[1st-mile-nm] Article on PRC Nominee Jerome Black Jr.
Marianne Granoff
granoff at zianet.com
Thu Jun 26 14:11:28 PDT 2008
This article appeared in the Santa Fe Reporter on 6-25-2008. Jerome Block
Jr. is the son of long-time PRC Commissioner Jerome Block Sr.
There has been some speculation that at least some voters thought they were
voting for the former Commissioner.
FYI.
>
><http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-062508-failure-to-appear.php>http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-062508-failure-to-appear.php
>
>NEWS
>Failure to Appear
>By Dave Maass
>
>Published: June 25, 2008
>
>Jerome Block Jr.'s legal history includes missing court dates.
>
>Aggravated DWI, unlawful riding, urinating in public, ditching out on
>court-ordered child-support mediation and breach of contract�these are
>the charges that Jerome Block Jr., the Democratic nominee to represent
>District 3 on the Public Regulation Commission, has faced in court over
>the last decade, SFR has discovered.
>
>
>Several attempts were made to reach Jerome Block Jr. for this story. File
>Photo
>
>Block missed an interview appointment he set with SFR to discuss his
>record and did not return repeated phone calls prior to deadline.
>
>Each election cycle, the Albuquerque Journal asks candidates in every race
>a series of standard questions, including whether they have been arrested.
>
>Block told the Journal he had been arrested in 1998 for �suspicion of
>DUI� and had been found �not guilty.�
>
>However, in investigating Block�s legal history, both criminal and
>civil, SFR has uncovered several facts in discordance with Block�s
>public statement.
>
>At 31, Block�s official criminal record is clean. However, despite his
>claims to the Journal, he was not found �not guilty� by a court for
>his drunk driving arrest.
>
>Not only was his explanation of his exoneration inaccurate, but he failed
>to disclose a second DWI-related arrest a year later, to which he pleaded
>guilty. Furthermore, Block�s record shows a history of missing court
>dates, including two failure to appear charges tied to a citation for
>urinating in public and three skipped court-ordered mediations for a
>child-support case.
>
>According to the police report filed by the Albuquerque Police Department,
>on June 26, 1998, an officer witnessed Block drive through a red light
>into an intersection, then back up. After being pulled over, Block
>allegedly failed the field sobriety test and told the officer he had
>consumed two beers and a Long Island Iced Tea. He was arrested and
>underwent a breath test, which established his blood alcohol content at
>0.17, more than double the legal limit, the report says.
>
>Block was charged with aggravated DWI, an offense that currently comes
>with a mandatory jail sentence. The then-21-year-old pleaded not guilty.
>The court records show the case was temporarily dismissed with the note,
>�State not prepared,� which typically means the arresting officer was
>unavailable to attend the hearing.
>
>A week later, on Aug. 9, 1998, Block was cited by APD again, this time for
>�disorderly conduct,� during the city�s annual Summerfest. According
>to the police report, Block was caught urinating on a bush on APD
>property, five yards from the crowded foot traffic on Civic Plaza.
>
>Albuquerque Metropolitan Court handled both cases separately. Block
>received two failure to appear charges after missing court dates in the
>disorderly conduct case. All three charges were abandoned; the records of
>why have since been destroyed.
>
>Although prosecutors reopened the aggravated DWI case, the charge was
>dropped under a rule that said that if a defendant isn�t adjudicated
>within six months, the court must dismiss the case.
>
>�Anybody worth their salt�defense attorneys, prosecutors or
>judges�will tell you it�s a game,� Linda Atkinson, executive
>director of the DWI Resource Center in Albuquerque, tells SFR. �Defense
>attorneys generally knew that if you did delays and you made motions for
>pre-trial discovery and one of the biggest ones that gets to be a problem
>is the interview with the police officer, you could just play this waiting
>game because the minute somebody didn�t show up, they could claim the
>six-month rule and that�s how it gets dismissed.�
>
>Since 1999, the Second Judicial District Attorney�s Office, now headed
>by Kari Brandenburg, has tightened up the law so fewer cases fall through
>these cracks.
>
>�We�ve just adopted new policies on discovery, pretrial interviews and
>the six-month rules,� Brandenburg tells SFR. �Now we can ask the court
>for an extension.�
>
>Nevertheless, Brandenburg says that because the case never went to trial,
>no judge or jury ever determined guilt one way or another, despite
>Block�s claim to the Journal.
>
>Block also told the Journal: �I am in full support of DUI laws in New
>Mexico, and I applaud all efforts taken to stop people from drinking and
>driving. I have learned from that experience from my youth, and I will
>make sure the event does not repeat itself.�
>
>However, Santa Fe County jail and Santa Fe Police Department records show
>that Block had a second arrest on DWI-related charges one year after the first.
>
>On July 7, 1999, Block was taken into custody for �unlawful riding.�
>SFPD Sgt. Gillian Alessio tells SFR this is a charge reserved for
>passengers who should have reasonably known the driver was too intoxicated
>to get behind the steering wheel.
>
>According to the SFPD report, officers had responded to a domestic
>violence call and, upon arriving, saw a car driven by Robert Martinez,
>(listed on the report as Block�s brother), speed away from the scene.
>Officers caught up to the vehicle and arrested Block and Martinez. The
>latter had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21.
>
>Municipal Court records show Block pleaded guilty to the offense of
>unlawful riding and was assigned one-year probation, 24 hours of community
>service and alcohol and drug testing. He completed these requirements and
>the charge was subsequently cleared from his record.
>
>Over the years that followed, Block picked up two speeding tickets, which
>were both dismissed.
>
>In 2004, however, Block was again in the court system when the mother of
>one of his children filed motions to set child support and child custody
>guidelines.
>
>The child was born in November 2002 to Kimberley Gonzales, almost exactly
>nine months after Block filed for a marriage license with his current
>wife, Stephanie Block.
>
>The court records show that Block failed to appear at all three mediation
>hearings set by the court, leading Gonzales� attorney, Caroline Bass, to
>file a letter with the court accusing Block of intentionally impeding the
>process.
>
>Soon after, Block retained lawyer Kathrin Kinzer-Ellington, who
>represented Block while the court set the child support. A year later,
>when Gonzales filed for an increase in child support, Kinzer-Ellington
>withdrew from the case. The record shows that Kinzer-Ellington was unable
>to inform Block directly of her withdrawal and instead notified his
>father, former Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Sr.
>
>According to Bass, this was typical throughout the case; process servers
>found it difficult to locate Block, who uses multiple addresses in
>official records.
>
>Block also was unresponsive in his most recent case.
>
>Throughout his primary campaign, Block was involved in a legal dispute
>brought by First Community Bank, which claimed that Block had defaulted on
>two loans totaling $8,150. On Feb. 4, 2008, with no response filed or
>appearances made by Block, the Bernalillo District Court awarded the bank $430.
>
>Two days later, Block paid up.
>
>Block won the six-way June 3 Democratic primary election for the PRC with
>22.8 percent of the vote. While there is no Republican challenger, the New
>Mexico Green Party nominated activist Rick Lass to run for the seat in the
>general election.
>
>
>© Copyright 20002007 by the Santa Fe Reporter
>
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