New Mexico police agencies plead for state legislature to act on juvenile crime

In his two and a half years as Bernalillo County District Attorney, Sam Bregman said his office has linked 70 different homicides to 53 juveniles.

In Española, with less than 11,000 residents, police arrested two 15-year-olds, armed with rifles, who terrorized a homeless shelter where people were sleeping and fired multiple rounds over their heads “for no apparent reason,” said Police Chief Mizel A. Garcia. Luckily, he said, no one was hurt.

In southern New Mexico, three juveniles were arrested in connection with a mass shooting at a Las Cruces park March 21 in which three people died and 15 others were shot — “all perpetrated by teenagers,” said Las Cruces Police Department Police Chief Jeremy Story. A 20-year-old was also charged in the shooting.

The evidence of the worsening problem has been increasingly clear to Bregman and top New Mexico law enforcement officers who converged in Albuquerque on Tuesday. In the meantime, they contend the state Legislature has failed to address the rising crime rate among juveniles, violent juveniles in particular.

“We are facing a juvenile crime crisis,” Bregman said Tuesday at a news conference. “It’s one that continues to get worse every single day in New Mexico. There are teens or younger who are committing crimes all over the state and are getting away with it because they know they can.”

“I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, that it isn’t, unfortunately, until they are charged with murder, that they finally face any real consequences. And then it’s too late,” Bregman said. “This isn’t just a statistic. People are dying. These are real victims.”

Bregman, who is running for governor, had the same concerns last October when he proposed a slate of legislative changes to the juvenile code, which hasn’t been updated in decades.

“Our leaders in Santa Fe,” Bregman said, “with the notable exception of the governor, have been tone-deaf to the crisis on the ground.”

For instance, a bill that set tougher penalties for selling a firearm to a minor “didn’t even get one hearing in a 60-day session.” None of Bregman’s proposed legislation passed this year. So he’s trying again.

“We are now giving these proposals to every single legislator so each and every one of them have no excuse not to have a robust debate about the future of our children. There is no excuse now not to try. Just trying. That’s what I’m asking the Legislature to do. Just try.”

New Mexico’s chief public defender, Ben Baur, said through a spokeswoman, “We all agree that we are seeing heart-breaking violence involving young people, guns and social media, and that people are being hurt. We absolutely need to find solutions, but these proposals basically amount to ‘send kids to prison early and often.’

“This won’t prevent crime. It won’t make them grow into better kids. It will just make them better criminals. It’s not ‘updating’ the juvenile code, it’s taking it back to old, disproven ideas.”

On Tuesday, flanked by police chiefs from Farmington, Española, Las Cruces, the state Department of Public Safety and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, Bregman said he wanted to show, “These violent incidents are happening in every corner of New Mexico.”

Story, of Las Cruces, said, “Kids are committing crime after crime with no real consequences or accountability. I have six kids that have been arrested 11 or more times as a juvenile. I have 37 additional kids who have been arrested between six and 10 times. That shouldn’t be able to happen in a system that’s functioning correctly.”

Las Cruces police, in some cases, “have been able to charge and convict nearly a dozen juveniles with a federal offense. Now, for most of those kids, that’s the first time they’ve ever had a meaningful consequence or accountability for their actions,” he said.

“There’s a clear gap in our system in holding these juveniles accountable. We’re failing miserably in this state,” said Jason Bowie, secretary of the state Department of Public Safety.

“During town halls the governor has hosted (around the state) … the message has been consistent. People in these communities are afraid,” Bowie said.

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen asked lawmakers to “stop forgetting the victim.”

“We have heard from numerous investigations,” Allen added, “about juveniles that not only don’t care, but they actually laugh about their crime and say, “Wow, I can’t believe I shot that person. I have no care in the world.”

Compounding the problem is that the state has just three juvenile detention facilities, prompting some of the more rural law enforcement agencies to travel to Bernalillo County to house violent juvenile offenders awaiting resolution of their cases.

But Bernalillo County’s juvenile detention facility is at capacity, housing 75 juveniles waiting to be tried or awaiting sentencing. Of those, 27 are in for murder, Bregman said. And typically it is the county that is responsible for such facilities.

Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said juvenile crime has an impact on law enforcement recruiting efforts, and public perception of how well police can protect New Mexicans.

“This is a sign that the public is losing confidence that justice will be delivered,” Hebbe said.

Bregman said he plans on lobbying legislators in advance of next year’s 30-day session to enact proposals that include expanding the list of crimes that qualify for prosecution as a serious youthful offender and a youthful offender; extending the jurisdiction of juvenile crime to age 25 and allowing the use of juvenile records in condition of release hearings for some adult offenders.

“We need action,” Bregman said. “We can be the leader in this nation when it comes to the explosion of juvenile crime, but we need to change our juvenile laws to match the times …. I know one thing, what we’re doing now certainly isn’t working.”