An Española woman is facing a felony charge of battery on a healthcare worker after she allegedly spit at a paramedic.
Española City Police Officer Dustin Chavez charged Octaviana Martinez, 19, after officers were called to a report of two people arguing on Nov. 21 in a front yard on Calle de Rio, Chavez wrote in a criminal complaint.
When officers arrived at the house, a man was in the driver’s seat of a car, waving his hands, while Martinez was in the seat behind him, lunging toward him, screaming, “Why don’t you love me anymore, and why don’t you love me,” Chavez wrote.
Officers demanded Martinez step away from the car and she refused, so they handcuffed her and called an ambulance to check her for injuries. When medics arrived and tried to get her into the back of the ambulance, she allegedly spit on medic Ricardo Cordova and “continued to resist in an angry manner” after officers put her in the back of a patrol car.
Chavez then arrested her for battery on a healthcare worker and took her to the hospital to be cleared for incarceration.
Three days later, Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo ordered Martinez released on her personal recognizance.
A status conference is set for Dec. 17.
She has no prior arrest record in New Mexico.