{"id":22978,"date":"2025-03-26T15:35:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T21:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-throws-out-blood-evidence-in-ex-montezuma-da-hatfields-dwi-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:22:22","slug":"judge-throws-out-blood-evidence-in-ex-montezuma-da-hatfields-dwi-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/judge-throws-out-blood-evidence-in-ex-montezuma-da-hatfields-dwi-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge throws out blood evidence in ex-Montezuma DA Hatfield\u2019s DWI case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield is interviewed at the scene of his crash, the intersection of 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>\n

A district court judge has thrown out the blood draw evidence in the drunken driving case of former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield.<\/p>\n

Hatfield, 59, is charged with petty misdemeanor charges of a first DWI and an open container of alcohol in connection with a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 near County Road 5099 in Bloomfield.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer Arlon Stoker filed a motion on Feb. 17, stating the results of a blood draw taken from Hatfield after the crash \u201care the fruit of an illegal warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Eleventh Judicial District Chief Judge R. David Pederson agreed, throwing out the evidence during a motion hearing March 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a case,\u201d Stoker said. \u201cThey don\u2019t have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stoker argued that the blood draw warrant was illegal because in New Mexico a driver must be charged with a felony to have their blood drawn.<\/p>\n

The search warrant for blood sample was issued in violation of New Mexico State Statute 66-8-11, and therefore the \u201csearch was unlawful,\u201d Stoker said.<\/p>\n

Under the law 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 according to the motion.<\/p>\n

Special Prosecutor Stephanie Story argued the warrant was legal, because the \u201cblood draw was lawfully seized under exigent circumstances, which is an exception to the search warrant requirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story stated in her response to Stoker\u2019s motion that \u201cprobable cause existed\u201d that Hatfield \u201ccommitted a felony, justifying the issuance of the warrant.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alleged felony was criminal damage to public property, because Hatfield reportedly crashed \u201chis vehicle into a highway guard rail,\u201d allegedly causing more than $1,000 damage to the property, according to Story\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

However, Hatfield was not charged with criminal damage to property.<\/p>\n

Hatfield was charged with a first DWI, which is a misdemeanor in New Mexico, and he was the only person in the vehicle at the time of the single-vehicle crash, according to the affidavit for arrest warrant and police reports.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield, 59, after an alleged DWI crash on Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 outside Bloomfield.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s deputy Avery Killifer responded to the scene and stated in his report that Hatfield had an \u201codor of an alcoholic beverage,\u201d had \u201cblood shot\/watery eyes,\u201d a \u201clack of dexterity\u201d and an \u201copen container in driver\u2019s possession.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Mexico State Police report said there was \u201can alcoholic beverage located on the front right passenger floorboard labeled Mexican lager,\u201d and there was a \u201cpill bottle with several pills inside next to this open container.\u201d It was labeled Ambien and was prescribed to Hatfield.<\/p>\n

Stoker argued that deputy Killifer \u201cfailed to allege any circumstances required by 66-8-11, and none of the required circumstances were present, the warrant should be quashed and the test results excluded from evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A warrant for a blood draw was needed because Hatfield was seriously injured in the crash and was unable to provide his consent to draw his blood to test for alcohol or other illegal substances, according to the search warrant.<\/p>\n

The blood was drawn 11 hours after the crash and after Hatfield was treated by doctors with such chemical substances as \u201cFentanyl, Midazolam and Zolpidem,\u201d which are \u201cnarcotics and hypnotics\u201d that affect \u201cthe metabolism of alcohol,\u201d Stoker said.<\/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 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

Because of the \u201clapse of time and medical procedures,\u201d Stoker says there are questions about the tests \u201creliability and relevance,\u201d so he asked that the evidence be suppressed.<\/p>\n

Stoker said the case against Hatfield \u201cshould be dismissed,\u201d because no crime was committed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccidents happen without there being a crime,\u201d Stoker said.<\/p>\n

The case is set for jury trial at 9 a.m. July 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defender argues for case to be dismissed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22978","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=22978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77930,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22978\/revisions\/77930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22978"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}