New Mexico State Police officers arrested an Albuquerque man on Feb. 17 after finding the vehicle he was driving had been reported as stolen, but charges were not filed until two days later, while the accused man sat in jail.
State Police Officer Frank Martinez charged Curtis Trujillo, 47, with one count of receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle.
Martinez and his field training officer Marcus Lopez were driving on U.S. Highway 96 when he saw a blue Jaguar driving in the opposite lane without a license plate, he wrote in a criminal complaint for Trujillo’s arrest.
“As we turned around, we noticed the Jaguar attempted to avoid us by quickly pulling into Boat Ramp Road at Abiquiú Lake,” Martinez wrote. “We spotted the vehicle parked near a camping restroom and observed a male and female exiting the vehicle.”
After having both people put their hands on the hood of the patrol car, they had dispatchers run the vehicle identification number (VIN), he wrote.
“Dispatch advised the vehicle was reported as a stolen vehicle out of Albuquerque and later confirmed the vehicle was stolen through Albuquerque Police Department,” Martinez wrote.
Martinez then arrested Trujillo who said he bought the car from his brother for $1,500, but he still owed him $500 and that he’d had the car for a month. A towing company picked up the car, the woman with Trujillo was picked up by a family member and he was taken to the Tierra Amarilla Detention Center.
Martinez did not file the court case until two days later, Feb. 19. Rio Arriba County Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid ordered Trujillo released on his own recognizance on Feb. 20.
Nothing in the court record indicates why Martinez, or his field training officer, Lopez, waited two days to file the criminal complaint against Trujillo, while he sat in jail.