EDITORIAL: Bregman has earned a 4-year contract extension as Bernalillo County DA

When we asked Sam Bregman why he is running for district attorney after telling the governor two years ago he wouldn’t seek election after finishing the term of former District Attorney Raúl Torrez, Bregman said the job changed his mind.

Bregman says he’s fallen in love with being the Second Judicial District Attorney and that he has a lot more work to do to restore a sense of public safety in Bernalillo County.

That’s good enough for us. New Mexico has no term limits anyway for district attorneys, so Bregman’s conversation and relationship with governor is between them, not us. What matters to us is his job performance.

And so far, it’s been pretty darn good.

They say the best defense attorneys are former prosecutors, and the best prosecutors are former defense attorneys. Bregman is an all-star at either table in the courtroom, having defended roughly 500 cases and 10 murder cases as a defense attorney before becoming district attorney.

The UNM law school alum was a prosecutor in the DA’s Office for five years before becoming a defense attorney. So he knows all the legal angles and tricks from motions to suppress to surprise witnesses.

Bregman is a tremendous presence in the DA’s Office itself.

As one of most well-known attorneys in New Mexico history, he is able to recruit young, talented prosecutors fresh out of law school and proven prosecutors from across the country.

The results of that presence are showing.

While other government agencies struggle to hire staff, Bregman is expanding his force of attorneys and support staff, up to nearly 330 total people currently. He has built up a force of 78 attorneys to over 100 currently and wants to have 25 more attorneys by the end of the year on his $34 million budget.

That means more sharp minds to prosecute dulled criminal ones.

Homicide prosecutors averaged 50 cases each when Bregman took over as DA. With additional prosecutors and 10 more coming this summer, homicide prosecutors now have half the workload they did just two years ago.

Not bad.

Bregman says the result is much stronger cases in the courtroom and the highest felony conviction rate in the last five years.

For example, in 2023, the DA’s Office prosecuted 111 felony trials — nearly double the number of felony trials from the prior year. And a conviction rate of nearly 70% for felony trials and more than an 80% on misdemeanor cases also isn’t bad.

DWI prosecutors in Metropolitan Court are also seeing improvements, with a DWI conviction rate of nearly 80%.

Back in September 2023, Bregman announced the DA’s Office would enter an appearance in every misdemeanor shoplifting case. Previously, for more than two decades in fact, misdemeanor shoplifting cases were officer-prosecuted cases. That’s correct: The arresting officer was required to prosecute the case, instead of being on the streets where they belonged.

Because they’re police officers and not prosecutors, misdemeanor shoplifting conviction rates were at a dismal 15%.

What an arcane system that was. Taking over the prosecution of all shoplifting cases in Metropolitan Court was a huge change for the DA’s Office and the absolute right thing to do for businesses and their customers.

Bregman, chairman on the Governor’s Task Force on Crime, also has a huge presence in the law enforcement community.

He and Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen have repaired any rifts that had existed between their two agencies. That’s key. One hand has to work with the other on crime. We’d like to see the same sort of public cooperation between the DA’s Office and the Albuquerque Police Department. Everyone needs to be on the same team from making arrests to obtaining jury convictions.

Bregman also has a tremendous presence outside the courtroom.

Since becoming DA in January 2023, Bregman has spoken at 13 high school and middle school assemblies, usually driving home the point that guns in school are anything but cool. His office has created a Gun Team of prosecutors focused on gun-related crimes involving offenders between 18 and 25.

If the kids won’t listen to a seasoned prosecutor with a black cowboy hat, they’re not going to listen to anybody. Who wants to be the kid in school who didn’t listen and shows up in court to discover Bregman at the prosecution table with a “I warned you” scowl on his face?

Back in January, Bregman announced his office would insist that juveniles charged with a serious crime involving a gun divulge where they got the firearm before receiving a plea deal. Good. Kids bringing guns on campus is becoming an epidemic at Albuquerque schools.

“Tell us where you got the gun, kid” should be on the side of police vehicles right under “protect and serve.”

Like his son, Alex, Bregman knows statistics are important when contract talks approach. The list of accomplishments he provided the newspaper since becoming DA is impressive.

Successful pretrial detention motions are up nearly 10% since Bregman took office. We have a long way to go to end New Mexico’s notorious catch-and-release criminal justice system, but it’s a start.

Bregman is also going after sexual predators. He has personally prosecuted two cases involving children, both of which ended with guilty verdicts. His office has filed 16 rape cold-cases since 2023, including charges against an Albuquerque school bus driver who pleaded guilty to being a serial rapist in the 1990s.

Bregman is also going after fentanyl, while acknowledging we cannot police our way out of the drug crisis. Treatment and prosecution diversion programs are as important as enforcement. His office has diverted close to 3,000 non-violent drug abusers into diversion programs since January 2023.

If low-level, non-violent offenders adhere to their pre-prosecution diversion programs — and get counseling, pay restitution, get a job or education and stay out of trouble — all the better.

The June 4 Democratic primary between Bregman and former U.S. Attorney Damon Martinez will determine who will be responsible for taking on everything from the drug cartels in Mexico to the drug pushers on Central Avenue over the next four years. There are no other candidates running for DA, so the primary is the whole show.

Given his 33 years of courtroom experience and unmatched presence in New Mexico’s criminal courtrooms, Sam Bregman is the right person for the DA’s job at the right time. His resume and courtroom experience give him the unique ability to lead the DA’s Office for the next four years and to take a serious bite out of crime.