{"id":24076,"date":"2025-01-07T21:17:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T04:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-da-pleads-not-guilty-to-dwi\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:48:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:48:01","slug":"montezuma-county-da-pleads-not-guilty-to-dwi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-da-pleads-not-guilty-to-dwi\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County DA pleads not guilty to DWI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=4836ec67-f8f0-5875-a547-2cf17f8614ff&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1135\" alt=\"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)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">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><p>Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield waived his arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty on misdemeanor charges of driving while under the influence alcohol or drugs and of possessing an open container.<\/p>\n<p>Hatfield, 59, was set to be arraigned Jan. 8 in San Juan County Magistrate Court, but his attorney, Arlon Stoker, filed the motion to waive the court date. Every magistrate in San Juan County recused themselves from the case.<\/p>\n<p>The recusals led to the cancellation of a Jan. 16 pretrial hearing. The hearing was rescheduled for Feb. 12, and canceled again.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the recusals, the case \u201cwill get assigned to a judge from out of the county,\u201d said Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Decker.<\/p>\n<p>Hatfield headed up the San Juan County Public Defender\u2019s Office in New Mexico for a number of years and practices law in the state.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/0x7FqLwnHV4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>He remains in his position of Montezuma County District Attorney until Jan. 14, when District Attorney-elect Jeremy Reed will be sworn into office.<\/p>\n<p>Hatfield was formally charged Dec. 20, 16 weeks after he crashed his SUV on U.S. Highway 64 outside Bloomfield on Aug. 30.<\/p>\n<p>The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office awaited filing charges until it received results from a blood test by the New Mexico Department of Health Scientific Laboratory that showed alcohol and a drug in Hatfield\u2019s body after the crash.<\/p>\n<p>\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 law enforcement report states.<\/p>\n<p>The report detailing the crash states that Hatfield was found \u201cunresponsive and barely able to stand\u201d about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and County Road 5099.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=5b075403-1804-5363-8988-1f30fd261e1b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1119\" alt=\"The intersection of U.S. 64 and San Juan County Road 5099, where a Jeep reportedly driven by Montezuma County DA Christian Hatfield struck the guardrail around 1 a.m. Aug. 30.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">The intersection of U.S. 64 and San Juan County Road 5099, where a Jeep reportedly driven by Montezuma County DA Christian Hatfield struck the guardrail around 1 a.m. Aug. 30.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Investigators and medics noted a \u201cpungent\u201d odor of alcohol coming from Hatfield, and 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 according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>After unredacted records were released, the <em id=\"emphasis-f645d1d2cc32e0bec1b3cce3958b68b3\">Tri-City Record<\/em> learned that the Bloomfield Police Department was the first to respond to the crash.<\/p>\n<p>The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office turned over records and video evidence pertaining to the case on Dec. 19, after New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Legal Director Amanda Lavin made a legal argument for unredacted information.<\/p>\n<p>The <em id=\"emphasis-5f283f96c2dc31f745e07fc3ac845396\">Tri-City Record<\/em> made an Inspection of Public Records Act request to the Bloomfield Police Department on Dec. 30, requesting all copies of lapel cam video, dashcam video and photographs pertaining to Hatfield\u2019s Aug. 30 crash.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomfield Police Administrative Assistant Ruth Montoya stated in an email Dec. 30 that \u201cthe videos will need to be redacted\u201d and should be received no later than Jan. 28.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>County magistrates recuse themselves from case<\/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-24076","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\/24076","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=24076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78388,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24076\/revisions\/78388"}],"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=24076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24076"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=24076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}