{"id":470548,"date":"2017-11-27T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T15:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=470548"},"modified":"2017-11-28T08:59:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T15:59:22","slug":"people-in-crisis-deadly-force-and-the-search-for-a-better-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/11\/people-in-crisis-deadly-force-and-the-search-for-a-better-way\/","title":{"rendered":"People in crisis, deadly force and the search for a better way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/L1ncEvQhop8?rel=0\" width=\"771\" height=\"433\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>LAS CRUCES \u2013 Juan Gabriel Torres twice drank a beer in front of police officers while in possession of a knife in 2016. The first time, he was arrested. The next time, he was shot dead.<\/p>\n<p>The first, in April, appeared to have been a cry for help. Torres said he was hooked on methamphetamine and wanted to go back to jail to get clean, a police report states. The second time, in August, he abandoned a stolen pickup in the middle of a busy overpass and was armed with a large hunting knife when he appeared to lunge at officers.<\/p>\n<p>Torres, reportedly diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, spent the last years of his life in and out of jail and prison for crimes often tied to addiction and mental illness.<\/p>\n<p>And now his three children are left without a father.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p><em>This article is part of a multi-newsroom investigative series that examines southern New Mexico\u2019s struggling behavioral health system and explores solutions. <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/distressed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to read more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI wish he was still here so he could see the kids, be there for them, see them grow up. It hurts, it hurts my heart,\u201d said Maggie Calderon, Torres\u2019 ex-girlfriend and the mother of his children. In June, Calderon and the three kids visited the bridge where Torres was fatally shot to commemorate what would have been his 37th birthday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to face the fact that he&#8217;s gone,\u201d Calderon said. \u201c\u2026 I just always had that hope in my heart that he would be here for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The district attorney determined that the fatal police shooting of Torres on Aug. 21, 2016 was justified. But could it have been prevented? Programs in Houston and Santa Fe could be models for how area law enforcement agencies can respond to crises sparked by people whose actions are determined as much by mental illness and substance abuse as willful defiance of the law.<\/p>\n<p>The system of care designed to help people dealing with mental health issues in Do\u00f1a Ana County and New Mexico has taken many hits in recent years \u2014 most notably in mid-2013 when Gov. Susana Martinez\u2019s administration abruptly <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/tag\/medicaid-freeze\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">froze Medicaid payments<\/a> to 15 community mental health and addiction care providers across New Mexico, including four that provided services in Do\u00f1a Ana County, over allegations of fraud.<\/p>\n<p>The allegations <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/07\/states-credible-allegations-of-fraud-charge-against-health-providers-falls-apart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disappeared in 2016<\/a> when the attorney general found no pattern of wrongdoing or fraud in any of the organizations.<\/p>\n<p>But the damage <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/04\/disarray-continues-to-plague-nms-behavioral-health-system\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was already done<\/a>. The funding freeze caused chaos for health workers and thousands of patients in Do\u00f1a Ana County alike. The system has not yet recovered.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, law enforcement is increasingly filling the societal need of dealing with people in crisis, an analysis of 911 call data shows. The year after Martinez\u2019s Medicaid freeze, calls to 911 for behavioral health-related issues or suicidal ideations rose in Do\u00f1a Ana County \u2014 and the number of calls climbed again in 2015 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Such emergency calls to the Mesilla Valley Regional Dispatch Authority hit a six-year high in 2016 \u2013 with a total of 5,771, an increase of almost 20 percent since 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Those calls place a heavy burden on law enforcement officers and other first responders. They tie up time and resources. First responders aren\u2019t always trained or equipped to deal with such situations. And by the time society\u2019s infrastructure to help people in crisis has failed, and officers with guns face people in crisis, all of their lives, and those of anyone else nearby, can be in danger.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what happened the day Torres died.<\/p>\n<p>He was supposed to be behind bars, but miscommunication between the court and jail allowed him to bond out days earlier. Then, on a Sunday afternoon when people in Do\u00f1a Ana County were mourning a police officer who had been shot and killed days earlier, Torres carried out a violent crime spree in Las Cruces that ended in the middle of the Lohman Avenue bridge over Interstate 25. He was armed and shirtless.<\/p>\n<p>Police video shows him taking a swig from the beer bottle while an officer commanded him to drop his knife. Seconds later, Torres lunged and two Las Cruces police officers fired seven bullets into his body.