{"id":34452,"date":"2023-04-24T22:53:12","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T04:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-farmington-to-pay-legal-fees-for-officers-involved-in-death-of-robert-dotson\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:18:30","slug":"city-of-farmington-to-pay-legal-fees-for-officers-involved-in-death-of-robert-dotson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-farmington-to-pay-legal-fees-for-officers-involved-in-death-of-robert-dotson\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Farmington to pay legal fees for officers involved in death of Robert Dotson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The home at 5305 Valley View Ave., where Robert Dotson, 52, was shot and killed. (Debra Mayeux\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The city of Farmington will pay for the legal fees incurred in the defense of the Farmington police officers who went to the wrong address and shot and killed Robert Dotson shortly before midnight April 5.<\/p>\n

The Albuquerque-based law firm of Robles, Rael and Anaya, led by Luis Robles, issued an statement April 21 that identified themselves as the legal team for officers Waylon Wasson, Daniel Estrada and Dylan Goodluck. Robles specializes in police liability lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout question, this is a tragic case. Tragic for the Dotson family, but also for the officers. Even though the officers had to use deadly force to defend themselves from the armed and deadly threats posed by Mr. Dotson. The officers never wanted to shoot Mr. Dotson or at Mrs. Dotson. Sadly, Mr. Dotson created the set of circumstances that gave the officers no real choice but to use deadly force,\u201d Robles said in a new release.<\/p>\n

A Farmington Police Department Facebook post<\/a> identified Robles\u2019 news release as coming from \u201ccity of Farmington attorney.\u201d However, Robles is contracted with the city to represent its interests on as needed basis and is not a city attorney. Jennifer Breakell is the city attorney for the city of Farmington.<\/p>\n

According to a nearly six-year contract with the city of Farmington, Robles\u2019 firm is on a $50,000 yearly retainer, and Robles earns an additional $175 per billable hour, along with a $75 rate for travel. The contract was approved by the Farmington City Council June 28, 2017, and was signed by former Mayor Tommy Roberts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Farmington will be paying the legal fees from the law firm of Robles, Rael and Anaya for the representation of the city\u2019s interests in the matter of Robert Dotson,\u201d Breakell said.<\/p>\n

The legal expenditure was included in the City Council-approved annual budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey approve a budget every year and this expenditure is within the budget of the Legal and Claims division for the fiscal year as appropriated by the city council,\u201d Breakell said. \u201cThe money is apportioned as incidents and claims arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dotson\u2019s family spoke at an April 20 news conference, saying they planned to collect evidence and file a civil lawsuit in federal court. A lawsuit has not yet been filed, but the city of Farmington put Robles on the case.<\/p>\n

Robles said in the news release that the officers thought they were at 5308 Valley View Ave., the home where a call for service was received by dispatch. Instead, officers were at 5305 Valley View Ave., the Dotson\u2019s home address.<\/p>\n

However, on a video released by the Dotson\u2019s family, Goodluck was heard saying the officers were at the wrong address. Bodycam footage released by FPD also showed Wasson ask, \u201cIs this not 5308? That\u2019s what it said right there, right?\u201d and Goodluck responded, \u201cNo, it said 5305, didn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

In a tape provided by Dotson\u2019s attorney, Shon Northam, Wasson is heard saying, \u201cYou should have told me we were at the wrong address, Dylan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robles described the officers\u2019 attempt to contact the residents in the news release. \u201cThe porch light was on and the officers were all wearing uniforms and badges, clearly identifying them as police. Anyone inside of the home could have easily looked out and seen that there were police officers outside. Anyone inside of the home could have used the doorbell camera to find out that there were police officers outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robles further stated that Wasson \u201cheard the distinctive sound of someone inside the house rack a firearm,\u201d and the officers feared someone \u201cwas preparing to shoot them.\u201d The officers backed away from the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they did so, Mr. Dotson abruptly swung the door open with a gun in his hand. The officers drew their service weapons and commanded Mr. Dotson to put his hands up. Mr. Dotson ignored their commands and pointed his gun directly at Officer Wasson,\u201d Robles wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Shon
Shon Northam, attorney for the Dotson family, reviewed bodycam footage at the April 20 news cofnerence. (Debra Mayeux\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Northam said in a prepared statement this did not happen, and the lapel camera video backs up his statement. \u201cWhen the door is being opened by Robbie, \u2018hey\u2019 and \u2018heads up\u2019 are being screamed simultaneously with the blinding flashlights at him. There is no announcement of \u2018police\u2019 despite more than ample time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robles stated the officers feared for \u201ctheir lives and safety\u201d and \u201cthey had no choice but to defend themselves with deadly force. All three officers fired at Mr. Dotson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dotson died in his home, and Northam called Robles\u2019 statements \u201cgaslighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKim Dotson and the entire Dotson family are outraged by the incendiary, inflammatory, and wholly inaccurate version of events portrayed by the Farmington Police Department in their public statement issued on April 21, 2023,\u201d Northam said, adding Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe in a television interview<\/a> on April 17, stated that \u201cRobbie did nothing wrong at all in the entire matter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney Luis Robles contends officers\u2019 use of deadly force was justified<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,799,2833,28,51],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-farmington","tag-farmington-police-department","tag-headlines","tag-police"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34452","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=34452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82619,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34452\/revisions\/82619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34452"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}