Stephen D Aarons, Attorney at Law | Aarons Law PC | New Mexico Criminal Defense Attorney

Category: Santa Fe

  • Woman held in infant death granted release in Santa Fe

    by Phaedra Haywood
    (c) 2018 Santa Fe New Mexican Republished with Permission
    Woman held in infant death granted release

    Rachel Smith sits with attorneys during a hearing in District Court on Tuesday. Smith was being held in the death of 3-month-old she was baby-sitting. PHAEDRA HEYWOOD | THE NEW MEXICAN

    Rachel Smith, 27, had been in jail since her March 2017 arrest in connection with the death of the baby boy at a Cerrillos Road motel.

    The infant’s mother — then 17 years-old — had left two children with Smith for five days preceding the death, according to court records, and Smith was living with the children in the Thunderbird Motel when she woke up one morning to find the baby was not breathing.

    Investigators originally speculated that Smith — a heroin addict who admitted shooting up in the bathroom while she was watching the boy and his 2 year-old sister — might have rolled over on the boy. However, an autopsy later revealed the infant had bleeding in his brain consistent with “blunt force trauma.”

    Smith’s defense attorney, Stephen Aarons, filed a motion in November seeking to have the charges dismissed on grounds that her rights to a speedy trial and discovery of evidence had been violated. Among other things, he argued that it took prosecutors about a year to produce Children Youth and Family Department records that could include evidence that the infant’s mother had abused him.

    State District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer postponed her decision on that motion during a hearing Tuesday, saying she needed to review the Children Youth and Family Department records before ruling.

    Aarons also filed a motion challenging one of the state’s expert witnesses, saying the proposed witness’s opinions on “shaken baby syndrome” as it relates to pinpointing when the child received the fatal injury are not typical and have been contradicted in literature that says determining time of injury is the unreliable “Achilles heel” of forensic pathology.

    Sommer also postponed ruling on that motion Tuesday, directing Aarons and Assistant District Attorney Larissa Breen to expand written briefs on the issue before the judge considers the matter again next month

  • Santa Fe puts DWI vehicle forfeiture program on hold

    SANTA FE, N.M. — The city of Santa Fe today announced that it has put its DWI vehicle forfeiture program on hold.

    According to a news release, the New Mexico Court of Appeals on Dec. 5 ruled that state law preempts Albuquerque’s civil forfeiture ordinance.

    “Although the case was specific to Albuquerque, in a broad ruling the court held that state law was intended to allow only criminal—not civil forfeiture, in any jurisdiction in the state,” the city said in a news release. “In response, we’re putting a moratorium on our DWI Vehicle Forfeiture program. The moratorium will hold until further notice.”

  • Man gets 7 years for kidnapping, battery in Santa Fe

    By Phaedra Haywood | phaywood@sfnewmexican.com

    Man gets 7 years for kidnapping, battery in Santa Fe
    Daniel Tadege is led to the podium during his plea hearing in June in District Court. Phaedra Haywood/New Mexican file photo

    A judge on Monday sentenced an Ethiopian immigrant to seven years in prison for his role last year in the drug-related kidnapping and pistol whipping of a Santa Fe teenager.

    Authorities said Daniel Tadege, 21, and two or three other people went to the home of a 17-year-old boy, forced the victim into a Jeep at gunpoint, then beat and threatened the teen with a gun before abandoning him on Mutt Nelson Road.

    Tadege in June pleaded guilty to kidnapping and aggravated battery in a plea deal that exposed him to between two and 10 years in prison.

    Defense lawyer Stephen Aarons said Tadege had been left alone in the United States at the age of 18 when his mother and sister returned to Ethiopia, and that Tadege began dealing cocaine to support himself and pay tuition at Santa Fe Community College.

    Aarons said the victim was a customer who had robbed Tadege of money and drugs at gunpoint a few days earlier.

    Tadege’s assaulted the younger man, Aarons said, “to take his stuff back and teach [the victim] never to jump him again.”

    “It doesn’t justify it,” the lawyer said, “but it does explain it.”

    Aarons said Tadege’s mother had flown in from Ethiopia to attend the hearing, but she did not speak Monday. Another Ethiopian woman, a friend of the family, did speak on Tadege’s behalf, begging the judge to “correct the real horror” that had befallen him when he was left alone in a country that was not his own.

    “They brought him here and left him on the street,” she said.

    Aarons asked District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to send Tadege to a two-year program at the Delancey Street Foundation, a residential self-help program aimed rehabilitating substance abusers, ex-convicts and others.

    But prosecutor Blake Nichols asked the judge to give Tadege prison time.