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_468721\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-468721\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5-771x561.jpg\" alt=\"Hunting knife\" width=\"771\" height=\"561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5-771x561.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5-336x244.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5-768x559.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5-1170x851.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-5.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Diana Alba-Soular \/ Las Cruces Sun-News<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">During a news conference, Las Cruces Police Chief Jaime Montoya displays a 14-inch hunting knife that Juan Gabriel Torres was carrying when he lunged at officers on Aug. 21, 2016.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>A troubled life<\/h3>\n<p>Through dozens of pages of police reports and court filings, a portrait emerges of Torres as a man who failed to stay away from trouble or get control of his addictions, even though he at times expressed a desire to get clean.<\/p>\n<p>Between 1999 and 2016, he was jailed 17 times at the Do\u00f1a Ana County Detention Center, served seven stints in state prison, and violated parole\/probation nine times, records show.<\/p>\n<p>As a self-proclaimed gang member who went by the nickname \u201cChucky,\u201d he also had at least 22 encounters with LCPD officers between 2003 and 2016 before the bridge shooting, according to police reports.<\/p>\n<p>His first felony conviction came in March 2002, at age 21, when he pleaded no contest to aggravated battery against a household member. Then in 2004 he led LCPD officers on a vehicle and foot chase following an assault call. Torres, in 2005, pleaded no contest to 10 charges after that incident and received a partially suspended sentence and probation.<\/p>\n<p>A judge revoked his probation in November 2006, and he served two years in prison. He was released in January 2008 and was out only five months before being accused of violently beating his then-girlfriend (not Calderon). He was charged with kidnapping and battery.<\/p>\n<p>That girlfriend told police at the time that a drunken Torres \u2013 who was still on supervised probation \u2013 began punching her while she was sleeping on June 21, 2008. She yelled to wake up others, she told police. But Torres shot back, \u201cShut up bitch, or I\u2019ll hit harder,\u201d a police report stated. He pinned her and punched her repeatedly in the face and head, she said. She lost consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>She woke up later that night in a \u201cpool of blood on the bed,\u201d she said. She walked into a bathroom and Torres attacked her again.<\/p>\n<p>He pulled her by her hair into the bedroom, she told police, \u201cwhere he threw her on the bed and began to punch her and knee her again,\u201d according to the report. She said she woke up around 10 a.m. the next morning. Torres was gone.<\/p>\n<p>A judge approved a warrant for Torres\u2019 arrest three days later, court records show. But he wasn\u2019t arrested in that case until about nine months later, in February 2009. Months after that, in August 2009, he pleaded no contest to the charges.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_468718\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468718\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-2-336x290.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Gabriel Torres\" width=\"336\" height=\"290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-2-336x290.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-2.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Do\u00f1a Ana County Detention Center<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A jail booking photo of Juan Gabriel Torres<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Torres was sentenced to nearly 15 years in prison but ordered to serve only four years behind bars, followed by two years of parole and five years of probation, according to sentencing documents signed by then-Judge Stephen Bridgforth.<\/p>\n<p>With credit for good time, Torres was released from prison in June 2011 \u2014 on his 31st birthday \u2014 after serving less than two years. He was to serve five years of probation.<\/p>\n<p>He didn\u2019t have any criminal problems until 2013, at which time he began racking up probation violations and cycling in and out of jail and prison for the last three years of his life.<\/p>\n<p>Torres served about four months in prison in 2013 for a probation violation before being released in October. The following month he tested positive for meth and opioids and admitted to drug use, according to a petition to revoke his probation that was later dismissed by prosecutors.<\/p>\n<p>That was the year Martinez\u2019s administration froze funding to the 15 behavioral health providers in New Mexico \u2014 a move that ultimately left many vulnerable residents without services.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear if Torres, whose mental state appeared to be deteriorating, independently sought treatment during that time. However, the Parole Board sanctioned Torres and ordered that he successfully complete a treatment program in Silver City.<\/p>\n<p>That never happened.<\/p>\n<p>Torres failed to report to the Yucca Lodge Chemical Dependency Treatment Center on Dec. 31, 2013 and again on Jan. 1, 2014, according to a report by Parole-Probation Officer Jacob Martinez.<\/p>\n<p>Torres told Martinez on Jan. 1, 2014 that he was on the brink of relapse, the report stated. Martinez arranged for Torres to be picked up by police and taken to jail for an overnight stay.