Early voting in underway in Rio Arriba County and voters will have their choice between five candidates in the race sheriff.
Current Sheriff Lorenzo Aguilar is running against three opponents in the Democratic primary: former undersheriff Monica Salazar, Manuel Valdez and Marvyn Jaramillo.
Whoever wins this race will compete with the sole Republican candidate, Robert Vigil, in the November General Election.
Aguilar became sheriff after the April 2025 death of then-sheriff Billy Merrifield, who was elected in 2022. Valdez and Jaramillo ran against Merrifield in that race.
Although Salazar was immediately sworn in as sheriff by Chief First Judicial District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid, after Merrifield’s death, the Rio Arriba County Commission replaced her with Aguilar in a special meeting the following day. At the time, Aguilar was a major in the department.
There are several issues all five candidates agreed on, such as the need to provide 24/7 coverage and proactive patrols in the most rural parts of the county to deter crime and drug before it occurs. They want to see the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office fully staffed and to bring up the pay of all deputies and personnel.
Lorenzo Aguilar
Aguilar said the appointment by the commission completely caught him off guard.
“I wasn’t expecting to be appointed,” he said. “This whole last year has been a lot because I’ve had to pick up a lot of the pieces and put the team back together. I’m honored that they chose me to lead the sheriff’s office and I feel that I have the ability to change the culture within the sheriff’s office.”
According to a recent article in the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office failed to record, and lost, body cam footage from three deputies who responded to a May 911 call from Brittany Serna.
Serna called 911 after her former partner, Brandon Trujillo, punched a wall and vehicle window near her children. Trujillo was accused of child abuse and domestic violence, but the First Judicial District Court dropped charges against him due to lack of body cam footage, the article said.
When asked about the article, Aguilar said that he came into a department that had outdated, or completely lacked, even basic policies like one for body worn cameras.
Improving internal polices has been a major focus of his year in office.
“Policy is the biggest thing that was not addressed in the previous administration, they were never completed as far as, like, specialty teams or body worn cameras,” Aguilar said. “The policies that we had were outdated. So that was the first thing I started to work on.”
A body worn camera policy has now been completed, he said.
“It’s in legal for review because, of course, we all want to make sure we’re within our legal scope, and then it will be sent off to commission for approval.”
Aguilar has also been focusing on community engagement, something he said he wants to continue if he gets elected.
He recently hired a community engagement specialist and he eventually wants to start a citizen’s advisory group to the Sheriff’s Office.
“Each different community has different issues, and I want to be aware of what issues this community is facing to see how we can address public safety in those communities,” he said. “This (community engagement specialist) is going to be very, very important to the sheriff’s office.”
He has also started working more closely with Ohkay Owingeh. In March, he swore in six Ohkay Owingeh officers as sworn deputies in the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office. This will allow them to continue working on drug cases that occur both on and off the Pueblo, he said.
Robert Vigil
Vigil is concerned with the growing gap between the public and law enforcement, especially the lack of transparency in the current administration.
The case with the missing and lost body cam footage is unacceptable, he said.
“I don’t believe that the sheriff’s department is being totally transparent as to what happened to those videos,” he said. “I think the public deserves to know. Accountability, just the same, right? If those videos were lost, whoever lost those videos in that department needs to be held accountable. There’s a state law that requires law enforcement officers who are dealing with the public record, and if they didn’t record, then that needs to be addressed immediately.”
Vigil has a long history in law enforcement. He started at the Cuba Police Department before joining the Española Police Department in 2008. Over the next 10 years, he worked as a DUI officer, as well as an undercover narcotics officers with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He joined the sheriff’s office in 2018 where he worked as a school resource officer and was promoted to sergeant. Afterward, he joined the Santa Fe Police Department.
One of Vigil’s passions is protecting children, something he said stems from being a single father. While at the sheriff’s office, he said he helped open the county’s first child advocacy center.
“Anytime you deal with a child as a victim, it’s hard to deal with,” he said. “I just feel like as sheriff and as a community, we all have a responsibility, and we owe this to the kids. We owe them a chance in life and, you know, I think opening this child advocacy center would give them that chance, or at least help give them that chance.”
If elected, he would also like to start an Alternative Response Unit that specializes in responding to social service and behavioral health-related calls. He also wants to implement a three-zone system where deputies would be assigned to specific areas to increase community members’ familiarity and engagement with them.