    “The state is not immune to the plight of immigrant youth and does not oppose folks coming to this country for opportunity,” Nichols said. “The opportunity to sell cocaine and beat someone within an inch of his life is not the opportunity they came here for.”

    Tadege also addressed the court, saying he recognized that he made mistakes that hurt the victim and his family and asking for “a chance to get a grip” on his life at Delancey Street.

    But the judge sentenced Tadege to prison, noting that Tadege had a job in a restaurant when his mother left the country but, apparently unsatisfied with the money he earned there, resorted almost immediately to “illegal activity and significant violence.”

    The judge said Tadege would receive credit for about a year and a half spent behind bars but would have to serve 85 percent of his prison term — ineligible for day-for-day good time credit — because the crime was a serious violent offense.

    Sommer said Tadege would likely be deported upon completing his sentence. But Aarons said Tadege received a renewal of his 10-year green card while the case was pending and might have some time to remain in the country legally after his release.

    Tadege’s mother declined to comment following the hearing.

    District Attorney Marco Serna, asked whether the other participants in the kidnapping had been prosecuted, said “the victim was unable to identify either of the other adults who allegedly participated. The other defendant that was identified is a juvenile, and I cannot comment on juvenile cases.”

  • Murder charge against youth dropped, but he remains a suspect

    by Sami Edge The New Mexican | © The New Mexican | reprinted with permission

    District Attorney Marco Serna said Tuesday he will dismiss a murder charge against a 17-year-old Santa Fe boy, but the youth remains a suspect in the shooting death of a man from Michigan.

    The defendant, Zachary Gutierrez, was charged in the murder of 64-year-old Richard Milan. Milan died after being shot in September while walking his dog near Airport road.Serna said his staff does not have time to present the case to a grand jury before a Dec. 13 deadline. Even so, Gutierrez remains a suspect in Milan’s death, Serna stated in an email.

    Earlier this month, Serna told The New Mexican that pursuit of an indictment against Gutierrez had been postponed because his office was reviewing new information. Neither he nor police would elaborate on the new information.

    But Gutierrez’s attorney, Stephen Aarons, wrote on his website Tuesday that he recovered new video recordings of eye witnesses in the case which, he says, “confirmed that Gutierrez was an innocent bystander, not the shooter.”

    “We commend the prosecution and Santa Fe Police Detectives in reopening their investigation in light of new evidence,” Aarons wrote. “What is important now is to find the truth and prosecute the real shooter for this senseless murder.”

    Serna said Gutierrez will remain incarcerated at a youth detention center until mid-December. Milan, of Kalamazoo, Mich., was in Santa Fe visiting relatives when he was shot.

  • Murder charge dropped against Santa Fe teen

    By Edmund Carrillo / Journal Staff Writer | © Albuquerque Journal 2018 | reprinted with permission

    SANTA FE — A murder charge is going to be dropped against a Santa Fe teen Tuesday, according to the boy’s defense attorney. Santa Fe lawyer Steve Aarons said in a press release Tuesday morning that charges of murder and tampering with evidence will be dismissed against 17-year-old Zachary Gutierrez.

    Aarons said he provided video that proves Gutierrez was an innocent bystander and not the shooter in 64-year-old Richard Milan’s death on Airport Road on Sept. 26. “I was very happy to tell Zach and his family this morning that they are dropping the murder case against him,” Aarons wrote.

    Santa Fe Police Department reports say Milan, of Kalamazoo, Mich. – who was on a cross-country trip and visiting relatives in Santa Fe – was walking his dog along Airport Road when he encountered a group of young people at the intersection of Lucia Lane.Surveillance video from a nearby business captures Milan going down from two gunshot wounds to his lower body. He later died from blood loss at the hospital.

    Aarons provided an email that he received from Santa Fe prosecutor Heather Smallwood Tuesday morning that said, “I wanted to give you a heads up that I am filing a dismissal in this case today.” No one from the Santa Fe District Attorney’s Office could immediately be reached.

    SFPD spokesman Greg Gurule said early Tuesday afternoon that the department was not aware of the District Attorney’s decision to dismiss the case.“The case remains under investigation there have been no additional arrests,” Gurule said in an email. “No suspects on the loose.”

  • DA Drops Murder Case

    Santa Fe, New Mexico. The prosecution is dropping its murder case against Zachary Gutierrez. On September 26, 64-year old Richard Milan, a resident of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was visiting his daughter in Santa Fe when he was shot in the leg while walking his small dog on Airport Road near Lucia Lane. He later died at the hospital.

