Española City Police Officers charged a 24-year-old Española man with receiving stolen property, a firearm, on Feb. 14 following a call about a “holographic vehicle and individuals consuming alcohol around the vehicle” in front of McDonald’s.
Officer Andrew O’Hara wrote in a criminal complaint for Joel Mondragon’s arrest that when he arrived, no one was around the vehicle. Inside were a man and woman. The woman appeared to be intoxicated.
Officer James Quintana “removed the driver from the vehicle,” but O’Hara did not write what reason Quintana had for forcibly removing the man. O’Hara then searched the inside of the car and saw a pistol on the rear seats. He picked it up and unloaded it and had dispatchers run it through the system, he wrote.
The gun came back as stolen out of Albuquerque. He asked the driver and the passenger if it was their gun, which both denied, saying that it belonged to “Joel.”
“The male driver stated Joel left a little while ago and he was going to call him and tell him to come back,” O’Hara wrote. “Joel stepped out of a vehicle parked behind the incident area and approached the investigation area.”
O’Hara asked Mondragon if the gun, which he placed on the roof of the car, was his, and Mondragon allegedly said it was, and was a gift from his grandfather who got it from his uncle, O’Hara wrote.
O’Hara then arrested Mondragon on the receiving stolen property charge.
He filed the criminal complaint the following day and Mondragon was first seen in court, and released on his personal recognizance by Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid, on Feb. 17.
A status conference is set for later in March.