{"id":23993,"date":"2024-09-24T16:14:35","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T22:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sierra-county-judge-assigned-to-chief-deputy-das-dwi-case\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:11","slug":"sierra-county-judge-assigned-to-chief-deputy-das-dwi-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sierra-county-judge-assigned-to-chief-deputy-das-dwi-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra County judge assigned to Chief Deputy DA\u2019s DWI case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"San
San Juan County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O'Brien has been arrested under suspicion of drunken driving after a Sept. 15 single vehicle crash.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sierra County Judge Thomas Pestak will serve as the judicial officer overseeing the drunken driving case of San Juan County Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

Pestak was appointed Sept. 17 after Magistrate Mark Hawkinson recused himself, followed by Magistrate Erich Cole and Magistrate Stanley King.<\/p>\n

The San Juan County District Attorney\u2019s Office will not handle the prosecution, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Decker, who said, \u201cOur office would clearly have a conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decker said a prosecuting attorney from another office in the state should be appointed the case.<\/p>\n\n

He added that \u201cgenerally\u201d in a case such as this, the \u201ctrial should still be here. A judge from out of town and a prosecutor from out of town would come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is because the defendant and prosecution have a right to have a \u201ctrial where the defense is alleged to occur,\u201d Decker said, adding \u201csome of the pretrial things might be done virtually.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, 53, was arrested Sept. 15 and was charged with a misdemeanor count of aggravated DWI. He also was cited for leaving the scene of an accident, after reportedly crashing into a retaining wall.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien was placed on administrating leave pending an internal and external investigation, according to District Attorney Rick Tedrow.<\/p>\n

Farmington Police investigated the crash in the 900 block of Gladeview Drive, after receiving a call that a driver crashed into a retaining wall and walked away.<\/p>\n

Officers found a gray 2022 Dodge Ram 1500 on the property \u201cparked against the retaining wall, and truck reportedly sustained \u201cheavy damage to the driver-side and passenger-side front bumpers and the driver-side rear bumper was directly against the retaining wall,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

The homeowner had Ring cam video of the incident, and police reportedly identified the driver as O\u2019Brien, who was found about 30 minutes later at the Speedway on the corner of North Dustin Avenue and East 20th Street, according to a statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

The officer questioned O\u2019Brien, who reportedly \u201cadmitted to consuming one to two alcoholic drinks and said he was safe to drive,\u201d according to the probable cause the statement.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien, who reportedly \u201crefused to provide a breath sample,\u201d did complete three standard field sobriety tests, in which the officer stated that O\u2019Brien \u201cappeared to struggle to maintain his balance as his body was swaying from side to side,\u201d court records state.<\/p>\n

The officer also noted in the probable cause statement that there was \u201ca heavy odor of alcohol from his exhaled breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien reportedly told the officer that he \u201cwas not \u2018feeling good,\u201d and did not feel well enough to drive. He also refused medical attention, according to the probable cause statement.<\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing has not been set in this case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outside prosecutor not yet assigned<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23993","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\/23993","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=23993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78349,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23993\/revisions\/78349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23993"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}