<\/p>\n<p>The following day, when Torres reported to the office, he said \u201che was having bad anxiety\u201d and did not want to go to Yucca Lodge for treatment \u201cbecause he felt unsafe.\u201d He said he thought someone was following him and two vehicles had been circling his house the previous night. Martinez described Torres as \u201canxious and extremely paranoid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A counselor determined Torres\u2019 \u201cmental state was not stable\u201d enough to participate in the program at Yucca Lodge and offered other options, but Torres refused each one, according to Martinez\u2019s report. Instead, Torres pleaded to go to jail because, Martinez\u2019s report stated, \u201che felt better in a controlled environment and would know how to handle himself better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Torres could not resist using illegal drugs and was refusing help, Martinez wrote, so he was an \u201cunsuitable\u201d candidate for probation. He recommended that Torres be incarcerated so he could \u201cparticipate in the many therapies and groups that are offered in the New Mexico Department of Corrections prison system and hopefully he will learn to make better choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Torres was in prison from Jan. 30, 2014, until June 29, 2015.<\/p>\n<h3>A common problem<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s not uncommon for people like Torres to end up in jail or prison. A 2006 study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that an estimated 56 percent of state prisoners, 45 percent of federal prisoners and 64 percent of jail inmates nationwide have a mental health condition.<\/p>\n<p>In Do\u00f1a Ana County, about 40 percent of inmates at the county jail received treatment for mental health conditions in 2016, according to the Do\u00f1a Ana Wellness Institute and Stepping Up Partnership, a group of judicial, medical, law enforcement and community stakeholders who work collaboratively to help people with mental health illness stay out of jail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my 19-year career in law enforcement with LCPD, we\u2019ve always (encountered) a large number of people that were dealing with mental crisis,\u201d LCPD Deputy Chief Justin Dunivan said.<\/p>\n<p>Dunivan, who represents LCPD on the wellness initiative, said the department has been tackling the issue head-on through crisis intervention training and community partnerships.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are now doing a better job, in my opinion, of working together not only with law enforcement and the medical field but within the community to try to help reduce these numbers,\u201d he said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As of October, 73 percent of commissioned officers at LCPD had been certified in crisis intervention training, according to spokesman Dan Trujillo. Cadets have been required since 2010 to earn such certification during LCPD\u2019s academy by completing 40 hours of training. The eventual goal is training for all officers, Dunivan said.<\/p>\n<p>Between 2006 and 2016, LCPD officers responded to 2,274 calls involving mentally ill people, according to department figures. They also responded to 3,182 incidents involving people with suicidal ideations and 2,841 incidents involving people who were taken into protective custody in that 11-year period.<\/p>\n<p>For Dunivan, the keys questions are: \u201cHow do we try to reduce these numbers, and how do we get these individuals the appropriate treatment that they need?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Torres was out of prison for only 10 days in June 2015 before police encountered him again. He called 911 to report that he was being followed. When police showed up, he fled into a hotel in Las Cruces and attempted to barricade himself in a bathroom. \u201cGive me a gun so I can shoot myself,\u201d he told officers, according to a police report.<\/p>\n<p>LCPD officers used a Taser to subdue him so they could take him to MountainView Regional Medical Center for evaluation, according to a police report.<\/p>\n<p>Torres was back on the streets less than a week later. He called 911 from various locations, claiming he was being followed, according to another report. Officers considered charging him with making false reports, but later learned that he was \u201cbipolar and schizophrenic\u201d and had been recently discharged from Mesilla Valley Hospital, the report stated.<\/p>\n<p>Dealing with such situations can tax law enforcement resources. By law, officers taking individuals into protective custody must accompany them to the hospital and wait by their side until they are admitted into an emergency room. That could mean an officer is sitting at the hospital for anywhere from one to five hours, or sometimes longer, Dunivan said.<\/p>\n<p>Detective Robyn Gojkovich of the Do\u00f1a Ana County Sheriff\u2019s Department, which has been grappling with a deputy shortage for years, said such calls take resources away from other cases.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have other crimes we have to investigate, and instead we\u2019re helping these families out, because who else can they turn to? Everybody else has basically shut the door,\u201d Gojkovich said.<\/p>\n<p>Dunivan said the process must be improved to shorten hospital waits because, \u201cultimately, that person needs medical treatment.\u201d He is now looking to the Houston Police Department for a possible solution.<\/p>\n<p>About 10 years ago, Houston established the nation\u2019s first mental health division in a law enforcement agency, under the direction of then Commander Mike Lee.