RIO RANCHO, N.M. – The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is reviewing a case involving a sheriff who police said showed up drunk to a SWAT standoff and tried to order officers away.
Attorney General spokesman Matt Baca told The Associated Press late Friday a complaint naming Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan has been referred to the office and the prosecutors are reviewing it.
A criminal complaint filed Thursday said Lujan, in plain clothes, attempted to take over the scene involving a barricaded subject in Española, New Mexico, on March 21.
Española Police Chief Richard Jimenez wrote that officers reported Lujan smelled of alcohol and ignored commands to leave the “kill zone” in front of the house of the barricaded subject.
Lujan told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the accusations in the criminal complaint are false.