    On October 6th, police arrested Gutierrez, age 17, and charged him with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence. He has been held in juvenile detention ever since. One day before the case was headed to the grand jury, however, defense attorney Steve Aarons produced video recordings of eyewitnesses who confirmed that Gutierrez was an innocent bystander, not the shooter. At 8:20 am, Heather Smallwood, Senior Trial Attorney, sent an email to Aarons stating that she “wanted to give a heads up” that she is “filing a dismissal in this case today.”

    We commend the prosecution, and Santa Fe Police Detectives, in reopening their investigation in light of new evidence. What is important now is to find the truth and prosecute the real shooter for this senseless murder. I was very happy to tell Zach and his family this morning that they are dropping the murder case against him.

  • Activist accused of drugging, raping two women in Seattle

    Originally published August 10, 2018 at 6:38 pm Updated August 10, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    By Lewis Kamb lkamb@seattletimes.com @lewiskamb
    Seattle Times staff reporter

    Redwolf Pope, 41, was charged Friday in King County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree rape of a yet-to-be-identified woman and a 33-year-old woman in 2016 and 2017.

    A purported Native-American activist and entrepreneur arrested in Arizona last month for allegedly drugging and raping a Washington woman in New Mexico in 2017 now faces more rape charges in King County, where authorities contend he raped at least two more women in his Seattle apartment.

    Redwolf Pope, 41, was charged Friday in King County Superior Court with two counts of second-degree rape of a yet-to-be-identified woman and a 33-year-old woman in 2016 and 2017.

    Videotapes recovered in June from Pope’s computer at an apartment where he sometimes resided in Santa Fe, New Mexico, allegedly show him separately raping several women who appear to be unconscious.

    One of those women later was identified as a Washington resident, 34, who told police in June she suspected Pope drugged and raped her during her visit to New Mexico in the summer of 2017. Pope was arrested in Arizona on a warrant in late July on suspicion of that alleged rape and related charges.

    This week, Seattle police alleged in a probable-cause affidavit that Pope also videotaped himself raping the two other women in his Capitol Hill apartment. Police linked images from time-stamped videos and photographs with pictures confiscated during a June 14 search of his Seattle apartment to help establish when and where the alleged rapes occurred, according to the affidavit.

    Pope’s bond has been set at $500,000 in King County, where arraignment has been set for Aug. 23.

    In a court filing, Pope, who remains jailed in Arizona, claimed the woman he is charging with raping in New Mexico was a former girlfriend whom he’d had consensual sex with after she’d been drinking.

    But a judge in Santa Fe County this week denied Pope’s motion to be released pending trial, and instead ordered Pope to be extradited to New Mexico by Aug. 24 to face charges there.

    Stephen D. Aarons, Pope’s Santa Fe attorney, said in a voice message late Friday he had just learned of the Seattle charges and could only speak to Pope’s denials filed in court in connection with the New Mexico charges.

    Pope, who has claimed Western Shoshone and Tlingit heritage, is an activist who has appeared as a spokesman for the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” to discuss Native-American perspectives on Thanksgiving. Last year, he gave a TEDx Talk in Seattle about taking part in oil-pipeline protests at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

    Pope’s LinkedIn page also describes him as a co-founder and chief executive for several tech startups, and it lists Pope as an attorney who has worked for the Tulalip Tribal Court since February 2012.

    But since his arrest last month, Pope’s heritage and resume have come under dispute. While Pope received a law degree from Seattle University, the Washington State Bar Association has confirmed he is not a licensed lawyer, and the Tulalip Tribes said he never worked as an attorney there.
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    Several tribes with Tlingit and Shoshone members also have said they’ve found no record of Pope’s enrollment, though it’s unclear whether he has claimed membership to any particular tribe.

    The sexual assault investigation of Pope emerged in early June, when a houseguest contacted Santa Fe police. The houseguest, a woman who sometimes stays at Pope’s apartments in Seattle and Santa Fe, said she and Pope’s roommate discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom of Pope’s Capitol Hill apartment. They took the device with them to Santa Fe, discovering that it contained multiple videos of the houseguest showering, according to court records.

    The woman later accessed Pope’s iPad, finding photographs of women and video files of Pope allegedly sexually assaulting several unconscious women, including a Washington woman she recognized.

    That 34-year-old woman, who had known and trusted Pope for years, later told a Seattle police detective she lost memory after Pope gave her a drink while giving her a ride in Santa Fe in 2017. She woke up the next morning in a hotel bed with Pope with her nylons missing, the charging records say.

    The detective’s affidavit filed in King County this week says the alleged victim told police Pope had given her a drink after giving her a ride from a party to his Seattle apartment in July 2017 — “the last thing she remembered” before waking up the next morning in Pope’s bed.

