A district court judge has vacated the jury trial in the drunken driving case of former Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield.
Eleventh Judicial District Court Judge David R. Pederson recently ordered a bench trial at 1 p.m. Sept. 17, after denying a defense motion to dismiss.
There also is a new special prosecutor on the case – John Lovelace, an assistant district attorney out of Cibola County. He replaced Special Prosecutor Stephanie Story.
Defense Attorney Arlon Stoker said Judge Pederson changed it from a jury to a bench trial of his “own volition.”
“Nobody requested a jury trial, so he set it as a bench trial,” Stoker said, adding he believes it’s because “there are so many issues in that case he didn’t want to bring in a jury and waste their time.”
Hatfield, 59, faces two petty misdemeanor charges: driving while under the influence of liquor and possessing an open container.
Most petty misdemeanor cases are filed in magistrate court, not district court, according to Stoker. “When I was chief deputy DA, I would have stamped decline on it and posted it out.”
Hatfield’s charges stem from a single-vehicle crash about 1 a.m. Aug. 30 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 64 and County Road 5099. Hatfield was driving alone with his dog.
According to the police report, investigators found “an open 12-ounce can of Mexican Lager with residual liquid inside,” an “empty wine glass,” and a “bottle of Ambien prescribed to Christian.”
There also was a pungent odor of alcohol coming from Hatfield, according to officers who responded to the accident.
However, Hatfield was unable to submit to a field sobriety test because of injuries he sustained in the crash, and a blood draw to measure alcohol content in his system was not done until 11 hours after the crash.
By that time, Hatfield was treated by doctors with chemical substances including fentanyl, Midazolam and Zolpidem,” which are “narcotics and hypnotics” that affect “the metabolism of alcohol,” Stoker said in a motion to suppress the evidence, which was granted by Pederson.
This means the blood sample, which showed 0.05 g/100 ml of Ethanol and 0.04 mg/L of Zolpidem (Ambien) in Hatfield’s system will not be admissible at trial.
Pederson gave a motions deadline of June 9, a pretrial conference at 8:30 a.m. July 7, a final pretrial conference at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 18.
