Colorado s second-highest court concluded last month that police relied on an illegal search warrant to obtain evidence against a La Junta man despite having no probable cause for a crime.
Deming and Luna County crime reports for Friday, March 12, 2021
Headlight staff reports
POLICE
Battery: Joseph Valdez, 63, 600 block of W. Florida St. Battery against a household member. Also, concealing identity and resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.
Warrant: Gustavo Tijerina, 38, 1200 block of N. Eighth St. Failure to appear on charges of criminal sexual penetration of a minor (under 13); a 1st degree felony, criminal sexual contact of a minor (2nd degree felony) and abuse of a child in Roosevelt County District Court.
Drug possession: Robert Stephen Medicus, 21, 2000 block of Perrin Road NW. Possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine). Also, possession of drug paraphernalia and a Grant County Magistrate Court warrant for failure to appear.
LA Junta Tribune
Former Rocky Ford police officer James Lopez Jr. was sentenced to five years probation and 60 days in Otero County Jail on Feb. 2 after Lopez pled guilty to one count of perjury in the first degree, a Class 4 felony.
Lopez faced four other criminal charges across two more cases that the court dropped upon recommendation at the Feb. 2 sentencing hearing.
In one case, Lopez faced one count of possession with intent to manufacture or distribute marijuana or marijuana concentrate, a Level 3 drug felony, and one count of first degree official misconduct, a Class 2 misdemeanor.
In the other case that was also dropped, Lopez was facing charges of stalking, a Class 5 felony, and criminal mischief, a Class 2 misdemeanor.