{"id":23634,"date":"2025-02-08T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T07:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-montezuma-das-dwi-case-dismissed-and-refiled\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:40:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:40:05","slug":"former-montezuma-das-dwi-case-dismissed-and-refiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-montezuma-das-dwi-case-dismissed-and-refiled\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Montezuma DA\u2019s DWI case dismissed and refiled"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A drunken driving charge against the former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield was dismissed Feb. 6 by a special prosecutor, who then refiled the charges in the 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Story, a prosecutor from Grants, New Mexico, cited \u201ccomplexity of the case,\u201d and \u201cscientific and expert testimony required for trial\u201d as the reason for the dismissal and refiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no scientific or expert testimony that will allow a blood draw taken eight hours too late to be used at trial,\u201d said Arlon Stoker, defense attorney for Hatfield. \u201cThey have no case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The witnesses listed on the court documents are San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy Avery Killifer, Bloomfield Police Officer Chase McDonald, Bloomfield Police Sgt. Christian Waltermire, Gabriel Salazar, Joseph Cloyd, Michael Irwin and R. Allen Gilliland, Ph. D.<\/p>\n

Hatfield, 61, was charged Dec. 20, 2024, with DWI and open container in connection to a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 on U.S. Highway 64 near the intersection of County Road 5099.<\/p>\n

The report detailing the crash states that Hatfield was found \u201cunresponsive and barely able to stand,\u201d and investigators and medics noted a \u201cpungent\u201d odor of alcohol coming from him.<\/p>\n

\"Christian
Christian Hatfield, 59, after an alleged DWI crash on Aug. 30 on U.S. 64 outside of Bloomfield.) San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office video)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The report also states that investigators 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<\/p>\n

The affidavit for search warrant for blood submitted by deputy Avery Killifer states he had an \u201copinion that the defendant was driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or a controlled substance,\u201d and that the deputy \u201cplaced the defendant under arrest\u201d at the time, but Hatfield was taken to San Juan Regional Medical Center, because of \u201cextensive injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

A blood warrant was used to obtain blood samples from Hatfield, and two vials were collected nearly 12 hours after the crash at 1:33 p.m. Aug. 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blood draw by rule and by law must be taken within three hours of driving and within four hours for anything related to DWI in order to be used at a DWI prosecution,\u201d Stoker said. \u201cI am filing a motion to suppress blood results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those vials of blood were received by the New Mexico Department of Health Scientific Laboratory at 10:26 a.m. Oct. 11, which was six weeks after the crash, according to records from the lab.<\/p>\n

\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 the report states.<\/p>\n

\"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>

Charges were filed \u201cbased on the observations made by law enforcement officers on scene and the presence of intoxicating drugs and liquors in Christian\u2019s blood,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

The case was turned over to the San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office, and DA Jack Fortner filed an attorney conflict of interest on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been a conflict for our office to prosecute the case because of the close relationship we have had with Christian Hatfield,\u201d Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Decker said. \u201cWe asked another attorney\u2019s office without that conflict to handle the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hatfield practiced law in private practice in Farmington. He also was the San Juan County Public Defender and district defender.<\/p>\n

Fortner turned the case over to the 13th Judicial District Attorney Barbara Romo, who assigned the case to Story and to 13th Judicial District Deputy District Attorney J. Michael Thomas, who will serve as \u201cco-counsel,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The case was assigned to District Judge Curtis Gurley, and Story filed a request on Feb. 7, for a 15-minute hearing in front of the judge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Special prosecutors appointed to avoid conflict of interest with San Juan DA<\/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],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23634","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\/23634","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=23634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78206,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23634\/revisions\/78206"}],"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=23634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23634"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}