Rio Arriba County Detention Center interim jail administrator Adeline Martinez made headlines in June when a photo appeared in the Rio Grande SUN showing her in uniform, sleeping at a desk. Now, she’s in the news again, this time because she’s been named the new RACDC leader.
A hiring panel of five County employees chose Martinez out of the six people who applied for the jail administrator position. One of those five people who conducted interviews was Brandon Redwine, the jail’s union president and a subordinate of Martinez.
Whether Redwine’s presence on the panel was a conflict of interest given his working relationship with Martinez, who is also a union member, did not appear to be a concern of anyone responsible for the hiring decision.
“After conducting the interviews and hearing each applicants (sic) background experience and knowledge of the operations of the center, the panel felt that Ms. Martinez was the right choice to continue the proper operations of the detention center,” County Manager Jeremy Maestas wrote in an email inquiring about Martinez’s selection.
Martinez is a union member and has worked at the jail since October 2014, and has been a supervisor since July 2016.
When asked who would be on the hiring panel, County Human Resources Manager Jessica Madrid did not originally include Redwine’s name on the list. She did not respond to a later email inquiring who chose Redwine to be on the panel and whether his presence was a conflict of interest.
The SUN forwarded those questions to Maestas, who was also a member of the hiring panel. In his email reply, he wrote that Redwine was chosen because he was available on the day of the interviews and that he felt it was right to include a jail employee on the panel so they could have input on who would lead their department.
“I had reached out to the detention center and asked if there was a supervisor on duty who would be willing to sit on the committee, and Mr. Redwine was the supervisor on duty at the time and kindly agreed to do it, and was extremely thankful for the opportunity,” Maestas wrote.
The decision was not related to his union duties.
“To my knowledge, having someone from the union sit on the interview panel is not only acceptable, unions prefer it and often request that to happen,” he wrote.
Other members of the hiring panel included Deputy County Manager Linda Padilla, Daniel Archuleta and Dennis Gallegos. Madrid was also involved in the interview process.
Pay and history
As permanent jail administrator, Martinez will receive an annual salary of $80,695.35 and be an exempt employee, which means she will not be eligible to receive overtime pay. The SUN previously reported on June 12 that Martinez received at least $20,000 in overtime pay between September 2024 and May 2025.
During this time, someone took a photo of Martinez at the jail with her feet propped on a desk with her eyes closed. According to the photo data, it was taken on April 22.
An email was sent to Maestas inquiring about the photo and asking him to confirm whether it was Martinez. Maestas replied and said it was Martinez and that he was going to look into it. A follow-up email asking if he looked into the matter was sent on June 10.
“Yes I did look into the matter further, and I am in the process of addressing it. Thanks,” he responded.
An Inspection of Public Records Request sent to the county asking for all correspondence between Martinez, Maestas and Moises Peña between May 1 and July 1 revealed an email from Maestas to Martinez on May 23 in which he said, “This photo was sent to me yesterday, and was the one that I had spoken to you about over the phone. Can you provide me with some justification as to what was going on here? As you are well aware this type of behavior is not acceptable during the time that officers are on duty. Based off of what I was able to see was that this photo was taken on April 22nd. Please provide some justification. Thank you.”
Martinez responded via email and said the photo was taken in the case manager’s office.
“I have not worked in that office since August of 2024,” she wrote. “In April I was night shift supervisor and did not have access to this office. I agree that this is unacceptable behavior and I may have been working a 24 hour shift at this point. I guarantee that there is no place in this business to have that happen, I sincerely apologize and I guarantee that this will never happen again.”
Maestas responded via email with “thank you” and there was no further email correspondence about the issue.
Prior to this hiring decision, Martinez served two stints as the jail’s interim administrator.
The first was when the previous administrator Jose Gallegos was on Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave in August 2024. Gallegos was terminated on May 8, after which Martinez was again appointed interim administrator.
Martinez has worked at the jail for 11 years, according to the resume she submitted when she applied for the permanent position.
She worked as a detention recruit for about three months before she became an officer. After about 18 months as an officer, she became a supervisor in July 2016.
Other candidates
The five other candidates who were not chosen for the administrator position include James Culin, a County employee who has worked at the jail for 19 years; Camilo Romero, a former police officer, car salesman and current CEO of a security guard company; Moises Peña, the deputy jail administrator; Philip Gallegos, an employee at Tractor Supply Company in Pagosa Spring, Colo.; and Ron Carillo, the owner of Carillo’s Cool Ice in Chama.