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Sunday, November 15, 2009
DWI Still a Hot Potato in Gallup
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
GALLUP — In Thursday's column I told you about Gallup and McKinley County's failure to get on board the state's DWI reform train — arrests down from the 1990s, fatalities up and plea deals and repeat offenses sky high.
On Thursday night, about 100 people crowded into an auditorium here to hash it all out. I was expecting what my grandmother would have called a "come to Jesus meeting," but what happened was more like a game we used to play when we were kids: "hot potato."
One of the first people to approach me in Gallup was Paul Campos. He leaned in and told me that invoking the label "Drunk Town" in last Thursday's column was a low blow, an unnecessary harsh reminder of a past that's painful for Gallup.
Campos is the county's DWI coordinator; it's his job to lead Gallup toward improvement, to keep the ghost of Drunk Town at bay. Easier to blame the bearer of bad news. Hot potato.
Then comes Ben Shelly, the vice president of the Navajo Nation. The drunken-driving problem in McKinley County is everyone's problem, but, sad to say, it is especially the Navajo Nation's problem. A good portion of the county is on Navajo land, a good portion of the county's people are Navajo and a good portion of those killed in alcohol-related crashes and in court for DWI offenses are Navajo.
At a come to Jesus meeting, Shelly might have stood up and vowed that the tribe would throw everything it has at stopping this Navajo killer. But this was a game of hot potato. So he blamed the poor economy and the people who sell alcohol.
The tribe's public safety chief, who has not sent an officer to participate in McKinley County task force patrols and checkpoints for the past 11 months, tossed the potato to the Navajo tribal council and blamed them for red tape that prevents his officers from being paid overtime.
Then the microphone was handed to Karl Gillson, the district attorney in McKinley County. Gillson's employees were revealed in a court monitoring study of the six most deadly DWI counties to have the highest rate of pleading DWI charges down in 2008, allowing repeat offenders a ready supply of first offenses.
Gillson chose to say he'd like to see package stores in the county stop selling liquor on Sundays.
Hot potato.
Magistrate John Carey, who hears many of the DWI cases — and who has been warned by the state Judicial Standards Commission to stop approving illegal pleas — declined an invitation to come to the meeting. The mayor of Gallup didn't show up either.
State Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, attended. And he grabbed the microphone and made a fiery call to action. He directed this cry to state DWI Czar Rachel O'Connor, who was moderating the meeting: "Let's stop playing games and get the governor on board and you on board and let's solve the problem!" He challenged Gov. Bill Richardson to enact tougher laws and get serious on DWI.
This is where the hot potato becomes mashed potatoes. Or crazy fries.
You want tougher DWI laws? So you can fail to enforce those, too?
You want the state involved? When it already funnels $2.5 million a year to McKinley County — more than any other county gets — for programs targeted at DWI?
You'd like Santa Fe to get involved? Maybe you should call your state senator and tell him to get to work. Oh, wait, you are the state senator.
Finally, in a meeting that goes on for three hours, a surprise occurs. Shelly Chimoni, head councilwoman from Zuni Pueblo, stands up and says there have been too many instances of DWI at Zuni and the pueblo knows it must do better.
Then Gallup Police Chief Robert Cron takes the floor and also takes some responsibility. DWI arrests by Gallup police are down sharply from where they were earlier this decade — 392 arrests last year.
"We didn't get 'em all. We didn't get all the drunks," Cron says, his voice cracking. "We've got people that got killed. We've got people that got injured. We've got families that are going to be in pain for the rest of their lives. That's what a drunk driver does."
Sitting quietly in the front row for the whole show was Todd Costley, wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt emblazoned with his son Scott's motocross racing number.
One of the accused drunken drivers in McKinley County's recent rash of fatal crashes was Daryl Begay, a Navajo Nation employee. Begay had come before Magistrate Carey on a second aggravated DWI charge in 2006. Carey accepted a plea agreement, approved by District Attorney Gillson's office, that dropped the DWI charge and allowed Begay to plead to reckless driving.
On Sept. 23, Begay was behind the wheel of a car that made a left turn at a Gallup intersection and T-boned the pickup 21-year-old Scott Costley was driving, forcing it into a light pole. Begay is now charged with aggravated DWI again and vehicular homicide and is the respondent in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by Todd Costley.
Like anyone who has just lost a vibrant young son, Costley lives in a fog of numbness and grief. Thursday, he told me, had been one of those tough days where it all kept crashing in. Wind had knocked over some of the many candles set up at a memorial for Scott at the traffic light pole where his fatal head injury occurred and Costley tidied them up before he headed for the DWI meeting. He wasn't expecting miracles.
"Gallup needs a big change," he said. "But only we can change."
And that, Gallup, is where the hot potato lands. With you.
n n n
On the subject of accepting responsibility, I need to do that for two errors in Thursday's column. Relying on an initial report, I included both people struck in July by an alleged drunk driver in the tally of alcohol-related fatalities in McKinley County. Only one of the victims died, and court records have since been corrected to show that.
And I said fatalities in both the city and county have doubled over their levels in the 1990s. For some years, that's true. But, in general, they're up about 50 percent.
UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. You can reach Leslie at 823-3914 or llinthicum@abqjournal.com.
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