Vigil said he is not a MAGA Republican and instead described himself as more moderate. He wants people to vote for the best person for the job, not for the party.
Monica Salazar
Salazar started her law enforcement career with the Los Alamos Police Department, where she worked from 2007 to 2018. While there, she said she was targeted by her superiors for speaking up about things like sexual harassment, time fraud and other problems within the department. She served as the police union’s vice president.
She was terminated after admitting to sharing information with a reporter about an unsolved robbery case, she said.
According to a 2020 Los Alamos Reporter article, Salazar settled a lawsuit against Los Alamos County and the Los Alamos Police Department for $212,500 for sex discrimination.
Salazar went on to work at the Española Police Department before Merrifield reached out to her to become the undersheriff.
If she wins, Salazar will be the first female sheriff in county history.
Her perspective and approach to the job as a woman does set her apart, she said.
She and Merrifield had an open door policy, she said, something she hears from other deputies no longer exists.
“They say now everything is like a big secret,” she said. “The doors are always closed and everyone’s behind closed-door meetings about stuff that nobody ever knows about.”
It is a lack of communication, she said.
She wants to change the experience for the deputies and points to some of her accomplishments while working with Merrifield. This includes things like getting deputies on a “good schedule” and trying to increase their pay.
She understands that the county cannot afford to pay what other law enforcement agencies pay, but said they were able to raise deputy pay from $22 to $31.50 per hour.
“The county can’t afford sometimes to pay what surrounding agencies do, but if you are able to offer the guys other things, making them feel like they are part of a family, making them feel like you care about them, that they can come to you with any problem whether it’s a personal problem or a professional problem, I think that’s why we were fully staffed and had a list of people who wanted to work with us,” she said.
Marvyn Jaramillo
Jaramillo said there is drug activity and crime in rural areas, and throughout his campaign, people have told him they need help and shorter response times.
“When I’ve been in these small communities, they’re talking about not seeing any (deputies), they’re not getting any services in … the rural areas,” he said. “When you end up talking in these rural areas, they do discuss there is drug dealers and there’s drug users.”
Jaramillo has two decades of experience in law enforcement and is a retired sergeant from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. He is also a combat veteran who served in the New Mexico National Guard for 26 years, served as the president of his ditch association for more than 15 years and has worked with the National School Board Association (NSBA) for 15 years.
This, along with his experience as a fourth-term member of the Mesa Vista Consolidated Schools Board of Education, has taught him how to go to the state legislature to secure Capital Outlay funds and get grant funding. He wants to do this to increase income for the sheriff’s office.
“I do have experience in regard to implementing policies, I do understand budget, I understand procurement,” he said. “I guess at the end of the day, you can say I’m well-rounded because of the different entities I’ve been tied to.”
He wants deputies to spend more time in the field, and for this reason, he supports a regional detention facility in Española. He also wants to hold more town hall meetings throughout the county to increase transparency between the sheriff’s office and community.
Manuel Valdez
Valdez started as an emergency medical technician with Rio Arriba County in 1981 before becoming an officer with the Española Police Department. He then worked in Corrales and went on to work at the sheriff’s department until 2010.
If elected, Valdez wants to focus on creating prevention programs for youth and combating the drug problem.
He said he would work with the county commission, city of Española and the area pueblos to create these programs to prevent youth from “going down the path of crime.”
Valdez also supports a regional jail in Española, but wants to keep the Rio Arriba County Jail open in Tierra Amarilla so people can keep their jobs.
County residents pay taxes and they deserve to get the same services as others, he said. He wants to increase patrols in rural areas and will work with the commission on the sheriff’s office budget.
He said he knows there are good people in the county and the sheriff’s office needs to try and combat the use of drugs and crime.
“I know that we’re not going to be able to completely, you know, wipe it out, but at least, you know, try to make dent in it, and you know, hopefully present something that the people can look forward to,” he said.
Early voting began Wednesday (5/5). Voters can request an absentee ballot or vote in person from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Española Clerk’s Office, 112 Calle Don Diego or the Tierra Amarilla Clerk’s Office, #7 Main St/10 State Road 531, Tierra Amarilla.
The primary election is scheduled for June 2. This is the first semi-open primary election in New Mexico. Voters who are registered as Independent and Declined-to-State can choose which party primary to cast their ballot. Voters registered with a specific party will continue to vote in that primary. For more information, contact the county clerk’s office at 753-1780 or 575-588-7724.