Former North Central Solid Waste Authority employee Peter Velarde will be held without bail after he waived a dangerousness hearing in a case where he was charged for allegedly ramming his ex-wife’s car with his truck.
Velarde, 39, of Hernandez, was driving a trash truck on Nov. 22, 2022, when his colleague, on the back, died after his leg was run over by a vehicle. Velarde then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the North Central Solid Waste Trash Authority, alleging he was fired for talking to federal investigators. His whistleblower lawsuit is still pending.
In July, he was charged with stealing a man’s truck in Española, charges that prosecutors dropped, citing the need for “further investigation.”
Prosecutors filed to have Velarde held without bail on Sept. 3, following the alleged Sept. 1 attack on his ex-wife, where deputies recovered a pistol and bullets.
Velarde waived his right to the evidentiary hearing and agreed to be held without bail pending trial on Sept. 15. His attorney, public defender Mary McCleary, wrote that he reserves his right to challenge being held without bail at a later time.
The same day, Velarde also waived his right to a preliminary hearing, a type of mini-trial, where the judge would have decided what charges to bind him over to in District Court.
In exchange for waiving the preliminary hearing, prosecutors agreed to dismiss one count of tampering with evidence, McCleary wrote in the waiver.
Velarde will be bound over on charges of aggravated battery against a household member, child abuse, criminal damage to property over $1,000, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated stalking.
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Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Diaz wrote in a criminal complaint for Velarde’s arrest that he was sent to County Road 140 for a report of a vehicle collision and threats with a firearm, reported by Velarde’s ex-wife.
He talked to her on the phone as he headed to the scene and she told him Velarde rammed the back of her car with his truck multiple times, pulled alongside her car, was shouting profanities and “continued to act aggressively,” Diaz wrote.
She told Diaz that Velarde previously asked her via Facebook to buy .380-caliber ammunition. Deputies found .380 bullets when they searched him and his girlfriend, Melody Honyumptewa, told them she was with Velarde and he rammed his ex-wife’s car repeatedly. Deputies then arrested her on tribal warrants.
Deputies later found a pistol hidden in a wood pile and then charged him, Diaz wrote.