A 19-year-old Ohkay Owingeh man has been charged for allegedly driving off the road and into a tree with an underage girl in the car and crashing, resulting in serious injuries.
New Mexico State Police Officer Hunter Griego charged Ivan Orozco-Rodriguez with great bodily harm by vehicle while intoxicated and child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.
Griego wrote in a criminal complaint for Orozco-Rodriguez’s arrest that on Aug. 15, he was called to the scene of a crash on County Road 56 and State Road 74. When he got there, Orozco-Rodriguez was screaming outside of the vehicle, surrounded by friends and family, while the girl was being strapped onto a backboard. Griego did not write the age of the girl in court documents, just noting that she is under 18.
He wrote that there were multiple open containers of alcohol in the trunk of the 2005 Subaru. Orozco-Rodriguez had a head wound that was “bleeding profusely,” so he did not do any field sobriety tests. The officer was called to the scene at 11:33 p.m.
Griego asked Orozco-Rodriguez if he had been drinking, noting slurred speech, a smell of alcohol and the man swaying from side to side. Orozco-Rodriguez allegedly said he had been drinking earlier in the day with the girl and her friend, also a minor, around 2 or 3 p.m. and they shared a drink while at the mall.
He allegedly said that the crash happened because he got distracted when he tried to kiss the girl, he wrote.
Griego wrote that Orozco-Rodriguez lied about the timeline because his mother said he left the house at 5 p.m. to go to Santa Fe.
Griego rode with both of them to the hospital. The girl fell in and out of consciousness and was screaming that it was “not his fault,” Griego wrote.
“(The victim) was very agitated with my presence at the beginning and eventually kept reaching for my hand for comfort,” he wrote. “(The victim) was also screaming that it was ‘both of their faults’ for the crash.”
The girl said that it felt like her heart has been penetrated by a bone or she was having severe heart burn, he wrote.
At the hospital, doctors found the girl had a “sterna fracture.”
Orozco-Rodriguez agreed to a blood test, although the results do not appear to have been completed.
Griego than arrested Orozco-Rodriguez after he was released from the hospital.
He was released on Aug. 18 on his own recognizance. A status conference is set for Sept. 10.
The only other state case for him is from April, when he was charged with speeding 16-20 mph over the limit.