    The woman did not realize she had been raped until last month, when Seattle police showed her a photograph taken from Pope’s computer. The woman recognized herself, curled up into a ball and “immediately started to wail and cry,” the affidavit states.

    The affidavit said police have yet to identify Pope’s third alleged victim, who is identified only as “Jane Doe.” The records noted that “based on the bedding and the room” in the time-stamped video from November 2016 that depicts the woman’s sexual assault, the alleged crime also took place in Pope’s Seattle apartment.

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  • Native American activist denies rape accusations

    By MARY HUDETZ of the Associated Press

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A Native American activist has disputed accusations that he sexually assaulted unconscious women, saying in a New Mexico court filing that text messages, witness statements and other evidence will support his case against rape and other charges.

    Redwolf Pope, 41, said authorities wrongly suggested videos they obtained show him sexually assaulting females who appear to have been drugged.

    The videos represent recordings of consensual sex he had with former girlfriends in the past, which he kept in an encrypted file on his computer, according to the court filing submitted Friday.

    A warrant in Santa Fe charged Pope, who was arrested last week in Phoenix, with sexually assaulting females who appeared to have been slipped a date-rape drug and surreptitiously recording people at apartments in Santa Fe and Seattle. He had residences in both cities, police said.

    Jail records show Pope remains held in Phoenix. His attorney is seeking his release from jail, saying Pope has no prior criminal history and was on his way to Santa Fe to turn himself into authorities when he was arrested.

    A fugitive hearing for Pope is scheduled for Aug. 8 in Phoenix. One of his roommates reported she had found a small video camera in his Seattle apartment’s bathroom. She turned the camera’s memory card over to police after traveling to Santa Fe.

    Pope said he set up the recording devices in his apartments because roommates had stolen from him.

    Santa Fe police have reviewed about two dozen photographs and four videos in their investigation, authorities said.

    Meanwhile, Seattle police interviewed a woman in July who has been identified as one of the victims in the videos. She said she knew Pope, though not as a friend, and had trusted him in the past because of his standing in her tribe.

    The woman told police she encountered Pope at a party in Santa Fe in 2017 and woke up confused the next morning in a hotel room after he had given her an alcoholic iced tea beverage the night before.

    Pope said the woman was a former girlfriend.

    Pope appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News a decade ago to discuss Native American perspectives on Thanksgiving. The show identified his tribal affiliation as Western Shoshone.

    He also delivered a TEDx Talk in Seattle last year about oil pipeline protests at the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota.

    Organizers of the Seattle event described him as having served as a liaison to Native American elders, veterans and others during the 2016 demonstrations. They have removed the video of his talk in the past week from their website.

    “TEDxSeattle was shocked to learn of the criminal charges filed against RedWolf Pope in July 2018,” said a statement replacing the video. “We find the kind of acts alleged in the charges to be abhorrent.”

    Originally published July 31, 2018 at 11:39 am Updated August 1, 2018 at 10:01 am For original article: Seattle Times Article

  • A Chance For Change

    By Aaron Cantú, Santa Fe Reporter

    Nine years after his release from prison, Barron Jones has become a leading advocate for criminal justice reform in New Mexico.

    Following several years as a reporter for Española newspaper the Rio Grande Sun, he left for the ACLU of New Mexico in January to lead a project of his own. Now, Jones solicits input about criminal justice reform from people who have felt its effects, including both the formerly incarcerated and victims of crime.

    ACLU-NM’s Campaign for Smart Justice is part of a national effort by the organization to significantly reduce the number of people incarcerated in America, which is the highest in the world and costs about $1 trillion annually when factoring in social costs. Jones agrees that any serious effort at reform must include the perspectives of people who’ve been through the ringer.

    “The goal of the Smart campaign is to pressure [New Mexico] politicians by bringing folks to meetings to say how the system has impacted their lives,” Jones tells SFR. “How families are separated, how they can’t get employment, how their parents are in prison.”

    The ACLU is one group generating ideas for three interim meetings scheduled for mid-July, where two bipartisan legislative committees will discuss various ideas for an omnibus criminal justice reform bill. Some lawmakers believe the departure of Gov. Susana Martinez at the end of year represents the first opportunity in a long while to pass laws that would cut back some of the social costs of incarceration that lead to further imprisonment, and save the state money from not opening new prisons. For example, Martinez vetoed legislation to limit the use of solitary confinement and help former inmates get jobs.

