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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Judge To Consider Daskalos Citation

By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer
       A Metropolitan Court judge isn't going to let Jason Daskalos off the hook just yet.
    Judge Sandra Clinton set a hearing for Tuesday to determine whether the well-known developer will go to jail after she found out Daskalos had received his 39th traffic citation in June.
    The judge warned him in February during sentencing for a domestic battery case that Daskalos would "blow" his probation if he even so much as got a speeding ticket.
    Daskalos was cited four months later for "failing to maintain a traffic lane."
    The District Attorney's Office typically files a motion asking a judge to revoke probation for violating an order, but the judge also has the authority to call a hearing if he or she learns of a possible violation.
    Deputy District Attorney Gary Cade said he wasn't going to file a motion after Daskalos' most recent citation. Cade said the DA's Office doesn't request probation revocations for minor traffic citations.
    Daskalos' attorney Robert Gorence declined to comment Wednesday.
    Daskalos pleaded no contest to battery against a household member in the domestic battery case. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Daskalos, 36, received a 364-day deferred sentence in the September incident in which he was accused of pulling his girlfriend's hair and punching her in the face.
    Clinton sentenced Daskalos to unsupervised probation and ordered him to pay $71. Like other deferrals, if Daskalos abides by all of Clinton's conditions, he can ask for his conviction to be dismissed.
    According to the citation he received last month, Daskalos was on Montgomery near Louisiana when he drove his black 2006 Hummer over the right white line three times.
    When stopped, Daskalos told police he was talking on the phone and that his truck was "big for the road."
    Gorence has filed a motion to get the citation dismissed, citing among other reasons that the officer did not write the correct date on the ticket. Judge Sharon Walton has set a hearing in August to rule on the motion.
    Of Daskalos' 38 previous traffic citations, 20 have been dismissed, seven have been deferred, he was found guilty on 10 and acquitted on one.
    Assistant City Attorney Ellen Argyres resigned in 2006 after an inquiry by city officials. Argyres, a friend of Daskalos', had signed several dismissal orders for Daskalos and his family.
    In January, Daskalos was charged in state District Court in a 2006 incident in which then-Albuquerque police officer Ben Kirby sneaked him out of the department's BATmobile after a DWI arrest, of which Daskalos was eventually acquitted.
    District Judge Charles Brown dismissed the charges last week after noting that prosecutors failed to hold a required preliminary hearing within 60 days of the charges being filed.
    Prosecutors are asking Brown to reconsider. A hearing is scheduled Aug. 1.