An Española man was released from custody, after prosecutors tried to get him held without bail, in a case where he allegedly tried to drive a truck that had blocked him in on private property.
Mark Alcala, 52, is charged in district court with three counts of resisting arrested and one count each of aggravated DWI seventh offense and assault on an officer.
Alcala agreed to waive a preliminary hearing and prosecutors agreed that he could be released. District Judge Anastasia Martin ordered him to report to pre-trial services in Santa Fe within 24 hours of his release from the Tierra Amarilla jail on Oct. 16.
Among the conditions of his release are to be on a monitor that checks if the person wearing it is drinking, according to court documents.
Alcala was initially arrested on Sept. 29 and then ordered released on Oct. 16, after he waived a preliminary hearing.
He was subsequently arraigned in district court on Nov. 10, where he pleaded not guilty, with a jury trial tentatively set for April 6, 2026.
Blocked in
The initial call to dispatchers came in on Sept. 29, where Deputy John Greene found Isaac Chavez had blocked in a car that drove onto his property. He was reporting an “unwanted person” Greene wrote in court documents.
Chavez told Greene that he didn’t know who the people in the car were, but he made sure to block them in on his property with his truck, to prevent them from getting away, Greene wrote.
Greene did not write why Alcala and the unnamed driver of the car he was in, were on the property or if they were accused of anything other than driving onto Chavez’s property.
Chavez left his truck running and Alcala allegedly got out of the car and got into the truck, so Chavez took the keys out, Greene wrote.
Alcala allegedly told Greene that he was going to move the truck blocking him and the driver of the car in, but he couldn’t figure it out and that he had been taking drugs and was high. Greene had Alcala get out of the car so his unnamed friend could leave, at which point Alcala, unable to balance, fell to the ground, Greene wrote.
As Greene tried to “assist” Alcala to the ambulance to get checked out, Alcala allegedly started to get violent, grabbing Greene’s arm, trying to push him away and yelling at him.
Greene forced Alcala to the ground and handcuffed him, then took him to his unit. Once there, Alcala wrapped his legs around Greene’s, refusing to get into the patrol car.
He refused to consent to any drug tests. Greene took him to the Española hospital, he wrote.
Greene then got a search warrant for Alcala’s blood, to check his blood-alcohol level, although Alcala told him that he would not let them draw blood and Greene and hospital security had to hold him down so they could draw it.
“Once we had Mr. Alcala restrained, he turned his head and tried and bite (sic) my forearm,” Greene wrote. “I used my forearm, placing against Mr. Alcala’s jaw and turning his head to prevent him from biting me.”
An unnamed nurse brought in a portable alcohol breath test machine and asked for a sample, which Alcala gave.
She held the tester “in a way that I could see the results,” a blood-alcohol level of 0.20, over twice the legal per se limit of 0.08, Greene wrote.
At the sheriff’s office, before he was taken to the Tierra Amarilla jail, Alcala allegedly tried to break free of his handcuffs, Greene wrote.
While Greene finished his paperwork, Chavez called him and said his cameras didn’t record anything, but he would testify in court and fill out a statement.