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Wednesday, May 4, 2005

Wife Has No Regrets on Hammering Hubby

By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
    State Sen. Carlos Cisneros' wife spent Monday night behind bars for allegedly attacking her husband with a hammer after finding him with another woman.
    Patsy Cisneros, 50, was released on an unsecured appearance bond Tuesday morning. She faces charges of aggravated battery against a household member, criminal trespass and two counts of criminal damage to property.
    She is scheduled to be arraigned in Taos County Magistrate Court this morning.
    Contacted at her Questa home Tuesday afternoon, Patsy Cisneros admitted to striking her husband over the head with a hammer. And, she added, she doesn't regret it.
    "It was for a damn good reason that I attacked him," she said. "He was found with another woman. I was pissed off that he was renting a cabin at Molycorp and that a woman was living there with him." She said her husband works for Molycorp.
    She also alleged that her husband of 27 years threw her to the ground and hit her head against the cement.
    Sen. Cisneros, D-Questa, did not return a message left on his cell phone Tuesday afternoon. Messages left for Taos County Sheriff Charlie Martinez on Tuesday also were not returned.
    According to booking documents, the incident played out at a Molycorp staff cabin off N.M. 38 in Questa.
    Patsy Cisneros said her husband had been making excuses about why he was away from home so much, saying that he was at work and that he was taking care of a contract. She said she decided to confront him on Monday night and find out whom he was with.
    "I went up there and I knocked on the door," she said. "They wouldn't open. I knocked a second time, and they wouldn't open. I had a hammer in my hand, and I broke a window."
    Patsy Cisneros said that at that point, her husband opened the door, and the woman "flew out the back window" with a small child. She said she kept trying to get into the bedroom to see who the woman was. She said she struck her husband over the head with the hammer and he suffered a cut.
    "He threw me to the ground, and he hit my head against the cement, and that was it," Patsy Cisneros said. "I went out and I broke the windows to her car, a small Pontiac. I busted the back windows and lights."
    Patsy Cisneros said her sister was with her during the incident, which occurred at about 9 p.m.
    "He (Sen. Cisneros) just kept telling my sister, because she was holding me back, 'Tell her to back off. Tell her to back off,' '' she said.
    Patsy Cisneros said that when the authorities arrived, she had already gotten into her truck with her sister. She said her husband can't be trusted and she plans to file for divorce.
    "People need to know what kind of a man he is," she said.
    Cisneros represents parts of Los Alamos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Taos counties.