    Rep. Antonio Maestas (D-Albuquerque), who co-chairs the interim Criminal Justice Reform Subcommittee, says the package is possibly the “first ever” major legislation of its kind in the state. It would implement various alternative-to-incarceration ideas like greater investments in diversion and rehabilitation programs for lower-level offenders, and would also address some of the collateral consequences of convictions, like the inability to find work, that lead to more crime and recidivism.

    “I think the big thing we must do is some sort of expungement law to give relief for folks with dings on their criminal history,” Maestas tells SFR by phone. “Once you pay your debt to society, you shouldn’t continually have to come into road blocks.”

    The state’s Sentencing Commission predicts New Mexico’s prison population will steadily increase by 14 percent through 2027. Prison facilities for men and women are already experiencing overcrowding today. New Mexico is also one of 16 states where at least 40 percent of people in state prison were convicted of property or drug offenses. Finding ways to intervene here is key to reform, says Paul Haidle, an attorney at the ACLU who studies consequences of convictions.

    “The answer is going to be either for us to build more prisons, or change how we’re incarcerating people,” Haidle says.

    A major driver of incarceration rates is actually incarceration itself, which hinders people from re-integrating into society in a number of ways. One online database funded partially by the federal Department of Justice lists at least 680 various consequences for a felony conviction in New Mexico.

    Many consequences are specific to licensed careers like law, medicine and nursing, dimming future career prospects. Obtaining things needed to run a business becomes essentially impossible. Other consequences directly affect more people than the convict; for example, the entire household of a person accused of fleeing to avoid felony prosecution or violating probation or parole can become ineligible for food stamps.

    Then there’s the whole social stigma surrounding a conviction, which can’t easily be legislated away. It makes it harder not only to find employment, but housing too.

    Senator Bill O’Neill (D-Albuquerque), an advisory member of the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Subcommittee, knows this well. Prior to his ongoing stint in the Legislature, he led the Dismas House transitional living program for formerly incarcerated people. In the early 2000s, the organization tried to buy a house for its anchor site in Santa Fe, on Richards Avenue near Walgreens, but NIMBY locals ran them out of town. The house is now in the North Valley of Albuquerque.

    “I think people need to understand that people are coming out of prison anyway,”  O’Neill tells SFR. “Ninety percent of inmates are released. Would you rather have them in supportive residential programs? … I think strongly that an investment in this would pay dividends, [and] it’s borne out in statistics in other states that have gone down this road.”

    Rep. Maestas says many of the provisions that could be included in the omnibus bill come from legislation that had already been passed but vetoed in the past. He’s especially adamant about disallowing the Motor Vehicles Department from suspending licenses for small traffic violations and failure to appear in court.

    “States throughout the country reject [the practice]; we don’t need prosecutors and cops and courts dealing with people who owe 50 bucks,” he says.

    Anybody with other good ideas can show up to the interim meetings at the Roundhouse July 16 through 18, or to a Smart justice program meeting at the Center for Progress and Justice on July 16 with Barron Jones. He especially invites both crime survivors and the accused to show up.

    “I believe folks who have had similar experiences as myself, they’ve fallen through the cracks,” Jones says. “Having their voices help us shape our legislative platform.”

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    New Mexico Expungement Lawyer

  • Five-Star Yelp Review

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    Mr. Aarons is an excellent attorney. We ran into a situation where we were in need of a top defense lawyer. Our entire life was turned upside down when my husband was wrongfully accused of a crime that had him facing over 87 years in prison. Mr. Aarons was prompt in getting us in for an initial appointment (same day we called). He showed up to every court date, answered every message/phone call, and email. He was sensitive to our needs and always reassured us that he was on our side and fighting his hardest for us. He filed motions to remove my husbands ankle bracelet and filed extensions when they were needed. He is a lawyer that knows his stuff and we know we can count on him. He has a great team, people that are friendly and proficient. Anytime we needed to speak to him in person he always made time (the afternoon on the day we called or the morning after). Anytime there was an update on the case I either got a text message or an email. He is a highly recommended (on our list) criminal lawyer. Mr. Aarons worked hard on our case, very professional, and always included us in all the decisions he made. After reviewing the case Mr.Aarons emailed back and fourth with the DA (and myself to keep us updated). My husband was offered a plea deal to serve 20years (80% of that time to be served, no good time, or time served) with no prior criminal history. Mr. Aarons refused the plea because he knew the case and knew that his client wasn’t guilty of the alleged crime. We put our trust into Mr. Aarons’ hands and eventually had our case dismissed. I strongly recommend Mr. Aarons to anyone that has a criminal case and wants a trustworthy, knowledgeable, friendly lawyer that will fight his hardest, put in effort, and keep you updated on your case.

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