{"id":2400,"date":"2007-10-18T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-18T18:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/friday-night-outing-lands-mesilla-mayor-in-trouble\/"},"modified":"2007-10-18T12:32:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-18T18:32:00","slug":"friday-night-outing-lands-mesilla-mayor-in-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/10\/friday-night-outing-lands-mesilla-mayor-in-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday-night outing lands Mesilla mayor in trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Friday-night outing to the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in an unmarked police vehicle has landed Mesilla Mayor Michael Cadena<\/a> in the hot seat, and some members of the town\u2019s Board of Trustees plan to try to force him from office.<\/p>\n

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

Mesilla Mayor Pro Tem Jesus Caro and Trustee Nora Barraza will meet with District Attorney Susana Martinez this afternoon to determine their options. The two trustees have told Cadena they plan to seek his ouster if he doesn\u2019t resign, and Cadena said publicly at Wednesday\u2019s meeting of the trustees that he won\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n

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

According to the Sunland Park Police Department incident report<\/a>, the trouble began Friday night when Cadena and a woman identified as his wife drove into the valet parking area at the casino in the unmarked police vehicle owned by the Town of Mesilla<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>. The vehicle\u2019s siren blared before the vehicle cut to the front of the valet line. Cadena left the vehicle on the valet ramp, its engine running, and entered the casino, the report states.<\/p>\n

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

That got the attention of an off-duty police officer who began a police search for whoever was driving the vehicle.<\/p>\n

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

Police didn\u2019t find Cadena for 45 minutes but, when they did, he was dancing with a group of women. According to the report, police administered field sobriety tests to Cadena and determined, despite his assertion that he had only one beer, that Cadena \u201chad consumed more than one beer and was not safe to operate a motor vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

After that, Cadena was not allowed to drive the vehicle, instead getting a ride home. He wasn\u2019t arrested or charged with any offense. He and the woman both told police she accidentally set off the siren.<\/p>\n

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

In an interview, Cadena disputed many assertions contained in the police reports. He also apologized for using poor judgment and creating a bad perception, but said he had done nothing improper.<\/p>\n

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

He told the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a> he took the official vehicle because he was in El Paso<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> for official business, and said he was authorized to use it. But the Mesilla marshal, when contacted Friday night by Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> police, didn\u2019t know who had possession of the vehicle. And Cadena gave a different statement about the vehicle to police, according to the report, saying that he was driving a marshal vehicle because he had let the marshals office use his vehicle.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena told me today that he has been authorized since July to use the vehicle and was in Sunland<\/st1:placename> Park<\/st1:placetype>, not El Paso<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, for a business dinner. He said he never told police the marshal\u2019s office had his personal vehicle.<\/p>\n

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

According to police reports, Cadena also gave contradictory statements about whether he had been drinking. During the field sobriety tests, he failed to follow instructions to keep his hands to his side and out of his pockets, swayed back and forth and was not able to smoothly follow a pen with his eyes. He had blood-shot, watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, the reports state.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena told me he was not drunk.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena says he\u2019s being unfairly attacked<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The incident has turned the focus on the town\u2019s police, firefighters and at least some trustees on getting rid of Cadena, but he says that\u2019s not fair.<\/p>\n

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

In a meeting with marshals on Wednesday morning, Cadena suggested stripping officers of take-home vehicle privileges. At Wednesday afternoon\u2019s meeting, it was announced that the marshals and firefighters had taken no-confidence votes in Cadena, the Sun-News<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena said he made the suggestion because of budget constraints and said that\u2019s why the police and firefighters are upset with him.<\/p>\n

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

Trustees had harsh words for Cadena at Wednesday\u2019s meeting, and indicated they might seek his removal under a town code that allows such action by a district judge for malfeasance. In an interview this morning, Caro confirmed today\u2019s meeting with Martinez<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> and said he and Barraza will seek Cadena\u2019s removal if the district attorney can\u2019t take action. He said Cadena \u201cis just getting to be too much of a liability for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIf he\u2019s out there and he\u2019s in an accident, and somebody gets killed, you know, it\u2019s going to come back to us,\u201d Caro said.<\/p>\n

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

Caro noted the inconsistencies between the police reports and Cadena\u2019s public statements, and said the mayor is to blame for the controversy.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cIt\u2019s not like we\u2019re trying to get him. He\u2019s done it to himself,\u201d Caro said.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena said trustees \u201cwho are interested in the position\u201d are behind the attacks on him. Though the mayor didn\u2019t name anyone, Caro said Barraza plans to run against Cadena if he\u2019s still mayor in 2009. Caro also said he might have planned a mayoral run if he weren\u2019t already running for state representative next year.<\/p>\n

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

Cadena said he\u2019s considering \u201ctaking a little time off\u201d from his job and also said he is leaning toward not seeking re-election in 2009. But he said the likely decision to not run again has nothing to do with the current controversy, and he was already leaning toward not seeking re-election before it. He\u2019s been mayor for 12 years.<\/p>\n

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

Now he\u2019s not certain what he\u2019ll do, but he said he won\u2019t resign before the end of his term.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI don\u2019t want to leave under these nasty conditions,\u201d Cadena said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Friday-night outing to the Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino in an unmarked police vehicle has landed Mesilla Mayor Michael Cadena in the hot seat, and some members of the town\u2019s Board of Trustees plan to try to force him from office. Mesilla Mayor Pro Tem Jesus Caro and Trustee Nora Barraza will meet with […]<\/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-2400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400","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=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}