{"id":110646,"date":"2015-12-22T17:38:24","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T00:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=110646"},"modified":"2015-12-27T19:57:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-28T02:57:29","slug":"newly-released-audio-reveals-impact-of-martinezs-abuse-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/newly-released-audio-reveals-impact-of-martinezs-abuse-of-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly released audio reveals impact of Martinez&#8217;s abuse of power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A newly released audio recording reveals the impact of Gov. Susana Martinez pressuring\u00a0police more than a week ago to drop an investigation into a noise complaint after her Christmas party.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_60345\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-60345\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Martinez-Susana-336x196.jpg\" alt=\"Gov. Susana Martinez\" width=\"336\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Martinez-Susana-336x196.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Martinez-Susana.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gov. Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/12\/22\/new-audio-governor-admits-bottles-thrown-from-hotel-room\/\" target=\"_blank\">audio recording<\/a>\u00a0indicates that police felt powerless to do anything after hotel staff asked officers\u00a0to remove guests gathered in a hotel room. The recording, released Tuesday, was made by Santa Fe Police Sgt. Anthony\u00a0Tapia\u2019s belt recorder during the Dec. 13 incident at the Eldorado Hotel in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez can repeatedly be heard during previously released <a href=\"http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/12\/18\/governors-post-party-call-to-police-call-off-your-officers\/\" target=\"_blank\">recordings of dispatch calls<\/a>, and on the newly released recording, insisting there was no more noise, demanding to know who complained, and telling police they could leave.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;OK, so, obviously we&#8217;re not going to be able to move her,&#8221; Tapia\u00a0tells a hotel\u00a0security guard after his conversation with Martinez. &#8220;What can we do to resolve this?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I really don&#8217;t know what to do with the situation,&#8221; the guard responds.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>Listen to the audio<\/h3>\n<p>Listen to the newly released audio from Sgt. Anthony Tapia&#8217;s belt recorder, courtesy of <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/24199\/in-new-audio-officer-security-guard-say-martinez-was-inebriated\/\" target=\"_blank\">New Mexico Political Report<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/238676514&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Listen to the previously released audio recordings of Martinez&#8217;s conversations with a dispatcher and police <a href=\"http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/12\/18\/governors-post-party-call-to-police-call-off-your-officers\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The police officer leaves the guard with his business card.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If issues keep coming up, give me a call. I&#8217;ll see if I can get a hold of her security detail, see if we can resolve anything,&#8221; Tapia\u00a0says before leaving.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats hammered Martinez following release of the Tapia recording. House Minority Leader Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, called her\u00a0treatment of hotel staff and law enforcement &#8220;appalling.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When a governor so blatantly breaches the public\u2019s trust, there may be no going back,&#8221; Egolf said.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kob.com\/article\/stories\/S3996441.shtml?cat=500#.Vnnh52SDGkq\" target=\"_blank\">apologized<\/a> to New Mexicans for her actions on Friday (and, in the interest of disclosure, this journalist\u00a0authored a commentary <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/this-new-mexican-accepts-gov-martinezs-apology\/\" target=\"_blank\">accepting the governor&#8217;s apology<\/a>). But she also said she didn&#8217;t believe she abused her power.<\/p>\n<p>Martinez spokesman Chris Sanchez didn&#8217;t respond to two emails from NMPolitics.net on Tuesday asking if the governor stood by her previous statement that she hadn&#8217;t abused her power.<\/p>\n<h3>Was Martinez intoxicated?<\/h3>\n<p>Martinez was quoted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kob.com\/article\/stories\/S3996441.shtml?cat=500#.VnnN6WSDGkp\" target=\"_blank\">KOB-TV in Albuquerque<\/a> on Friday, when news of the incident at the Eldorado Hotel broke, as saying she consumed 1.5 cocktails over 4-5 hours before the incident with police.\u00a0She was quoted by <a href=\"http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/12\/18\/governors-post-party-call-to-police-call-off-your-officers\/\" target=\"_blank\">KRQE-TV in Albuquerque<\/a> as saying she had one cocktail and was not intoxicated.<\/p>\n<p>But Tapia&#8217;s recording indicates that the hotel security guard thought Martinez was drunk.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The security guard, while speaking with Tapia, says the incident was his first involving\u00a0a high-profile hotel guest in the few weeks he had worked there.