{"id":29120,"date":"2024-02-22T19:54:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T02:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-officer-charged-with-dwi-with-two-small-children-in-car\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:49:14","slug":"farmington-officer-charged-with-dwi-with-two-small-children-in-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/farmington-officer-charged-with-dwi-with-two-small-children-in-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmington officer charged with DWI, with two small children in car"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police Officer Robert James Shuttleworth was arrested Feb. 15 on a drunken driving charge.<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Farmington Police officer was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated with two minor children in the car after almost hitting a car driven by Bloomfield Deputy Police Chief Randon Matthews.<\/p>\n

Robert James Shuttleworth, 29, of Farmington, went to work for the Farmington Police Department in 2018, and was a decorated officer, earning the Officer of the Quarter on June 2, 2022, from Police Chief Steve Hebbe.<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth, however, is on paid administrative leave after he was arrested Feb. 15 and charged with aggravated DWI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges are deeply concerning and do not represent the values we uphold,\u201d Hebbe said in a prepared statement. It noted that Shuttleworth was off-duty when the incident happened.<\/p>\n

Hebbe apologized to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take these matters very seriously, and I am deeply disappointed this occurred,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are relieved that there were no reported injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident does not reflect the values and dedication of the men and women who serve the citizens of Farmington every day,\u201d Hebbe said, adding that the department \u201cholds its employees to the highest standards of conduct, both on and off duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The charges stem from the incident in which a San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s deputy found Shuttleworth behind the wheel of a 2015 Jeep Cherokee at 6:13 p.m. Feb. 15 \u201cnear the side of the road near Road 3157 on NM 516,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

That was 11 minutes after Deputy Chief Matthews called dispatch, \u201cstating a white Jeep Cherokee which had been traveling west bound almost struck him,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

Matthews also stated the vehicle came \u201cacross the median, almost striking his vehicle,\u201d and he \u201chad to swerve to avoid colliding with the vehicle and noticed (the vehicle) strike a ditch on the south side of the road,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n

Matthews reported seeing \u201ca large cloud of dust due to how fast the vehicle was going and he was not able to stop,\u201d the records state.<\/p>\n

When deputies made contact with Shuttleworth, they noticed there was a \u201cstrong odor of an intoxicating liquor emitting from his person as he exited the vehicle,\u201d the records state.<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth was described as having \u201cbloodshot, watery\u201d eyes and \u201cwas also stumbling over his feet to the point that we had to physically control him, so he did not fall,\u201d the deputy wrote in his report.<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth reportedly told the deputy he was not heading home and stated that he did not want to perform a field sobriety test, the report states. He did however submit to a Breathalyzer test, which was given at the San Juan County Detention Center shortly after 7 p.m. It came back .27g\/210L and .26g\/210L, which more than triple the legal limit of .08g.<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth reportedly was driving drunk with \u201ctwo small children buckled in the back seat,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Capt. Kevin Burns said there was a 4-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy in the car, and they must have been secured in seat belts or car seats, \u201cor we would have cited for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Sheriff\u2019s Office deputy and Aztec Police officers ensured \u201cthe small children inside the vehicle were OK. EMS was called for the children,\u201d according to the statement of probable cause.<\/p>\n

Prior to 2019, a suspected drunken driver faced a charge of child abuse for having a child in the car, but the New Mexico State Legislature passed a new law making it a misdemeanor, if the child \u201cdoes not suffer great bodily injury,\u201d said Chief Deputy District Attorney Dustin O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to charge every DWI with a child in the car as child abuse,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. The 2019 law makes it a misdemeanor offense of driving while intoxicated with a minor in the vehicle, when the child is younger than 13.<\/p>\n

However, if a child is 13 to 17 years old, it would be considered a felony child abuse charge. \u201cWe just stopped charging child abuse,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

Shuttleworth was charged with aggravated DWI (first offense), leaving the scene of an accident, two counts driving while intoxicated with a minor in the vehicle and failure to maintain traffic lane.<\/p>\n

He was booked into the San Juan County Detention Center.<\/p>\n

He was released the next day on his own recognizance and was ordered to not consume alcohol, marijuana or illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

A pretrial hearing has been set for 8 a.m. March 28 in Magistrate Russel Bradford\u2019s courtroom.<\/p>\n

\"Farmington
Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe awarding Officer Robert Shuttleworth with the Officer of the Quarter award on June 2, 2022. Farmington Police Department<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Shuttleworth\u2019s BAC was triple the legal limit, police say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80637,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29120\/revisions\/80637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29120"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}