Former Doña Ana deputy sentenced in evidence case

LAS CRUCES — A former detective with the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office was sentenced Friday to nearly three years of supervised probation after pleading guilty to nine misdemeanor counts of tampering with public records.

Vincent Lopez, 58, was arrested in 2020 after a cleaning crew preparing his home for a foreclosure sale alerted police to the presence of what Las Cruces police described as case files and bags of evidence, some still sealed, belonging to the sheriff’s office. Police linked the evidence to numerous cases involving violent crimes, including rape, criminal sexual contact of a minor, aggravated battery, kidnapping and other offenses.

Lopez had served as a deputy from 2003 to 2014, according to DASO. A criminal complaint stated Lopez told police he had not lived in the home for several years, as he had been caring for his parents. He was initially charged with nine misdemeanor counts of tampering with public records and nine fourth-degree felony counts of tampering with evidence. He pleaded not guilty.

The case languished in court over four and a half years, spanning the COVID-19 pandemic and three district attorneys, through multiple delays and changes of counsel.

Prosecutors later dropped five felony counts. Then, in 2022, state District Judge Douglas Driggers threw out all the public records charges, ruling that law enforcement records were not public records, citing a provision of the Inspection of Public Records Act protecting certain law enforcement records from disclosure. That left four counts of evidence tampering, which Driggers ruled should be punished as petty misdemeanors if Lopez were convicted at trial. Both of those actions were reversed by the state Court of Appeals in October 2024, and the trial was ordered to proceed.

Earlier in February, prosecutors dropped the remaining felony charges and filed an amended complaint for nine counts of attempting to commit a felony by tampering with public records.

On Tuesday, Lopez pleaded guilty to all nine counts. Driggers handed down a suspended sentence of 364 days with supervised probation apiece for three counts, to run consecutively, with similar sentences on the remaining six counts to run concurrently. The total amounted to three years minus four days, including two days’ credit for time Lopez spent in custody. Driggers also suspended $9,000 in fines and ordered Lopez to perform 40 hours of community service.

“Lopez’s guilty plea reflects his culpability for mishandling and concealing the records for cases he investigated,” Deputy District Attorney Tomas Medina said in a statement following the hearing. “Lopez is no longer a law enforcement officer and the likelihood he would ever be in a position of public trust again is small. We remain committed to ensuring that public officials behave in an appropriate and transparent manner so that the citizens of Doña Ana County can trust that they will serve them honorably.”

At the sentencing, Lopez’s attorney, Shaharazad Booth, said Lopez’s actions stemmed from personal misfortunes and emotional stress, and that he did not intend to cause harm or influence the outcome of any investigation. Lopez took the witness stand but did not make a statement.

“My client is ready to move past this and forward with his life,” Booth said in a written statement. “His case was a result of systematic failures of how we address the mental health and processes to assist officers who are experiencing elevated stress levels. We hope this case can be used as a tool to continue to shine a light on these shortcomings.”