Prosecutors have dismissed felony child abuse charges and a misdemeanor count of battery against a household member brought by New Mexico State Police against a Vadito woman, for attacking her boyfriend while he was driving with his 2-year-old son in the car.
State Police Officer Nathaniel Garcia arrested Desiree Quintana, 28, on the two charges on May 23, the day of the incident.
A little less than a month later, on June 18, prosecutor Kent Wahlquist dismissed the charges without prejudice, citing further investigation, and despite a report from pre-trial services that Quintana never reported to them as required by the conditions of her release.
The case could be brought to district court by a grand jury indictment, Wahlquist wrote.
Garcia wrote in a statement of probable cause for Quintana’s arrest that officers were sent at 8:51 p.m. May 23 to U.S. Highway 84/285 at County Road 115 for a report of a man and woman fighting, and that the woman was lying on the ground, screaming that the man was going to shoot her.
State Police and Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene, where they pulled the alleged victim out of his car and handcuffed him, and a short time later, deputies found Quintana down the road and brought her to the scene, Garcia wrote.
Quintana told officers that she went with her boyfriend, the alleged victim, to Walmart. She refused to go inside the store, this upset him and he spent two hours inside. When he came back, he was acting weird and agitated because he couldn’t find his pipe and was “acting dumb” in front of his 2-year-old son, in the back, in a car seat. From there, he allegedly tried to grab and kiss her while he drove down Fairview Lane and hit her four times in the face. She kicked him and then opened the car door and rolled out of the moving vehicle.
Garcia wrote that Quintana smelled like alcohol, her eyes were bloodshot and watery and she said she drank half a pint of Jim Beam.
Next Garcia talked to the alleged victim, who said they went to Walmart to get groceries and Quintana was drinking in the car. As they were leaving, she “became verbally aggressive, referencing his son’s mother,” which upset him and led to an argument. They drove off together and near the Speedway gas station, Quintana allegedly punched him in the face repeatedly while he was driving and climbed on top of him. He pulled over to a rest area, and she started kicking the windshield, Garcia wrote.
“(The victim) stated that he remained in the driver’s seat and pushed her out of the vehicle to get her to stop,” Garcia wrote. “He said she exited the vehicle while the door was still open, and then he drove approximately 50 yards down the road.”
The victim had a bloody and swollen lower lip, scratches on the left side of his face and a scratched right forearm, including dried blood, Garcia wrote.
The officer determined Quintana to be the primary aggressor and that the man’s injuries were consistent with his version of events. He charged Quintana with child abuse because she attacked her boyfriend while he was driving, with the 2-year-old in the back seat.
“This reckless behavior created a substantial risk of causing an accident, thereby endangering the child’s safety and well-being,” Garcia wrote.
Los Alamos Magistrate Judge Catherine Taylor released Quintana on her own recognizance with a stipulation that she was to have no contact with the victim or his son and ordered her to report to pre-trial services, which she never did, per a pre-trial services report.
When officers tried to call the number she gave, a man answered and told them it was the wrong number.
Following a status conference and a hearing to review the conditions of her release, Wahlquist dismissed the case on June 18, according to court records.
Quintana was charged with false imprisonment, battery against a household member and disorderly conduct in 2017.
That case was pleaded down to the disorderly conduct charge, according to court records.