An 18-year-old Los Alamos man is facing charges of child abuse for allegedly driving drunk with three juveniles in his car.
Española City Police Officer Andrew O’Hara charged Xzander Pacheco with DUI, reckless driving and three counts of child abuse on Feb. 22, after he spotted him driving without lights at 11:02 p.m., “going in and out of the Westbound travel lane” on Fairview Lane, O’Hara wrote in a criminal complaint.
He pulled over Pacheco and could smell alcohol on his breath and noted bloodshot, watery eyes. Three other people were in his car, leading to the child abuse charges. Two are 16-years-old and one is 17-years-old.
After pulling him over, O’Hara had Pacheco do a series of field sobriety tests, which he deemed to have not done well on, before he arrested him on the drunk driving, child abuse and reckless driving charges.
Pacheco agreed to a breath test and his blood-alcohol level on both tests came back as 0.05.
The legal per se limit for adults 21 and over is 0.08, but for anyone under 21 the per se limit is 0.02.
Pacheco was released on his personal recognizance on Feb. 24. A status conference is set for April 16.
Pacheco has no prior history with the New Mexico court system.