New Mexico State Police officers charged two men for allegedly attacking an off-duty Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy, after he confronted one of them about speeding through a low-income housing subdivision.
The man who allegedly started the fracas, James Torrez, 43, of Alcalde, is facing a charge of battery on a peace officer. He allegedly started the problems by speeding, while the off-duty deputy’s children played in the street, and then telling the off-duty deputy “(expletive) your kids and to take them off the streets,” pushed him and said that he would “slap the (expletive)” out of Deputy Joey Graves, who was wearing his badge and gun at the time, State Police Officer Hunter Griego wrote in a criminal complaint.
Griego charged James Torrez’s brother, Martin Torrez, 45, of Petaca, with disarming an officer and aggravated battery of an officer, allegedly with Graves’s own gun.
Both men are set to appear in Española Magistrate Court on Wednesday (11/12), Martin Torrez for a status conference and James Torrez for a preliminary hearing.
The Incident
State Police dispatchers got a call on Sept. 11 to go to a housing complex off of County Road 175 for a fight involving an off-duty deputy. When they got there, they found Graves, with a “golf ball-sized bump on his head” along with cuts and bruises on his face, Griego wrote.
Graves told Griego he was off duty, watching his kids play in the street, when James Torrez came speeding down the road, then parked at his neighbor’s house. Graves has an agreement with the housing management that he deals with situations in the community, he wrote.
Graves walked to his neighbor’s house to confront James Torrez, who allegedly pushed him, and the two ended up on the ground, grappling with each other. The brother, Martin Torrez, then ran up and started beating Graves, Griego wrote.
“Joey mentioned that he felt someone tugging on his duty weapon and noticed he was hit in the face with his gun repeatedly,” he wrote. “Joey explained that the beating stopped when another tenant intervened, stopping the fight. Joey retrieved his duty gun from a neighbor who also assisted in breaking up the fight.”
Griego talked to James Torrez, who had cuts and bruises on his face and he allegedly “admitted” to telling Graves to “keep them in his yard” and that after Graves confronted him, he closed his door in Graves’s face, he wrote.
“Joey said something, and James T. decided to open the door to be a ‘smart ass,’ Griego wrote. “James T. stated that Joey threw the first punch when James T. lost his cool and dragged Joey outside the house, fighting Joey to the ground. James T.’s brother Martin stepped in to help James T., explaining that Martin had run away because he had outstanding warrants.”
A witness told Griego that he helped break up the fight. He got out of the shower and was getting dressed when he heard a commotion outside and saw the fight and tried to break them up. His stepfather took the gun from Martin Torrez, Griego wrote.
Another witness, a 12-year-old child, told Griego that James Torrez was the one who started the fight as he “slapped Joey for no reason” and that James Torrez was the one who was hitting Graves with the gun, Griego wrote.
“AR stated that Joey was ‘screaming, getting all bloody,’” he wrote.
Another witness said she saw Martin Torrez holding the gun in his hand and saw Olivas take it from him, but did not say that she saw Martin Torrez beating him with the gun, he wrote.
One person told Griego that the brothers were on top of Graves, beating him, and Martin Torrez was beating him with the gun, holding it by the barrel, “pistol-whipping him,” Griego wrote.
While James Torrez was arrested at the scene, Martin Torrez fled because he was wanted on a warrant. He was arrested on Oct. 12 and was released on his personal recognizance and ordered to report to pre-trial services.
James Torrez was ordered held on a $5,000 bond, which was then downgraded to his own recognizance.
Drug case
Martin Torrez was arrested on the warrant on Oct. 12. Deputies stopped the truck he was in after they spotted him in the passenger seat, and “white rock” fell from his left pant leg. Deputies suspected it to be fentanyl, leading to a charge of possession of a controlled substance.