{"id":24072,"date":"2025-01-10T19:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-11T02:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-case-of-double-jeopardy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:47:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:47:55","slug":"a-case-of-double-jeopardy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-case-of-double-jeopardy\/","title":{"rendered":"A case of double jeopardy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Farmington City Attorney\u2019s Office has appealed a municipal court ruling to the 11th Judicial District Court in an attempt to secure a DWI charge against a Farmington man with no known criminal record.<\/p>\n

Patrick Lameman, 27, was tried Oct. 29 in Farmington Municipal Court on charges of a first aggravated DWI and wrongful entry of a public facility. Municipal Judge Robert Miller found him not guilty on both counts after granting a motion to suppress evidence in the case.<\/p>\n

However, Deputy City Attorney Russel Frost appealed the case to the higher court, attempting to seek a new trial that would result in a conviction.<\/p>\n

Lameman\u2019s attorney, Ian Jump, told the court on Dec. 16 that he was \u201cnot sure what we are doing here,\u201d because the city lost the case in municipal court and to proceed with a new trial would be \u201cdouble jeopardy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frost argued that the municipal court is \u201cnot a court of record,\u201d so on Nov. 13, he filed a civil appeal, asking the district court to retry the case.<\/p>\n

Lameman\u2019s charges stem from an arrest Dec. 27, 2022, after a Farmington Police officer reportedly found him at 2:49 a.m. parked in a lot at the Among the Waters Trail, 1090 Bisti Highway.<\/p>\n

According to the statement of probable cause, officer Dan Ashburn was patrolling the area in search of \u201cthe homeless population (freezing temperatures) as well as people using illegal narcotics (overdoses) in the park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashburn stated in the document that he entered and \u201cnoticed a vehicle follow me into the park.\u201d The vehicle reportedly was driven by Lameman, who parked his car \u201con the north side of the parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashburn writes in his report that he \u201cfound this strange,\u201d because the park was closed. He \u201capproached the vehicle and made contact with the driver,\u201d court records state.<\/p>\n

Ashburn further states in the court records that the thought Lameman had been drinking because \u201chis eyes were red, bloodshot and watery and his speech was slurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lameman reportedly admitted to having drunk alcohol and failed a field sobriety test, according to Ashburn\u2019s report in the probable cause statement.<\/p>\n

A breath test allegedly resulted in a 0.18 at 3:24 a.m.<\/p>\n

In a motion Aug. 15 to suppress evidence, Jump disputes the facts reported by Ashburn.<\/p>\n

Lameman was not even in the park when he was approached by Ashburn; instead, he \u201cnever\u201d entered the trail or crossed \u201cthe barrier\u201d into the area, according to the motion.<\/p>\n

Lameman \u201cremained in his vehicle and attempted to reverse out of his parking spot when Ofc. Ashburn seized him,\u201d the motion states.<\/p>\n

The motion further states that Ashburn \u201cnever accused defendant (Lameman) of wrongfully entering the trail and never asked why he was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jump states in the motion that \u201cAshburn illegally seized defendant (Lameman) and the stop should be suppressed,\u201d which he argues was \u201cunconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller agreed granting the motion to suppress, and Frost wants to appeal that motion, having the higher court address the case instead.<\/p>\n

District Judge Curtis Gurley told Frost it doesn\u2019t matter which court the case is in the \u201cConstitution still applies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou proceeded to trial, and he was acquitted. That\u2019s the end,\u201d Judge Gurley said.<\/p>\n

Frost argued with the judge that double jeopardy does not apply.<\/p>\n

Gurley told Frost to file a double jeopardy motion; and Jump, to file a response.<\/p>\n

The case will be considered at 10 a.m. Jan. 13 in the 11th Judicial District Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Farmington city attorney asks district court to retry municipal DWI case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-24072","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\/24072","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=24072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78386,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24072\/revisions\/78386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24072"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}