{"id":2174,"date":"2007-08-30T09:44:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T15:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/charges-against-foley-may-not-be-re-filed\/"},"modified":"2007-08-30T09:44:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-30T15:44:00","slug":"charges-against-foley-may-not-be-re-filed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/08\/charges-against-foley-may-not-be-re-filed\/","title":{"rendered":"Charges against Foley may not be re-filed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve reported since his arrest in June<\/a> that the criminal case against House Minority Whip Dan Foley<\/a> might be weak. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Now the Roswell Daily Record<\/a> is reporting that the case against the GOP representative from Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is in limbo, having been dismissed in municipal court and not re-filed in magistrate court a month later because it\u2019s under review. The district attorney apparently doesn\u2019t think there\u2019s enough evidence at this time to proceed, having deemed the case an \u201cinvestigatory file.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, there is no case filed,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Michael Sanchez told the newspaper. \u201cWe need to find out all of the facts first.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Asked if the case will be refilled at some point, he told the newspaper, \u201cI\u2019m not going to say it will or it won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Legal experts tell me it\u2019s likely the district attorney\u2019s office got the case and found there wasn\u2019t enough evidence to proceed. They\u2019re now conducting further investigation to determine whether a case against Foley exists.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing an officer and resisting arrest \u2013 all misdemeanors \u2013 stem from a fight between two teens at a basketball tournament in Roswell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> in June. Foley ran onto the court after his son was knocked over by the opposing coach. Police say Foley pushed his way past one officer and spit tobacco on him before having to be forcibly taken to the ground by two other officers. Foley says he remained calm throughout the event and does not chew tobacco.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The case was dismissed by the charging officer in municipal court after one judge recused himself and another refused to do so<\/a>, even after it was revealed that he gave a campaign contribution to Foley several years ago, his son is a close friend and backer of Foley, and the judge made public statements about a pending motion in the case that may have been inappropriate.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The officer wrote on the dismissal that the case would be refilled in magistrate court. Instead, it has ended up in the limbo of the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

You can read the police report by clicking here<\/a>, but there are two holes in the case. First, a number of legislators say they have never seen Foley chew tobacco. During sessions, they spend a lot of time together. More important to the case, no officer reported seeing Foley spit tobacco at the cop.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What is stated in the report is that the officer who first tried and failed to stop Foley from running onto the basketball court noticed \u201cthat Mr. Foley\u2019s chewing tobacco had been spit on my white duty polo shirt.\u201d But he didn\u2019t notice it until later, after Foley was taken down by two other officers and handcuffed.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The officer stated in his report that Foley \u201calso possessed chewing tobacco on the front of his shirt,\u201d a stain that is apparent in Foley\u2019s booking mug<\/a>, but that\u2019s hardly proof, at least in the legal sense, that it came from Foley\u2019s mouth.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The second hole is that Foley says officers were wearing T-shirts and shorts that, on the front \u2013 the side of their uniforms facing Foley during the incident \u2013 don\u2019t identify them as officers. In addition, Foley says the officers didn\u2019t verbally identify themselves.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some question about whether charges of obstructing an officer and resisting arrest will stand if Foley didn\u2019t have reason to know \u2013 again, at least in the legal sense \u2013 that the men approaching him were officers.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The political dimensions
<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The pressure on the district attorney has to enormous in this case. Roswell Republicans are split into two factions that have bitterly fought with each other in recent years. Filing charges against Foley would have political consequences. So would closing the case.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What would be best for Foley in the criminal sense \u2013 if the district attorney found insufficient evidence to file charges \u2013 might be the worst case for his political career. If Foley is innocent, as he asserts, it would be better for him to get such a verdict from a jury. Otherwise, the allegations, arrest mug and police report could follow him forever, along with allegations that the case was buried for political reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve reported since his arrest in June that the criminal case against House Minority Whip Dan Foley might be weak. Now the Roswell Daily Record is reporting that the case against the GOP representative from Roswell is in limbo, having been dismissed in municipal court and not re-filed in magistrate court a month later because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","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=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}