We’re all for innocent until proven guilty. Some actions by people charged with crimes leave a reasonable person to jump to conclusions but our legal system is based on several principals that for a couple hundred years has served us well.
When Judicial District 9 District Attorney Andrea Reeb says she didn’t get a fair opportunity to prosecute Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan in Tierra Amarilla, most Norteños would not question that.
Convicting people in Rio Arriba County is notoriously difficult. Heck, in the case of Mario Valdez being charged with shooting and killing Fernando Martinez in Chamita last March, he never even made it to trial. There wasn’t enough evidence or reliable witnesses to get Valdez past a pretrial hearing.
Reeb at least had enough evidence to get Lujan past pretrial. However, getting past a Rio Arriba County jury is something completely different. In pretrial a judge is hearing evidence and making a decision whether there is enough to move forward with a trial.
A sitting jury throws all kinds of wild cards into the mix. In Lujan’s case we must start with his son’s buddy from high school being allowed on the jury. Juan Diego Montoya was selected even though it was established he is good friends with Lujan’s son Brandon.
Who sits behind Montoya through the whole trial? Brandon Lujan.
Let’s take it up a notch and consider Montoya, all of 20 years old, with all his life experience, is made jury foreman. Normally, you’d question why a group of adults would make a 20-year-old kid foreman but no doubt the 12 of them got in that deliberation room and all shouted “not it!” at the same time.
We made a snide remark on the front page of the June 3 edition. “Think about being a juror and being stopped by a deputy,” we wrote. Seriously, think about that.
One juror told Reeb after the trial she was just scared to convict Lujan. He’s the sheriff, the juror said. It’s difficult to vote to convict an elected official with the power to arrest, detain and make your life miserable in your own county.
Another problem Reeb encountered was unprofessionalism by Rio Arriba County deputies. Here we’ll start with someone, no guessing who, instructed the two rent-a-cops running the metal detector that when Reeb’s investigator enters the building, give him as much hassle as policy allows.
Lujan claims the error was he thought Reeb’s investigator was a Taos County deputy. So the lesson here is it’s OK to be childish and petty enough to hassle a Taos County deputy.
Deputies having a barbecue in the parking lot is a head-scratcher. Clearly most of them don’t understand the gravity of the situation and they lack common sense. However, Lujan sure didn’t get out there and explain to them how it was a trial, not a tailgate affair. Again, poor leadership trickles down into the ranks.
As is always the case, there’s some good people in the Sherrif’s Office. We believe most of them just want to do their jobs and leave the politics to someone else. Others are blindly loyal, which comes from years of manipulation.
Reeb is correct to attempt to move the case and retry it. Dirty politicians are rarely locked up here. Charles Maestas would be the last one in recent history and his conviction was overturned. Tommy Rodella was convicted and serving time but that was federal, a whole different process and rules.
Finding a jury in Rio Arriba County composed of members with no connection to the Sheriff, his upper staff or even deputies is impossible. As it stood, several people were on the jury who knew what had happened and/or knew Lujan or some of his loyal insiders. They just didn’t respond honestly to voi dire.
Reeb said it all when she told us last week, “Why not try it out in the eastern plains where nobody knows anybody?” That’s an unbiased jury, which you won’t find in Tierra Amarilla.