \u201cimpaired to the slightest degree, and therefore guilty of DWI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatfield, 59, will go to trial at 9 a.m. July 22. He faces two petty misdemeanor charges: driving while under the influence of liquor and open container.<\/p>\n

The charges stem from a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and County Road 5099. Hatfield was driving alone with his dog.<\/p>\n

In his motion to dismiss, Defense Attorney Arlon Stoker argued, \u201cThere are elements of fundamental fairness, vindictiveness and a hunger for publicity,\u201d in Hatfield\u2019s case, which he said lacks \u201ccredible evidence and constitutional violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special Prosecutor Stephanie Story\u2019s response to the motion stated that there is no \u201cillegal taint,\u201d and she claimed that Stoker is attempting to argue the case in his motion instead of in front of a jury.<\/p>\n

Stoker\u2019s claim came from the fact that no witnesses have come forward who might have seen Hatfield possibly consuming alcohol or the insomnia drug Ambien before the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no admissible evidence to support probable cause that Mr. Hatfield was intoxicated and the case against him should be dismissed,\u201d Stoker wrote in the motion.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield after an alleged DWI crash on Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 outside Bloomfield.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Hatfield reportedly was unable to submit to a field sobriety test and collapsed on scene from injuries received in the accident. A warrant for a blood draw to measure blood alcohol content was secured.<\/p>\n

However, the blood was drawn 11 hours after the crash and after Hatfield was treated by doctors with chemical substances including \u201cFentanyl, Midazolam and Zolpidem,\u201d which are \u201cnarcotics and hypnotics\u201d that affect \u201cthe metabolism of alcohol,\u201d Defense Attorney Arlon Stoker said in a motion to suppress the evidence.<\/p>\n

The blood sample also was left in a refrigerator at the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office for more than a month before it was sent to the New Mexico Health Department for testing, according to documents the Tri-City Record<\/em> obtained through an Inspection of Public Records request.<\/p>\n

When the Sheriff\u2019s Office received the results, it showed \u201cthat 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 according to law enforcement reports.<\/p>\n

Pederson granted the motion to suppress the blood evidence, which led Stoker to file a motion to dismiss the case, stating there is no evidence to proceed.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors are relying on law enforcement testimony.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield is interviewed at the scene of his crash at the intersection U.S. Highway 64 and San Juan County Road 5099 about 1 a.m. Aug. 30. (Screenshot from body camera)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Story stated that law enforcement from the Bloomfield Police Department and the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office \u201cwere all present on scene after the accident and observed signs of impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This included a pungent odor of alcohol coming from Hatfield, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe odor of alcohol alone cannot support allegations of DWI,\u201d Stoker wrote in the motion, adding that because of his injuries, Hatfield \u201chad problems walking, standing and talking at the scene of the accident that were not related to intoxication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story called this a factual disagreement \u201con whether Defendant\u2019s problems walking, standing and talking at the scene of the accident are caused by the accident or impairment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investigators also found \u201can open 12-ounce can of Mexican Lager with residual liquid inside,\u201d an \u201cempty wine glass,\u201d and a \u201cbottle of Ambien prescribed to Christian,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

Stoker stated in the motion that \u201ca single open can of beer with an unidentified residue and an empty wine glass in an automobile does not support an inference of intoxicate at the time of the accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called the wine glass and beer can \u201cred herrings that the prosecution hopes will misinform or confuse the jury and result in a conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story argued Stoker\u2019s motion was an \u201cattempt to litigate\u201d the facts of the case prior to trial and that \u201cis not permitted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pederson agreed with Story denying the motion to dismiss and set the trial, which will be preceded by a pretrial conference at 9 a.m. July 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District judge denies defense motion to dismiss case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16494,"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-22147","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\/22147","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=22147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77592,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22147\/revisions\/77592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22147"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}