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Homicide suspected in S.F. woman’s death Autopsy of body found Friday revealed evidence of blunt force trauma; sheriff’s office investigating By Robert Nott The New Mexican
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a 30-year old woman who was reported missing late Thursday as a homicide.
Duke City mayor’s mentality not helping
Investigators found the body of Julieanne Kelly, 30, on the northeast portion of her family’s property in the 2000 block of Callejon de Rita, off Rufina Street, during a follow-up visit Friday afternoon to see if she had returned home.
According to a news release issued by the sheriff’s office Sunday afternoon, the Office of the Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy Saturday and reported that Kelly had several lacerations on her upper torso and had suffered blunt force trauma. The news release said Kelly’s father reported her missing late Thursday, and deputies first visited the house at about 2:30 a.m. Friday in response
to that report. Deputies searched the neighborhood and did not find her at that time. She had been seen last leaving the area on foot, wearing a gray jacket and black pants. Neighbors who live on the street said deputies cordoned it off for much of Friday and Saturday. None of the residents knew the victim well,
Please see DEATH, Page A-8
Please see RINGSIDE, Page A-8
Today Mostly sunny. High 54, low 28. Page A-10
Obituaries Modesto L. Cordova, 80, Santa Fe, Jan. 12 Adolph T. Vigil, Jan. 13 Page A-8
LEGISLATURE
The 2015 session
New Mexico bill meant to improve accountability By Milan Simonich The New Mexican
what the men and women on the front lines are doing. We’re not going to take away tools that they need to protect themselves.” The debate in Missouri is expected to be intense. On the opening day of the 2015 session, protesters laid down in the Capitol Rotunda and then temporarily shut down the Senate proceedings, chanting phrases such as “No justice, no peace.” “It’s clear that our country needs to toughen up on some of its policies,” said one of the protest leaders, Waylon McDonald of St. Louis. Lawmakers proposing to require officer cameras argue they would protect both officers and the people with whom they interact. There was no video evidence of the August confrontation between Brown and former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Video shot by a bystander helped shape public opinion in the New York incident.
After a year of high-profile shootings that jarred the public, bills aimed at more supervision of police departments are flooding state legislatures across the country. Missouri, for instance, has seen more than 40 bills introduced. New Mexico is not part of this trend so far, despite heavy scrutiny by taxpayers and the federal government of the Albuquerque Police Department. To date, only one bill aimed at police departments across the state has been filed for New Mexico’s 60-day legislative session, which starts Tuesday. State Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, has revived a proposed constitutional amendment to increase the powers of citizen boards that review police conduct. She first introduced the bill two years ago amid citizen complaints about brutality by Albuquerque police officers. The U.S. Department of Justice also investigated, and it concluded last year that the Albuquerque Police Department had a practice of using excessive force, including deadly force. And last week, the district attorney in Albuquerque filed murder charges against two police officers who shot a 38-year-old homeless man in March 2014. The officers’ lawyers say the shooting was justified because the homeless man pulled out knives and could have killed an officer. Thousands of Albuquerque residents, though, protested the killing as unnecessary violence after seeing the police department’s own video of the shooting. Roybal Caballero’s bill would enable cities and counties to establish independent police review boards “with authority to investigate and resolve citizen complaints.” Her pre-filed bill does not allow for these boards to have subpoena power, but she said she will amend
Please see BILLS, Page A-4
Please see IMPROVE, Page A-4
People protesting the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., wave a banner from the Senate gallery Jan. 7 during the opening of the Missouri Legislature in Jefferson City, Mo. Police killings of unarmed residents in Missouri, New York and elsewhere have prompted an array of proposals from newly-convening state legislatures seeking to place greater scrutiny on the interactions between law officers and the public. Bob Watson/Jefferson City News Tribune
State legislatures throughout the U.S. see array of bills By David A. Lieb
The Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ith legislatures convening across the country, lawmakers are moving quickly to respond to one of the biggest stories of the past year, the police killings of unarmed residents in Missouri, New York and elsewhere. Scores of bills have been filed that would place more scrutiny on interactions between law officers and the public, and that would aim to address concerns about perceived racial injustice, police tactics and civil unrest. In Missouri, lawmakers have filed more than 40 bills stemming from the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, by a white officer in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. The debate over police conduct — and officer safety — also is expected to loom large in New York, following the police chokehold
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death of Eric Garner and the subsequent shootings of two officers. Lawmakers in at least a dozen states are proposing to mandate or expand the use of cameras attached to officers’ uniforms in an attempt to avoid disputes about exactly what happened during police conflicts with citizens. Other proposals would require more training for officers, tighter limits on using deadly force and the appointment of special investigators when police kill people. Though some have bipartisan support, many of the proposals to curtail police powers are coming from Democratic lawmakers. Some Republicans have countered with proposals providing better police equipment and imposing stricter penalties for threatening officers. “I want to address some of the underlying building blocks that have caused this,” said Missouri House Speaker John Diehl, a Republican from suburban St. Louis. But he added: “We’re not going into it with the assumption that we have to fix
Retention bill tops list of high-profile proposals By Milan Simonich The New Mexican
Gov. Susana Martinez, now in her fifth year in office, has a legislative agenda that resembles her first one from 2011. Martinez, a Republican, is again supporting a bill to retain thirdgraders who are not proficient on standardized reading tests. It will be among the high-profile proposals of the 60-day legislative session that begins Tuesday. During her first year as governor, Martinez persuaded members of the
Index
Oprah Winfrey, fellow actors from the movie Selma and hundreds of others took part in a remembrance on the eve of the holiday honoring the civil rights leader. Page A-4
Police killings prompt legislation
B
latant bullying is the latest tactic of Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry’s administration now that two of his police officers have been charged with murder. Berry’s staff declined to allow a senior member of the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office into a command briefing last week after police officers shot and killed a man. This happened just one day after District AttorMilan ney Kari BranSimonich denburg filed Ringside Seat murder charges against two other Albuquerque officers in the March shooting of a mentally ill homeless man who had camped illegally on a mountainside. Berry’s administration couldn’t have been clearer or more misguided in the message it sent in freezing out Brandenburg: Rock the boat by charging our officers with murder, and we throw you over the side. If you’re not backing us every time somebody complains about police brutality, we don’t want you around, even if you are the chief law enforcement officer of the county. If ever a city needed a toughminded prosecutor’s staff to review
Stars march for MLK
House of Representatives to approve a bill to hold back third-graders who score below par on reading tests. But that measure died in the Senate, and Democrats have Susana since increased Martinez their opposition to forced student retention. Passing along ill-prepared thirdgraders, which Martinez calls “social promotion,” is a disservice to kids and taxpayers, the governor says.
Senate Democrats, though, say mandatory retention laws don’t help kids succeed academically and may actually hurt their progress. Sen. Bill Soules, a teacher, says even researchers who have tried to vouch for mandatory retention programs cannot make a compelling case. For instance, third-graders in Florida who were retained for low reading scores were required to attend summer school. After that, they were placed in the classroom of a “high-performing teacher,” and they received an extra 90 minutes of
LEGISLATURE
The 2015 session
reading instruction daily throughout the school year. Soules, D-Las Cruces, said those aggressive and well-funded steps by Florida lawmakers accounted for any student improvements in reading. Without morale-killing forced retentions, students getting all that extra academic help might have done better still, Soules said. Martinez also will continue her
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Southwest Seminars lecture The weekly series continues with “Zuni Culture & Cooking Pots: 13th-Century Migration and Changing Social Landscapes,” with archaeologist Matthew Peeples, 6 p.m., Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo de Peralta, $15 at the door, 466-2775, southwestseminars.org.
Please see PROPOSALS, Page A-4
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