Front Page  news

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Drug Charges Against PRC Member Baca Dismissed


Associated Press
      Prosecutors on Wednesday dropped misdemeanor drug charges that had been filed against a state public regulation commissioner accused of having marijuana in her suitcase at Albuquerque's airport.
       The charges of possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia were dropped minutes before a trial was to begin in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court for E. Shirley Baca. She had pleaded not guilty.
       Baca was arrested Dec. 8 after authorities said a search of her suitcase at the Albuquerque International Sunport turned up a glass pipe and a substance that later tested positive for marijuana.
       According to a criminal complaint filed in court, Baca acknowledged occasionally smoking marijuana and said she'd packed her own bags.
       However, Metropolitan Judge Christina Jaramillo earlier this year granted a motion by Baca's attorneys to suppress statements Baca allegedly made after her suitcase was searched.
       Attorneys Tim Padilla and Richard McClarkin argued that airport police questioned her in violation of her constitutional rights and did not read her Miranda rights.
       Jaramillo ruled the questioning went from investigatory to custodial — which required that she be read Miranda rights — once officers took her driver's license and moved her to a more confined room at the airport.
       The judge had denied Baca's request to suppress evidence found in her suitcase.
       The search was based on reasonable suspicion in accordance with federal safety measures since the 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, the judge said.