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking about Martinez, he says, to Tapia, &#8220;I can tell she is&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Inebriated,&#8221; Tapia\u00a0responds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; the security guard says.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not clear from the audio whether Tapia agrees that Martinez was drunk.<\/p>\n<p>After Tapia&#8217;s\u00a0audio recording was released, NMPolitics.net twice asked Sanchez by email if the governor stood by her previous statement that she wasn&#8217;t intoxicated. Sanchez didn&#8217;t respond.<\/p>\n<p>If Martinez was intoxicated\u00a0when she pressured police to leave, her actions might\u00a0have been less intentional. Were she sober, her actions could arguably be more concerning, as she would have been in full control when she used\u00a0her position of authority to influence police.<\/p>\n<h3>Snowballs or glass bottles?<\/h3>\n<p>Tapia&#8217;s recording also includes\u00a0Martinez saying\u00a0someone in the hotel room where she and others were\u00a0gathered had thrown glass bottles off a\u00a0balcony hours before. But, Martinez said, that person had been kicked out of the room.<\/p>\n<p>That contradicts what Martinez&#8217;s staff has previously said &#8212; that someone was <a href=\"http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/12\/18\/governors-post-party-call-to-police-call-off-your-officers\/\" target=\"_blank\">throwing snowballs<\/a>, not bottles.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Ross, spokesman for the City of Santa Fe, told NMPolitics.net that police &#8220;conducted a sweep outside the building at street level to check for evidence of bottles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At that time they did not see anything of that nature,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez, Martinez&#8217;s spokesman, said the governor, when speaking with Tapia, was &#8220;simply repeating the claim that was made to the front desk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The governor later learned that they were snowballs,&#8221; Sanchez said. &#8220;Regardless, the governor apologizes for the conduct of her staff the night of the holiday party. She finds it absolutely unacceptable and plans to address this with her staff \u2013 which could include disciplinary action.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>The political fallout<\/h3>\n<p>Social media has been swamped with commentary about and memes related to the Dec. 13 incident since news broke on Friday about Martinez&#8217;s encounter with police. And after Tapia&#8217;s\u00a0recording was released on Tuesday, Martinez&#8217;s opponents hammered the governor.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Gov. Martinez thinks it\u2019s necessary to fabricate stories about snowballs and beer bottles, how can we trust her statements about the serious issues facing her administration?\u201d asked Joe Kabourek, Democratic Party of New Mexico executive director.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe if she had just admitted she was drunk this wouldn&#8217;t be such big news, again,&#8221; the left-leaning ProgressNow New Mexico wrote in an email to supporters. ProgressNow publishes the news website New Mexico Political Report, which first broke the story about the Dec. 13 party <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/23417\/audio-governor-calls-911-after-hotel-asks-her-to-be-escorted-off-property\/\" target=\"_blank\">on Friday<\/a> and posted\u00a0the audio captured\u00a0by\u00a0Tapia&#8217;s\u00a0belt recorder <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpoliticalreport.com\/24199\/in-new-audio-officer-security-guard-say-martinez-was-inebriated\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The long-term impact of the incident isn&#8217;t clear. Much of the buzz on social media focuses on Martinez telling police she and others in the hotel room were just eating pizza and drinking sodas &#8212; not on her abuse of power.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday &#8212; before the Tapia audio recording was released &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.koat.com\/news\/911-calls-unlikely-to-affect-governors-political-hopes\/37070216?utm_source=Social&amp;utm_medium=FBPAGE&amp;utm_campaign=KOAT&amp;Content%20Type=Story\" target=\"_blank\">KOAT-TV in Albuquerque<\/a> reported that the situation was\u00a0&#8220;unlikely&#8221; to affect Martinez much politically. Analyst Brian Sanderoff was quoted as saying Martinez typically moves on from such controversies.<\/p>\n<p>In a news release, N.M. Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, also took a shot at some in the &#8220;Albuquerque media,&#8221; accusing them\u00a0of minimizing &#8220;the seriousness of a negative situation involving this governor.&#8221; His words appeared aimed at least in part at the KOAT report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After all, the governor outrageously ordered an independent police agency to stop their investigation into her improper activities,&#8221; Sanchez said. &#8220;What\u2019s worse, she vindictively wanted to know who complained about her party\u2019s disturbance to the hotel front desk.\u00a0 We need an impartial media more than ever today.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The audio recording indicates that police felt powerless to do anything after hotel staff asked officers to remove guests gathered in a hotel room.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[203,107,208],"class_list":["post-110646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-law-enforcement","tag-roundhouse","tag-susana-martinez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}