Pojoaque Pueblo Lt. Gov. Linda Diaz was indicted June 10 in federal court for allegedly leaving the scene of an accident that killed a pedestrian, according to court documents.
The body of 31-year-old Phillip Espinoza, of Chimayó, was found the morning of April 4 just outside the northbound lanes of Highway 84/285 near the intersection of State Road 503. Diaz allegedly struck Espinoza with her 2000 Mercury that morning and left the scene of the accident. She turned herself into the Pojoaque Tribal Police the following day and told them she did “something very bad,” according to a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department report. Diaz was not arrested at the time.
Diaz is now being charged in federal court because she is a tribal member. She was not charged with involuntary manslaughter by vehicle, which would have required prosecutors prove she was either driving drunk or recklessly. No reports released on the incident have indicated that Diaz had been drinking or whether Espinoza was walking on or off the road.
“When the two witnesses to an accident include the defendant and a person who died, it’s sometimes tough to prove recklessness or DWI,” United States Attorney Greg Fouratt said. “You can ask yourself what the passage of time does to someone’s blood alcohol level and what effect the absence of proof would have on a prosecutor’s decisions.”
By the time Diaz turned herself in, too much time had passed to make her blood alcohol concentration test results useful to the investigation. Fouratt said any circumstantial evidence that Diaz was drinking before the accident would not be sufficient to charge her with an alcohol-related crime.
Diaz’s attorney, Sam Winder, claims Diaz did not know that she struck anyone with her car the night Espinoza was killed, and said prosecutors will be unable to prove otherwise. Winder would not say how Diaz later came to discover she had struck a pedestrian.
“I was a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for 12 years in the violent crimes section,” Winder said. “I’ve never seen a case like this where under these type of facts it should have been declined, but they chose to present an indictment to grand jury.”
Winder would not say whether he believes the defendant’s high-profile status as a tribal lieutenant governor may have put pressure on the U.S. Attorney’s office to take the case to grand jury.
“I’ll let the public decide that,” Winder said.
Diaz was charged under state statute because there is no equivalent federal statute, Fouratt said. A different federal statute allows a defendant to be charged with a state statute in federal court if a crime occurs on tribal land and either the victim or defendant is not a tribal member. If the victim had been a tribal member, then Diaz could not have been charged with any statute applicable to the crime, Fouratt said.
Diaz remains out of custody and has been summoned to appear in federal District Court June 25 in Albuquerque. The U.S. Attorney’s office does not plan to detain her at that point, Fouratt said, because she is not considered a flight risk or a danger to the community.
Espinoza’s father Esequiel Espinoza said the family is relieved the case is moving forward but frustrated by the charge, which only exposes Diaz to a maximum three-year prison sentence.
“I wish she would have been prosecuted for vehicular homicide,” Esequiel Espinoza said. “But evidently they don’t have proof of that, as strange as that is.”
Pojoaque Pueblo Governor George Rivera did not return a call for comment. Winder said Diaz continues to serve as lieutenant governor.