<\/p>\n<p>The Houston model has teams of officers trained in crisis intervention and mental health care workers who respond to calls involving people in crisis. Houston police also rolled out a new diversion drop-off facility about 10 years ago. It\u2019s a place officers can take mentally ill offenders instead of jail, Lee said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It started this huge cultural change, and change in the way of thinking for officers of how to deal with people who are committing offenses or acting out due to illness and not due to criminality,&#8221; Lee said. Today, he oversees the newly created Mental Health &amp; Jail Diversion Bureau at the Houston-area Harris County Sheriff\u2019s Office, where he is a major.<\/p>\n<p>As part of their reforms, Houston police also streamlined the process of transporting mentally ill individuals to hospitals. What once took seven pages of forms and had to be notarized by a judge is now a one-page form, Lee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, the officer can hand over the person quickly to the staff and help them get treated very quickly,\u201d he said. \u201cWe a took a process that was taking four to six hours of frustration to the officers, consumers and hospitals and turned that into a process that was taking half an hour.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Breaking the cycle<\/h3>\n<p>By the end of July 2015, Torres was back in prison after he was found at a gas station under the influence of a synthetic cannabinoid. He was released on April 25, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>He was on the streets for only one day.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when LCPD Officer Alejandro Rodriguez encountered Torres standing next to his cruiser holding a beer outside a Las Cruces convenience store. In the report detailing the incident, Rodriguez wrote that Torres refused commands to step away from the vehicle and taunted him.<\/p>\n<p>Torres chugged the beer and tossed it in a trash can, the report stated. He then advanced on Rodriguez, appearing \u201chigh on something or just highly intoxicated\u201d and asked the officer what he would do if he shoplifted beer or pulled out the knife that was in his pocket. Several times, Rodriguez asked Torres to walk away, but Torres didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez called for backup. He and Sgt. Feliciano Garcia found a handmade shank in Torres\u2019 pocket during a pat-down search.<\/p>\n<p>Torres told Rodriguez he wanted to go back to jail because \u201che had just gotten out of prison and got immediately hooked on meth,\u201d Rodriguez wrote in the report. Torres believed jail \u201cwas going to be his way away from it,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_468725\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468725\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-10-336x343.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Gabriel Torres\" width=\"336\" height=\"343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-10-336x343.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-10-60x60.jpg 60w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-10.jpg 447w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juan Gabriel Torres<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Torres got his wish. He walked into the nearby convenience store, grabbed a 24-ounce can of beer, left without paying for it and drank it in front of the officers, who then arrested him. He later told LCPD he planned to use the shank \u201cas a tactic to go back to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jail records show Torres was booked into the Do\u00f1a Ana County Detention Center that evening on charges of public intoxication, shoplifting, carrying a deadly weapon and assault on a peace officer. He was released within two days.<\/p>\n<p>A month later, on May 29, 2016, he was arrested yet again \u2014 this time on charges of shoplifting alcohol and drinking in public. His probation was revoked. That incident set in motion events that would eventually end with his death.<\/p>\n<p>Some people like Torres struggle with life outside the structure of incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>According to Dunivan, the Do\u00f1a Ana Wellness Institute is working to keep people like Torres, who are in crisis, from reoffending by enhancing existing resources, such as services to help with re-entering society, and developing a comprehensive behavioral health crisis response system.<\/p>\n<p>But affordable housing, transportation and jobs also are needed to reduce recidivism, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Calderon, Torres\u2019 ex-girlfriend, suggested that Torres had trouble finding stable housing and keeping on top of his medications when he was not behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was on medication when he got out of prison. He told me they had gave him a bunch of medication,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when his mom kicks him out on the street and he has nowhere to go, where is he going to refill his prescription? How is he going to get anywhere but walking here and there? Of course you&#8217;re going to be depressed. And if you don&#8217;t take your medication, it does mess with your head.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fiscal year 2011, 3,440 inmates were released from the New Mexico Department of Corrections, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/lcs\/lfc\/lfcdocs\/perfaudit\/Reducing%20Recidivism,%20Cutting%20Costs%20and%20Improving%20Public%20Safety%20in%20the.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2012 legislative report<\/a>. Within three years of release, 46 percent were back in prison. Within five years it was 53 percent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s paramount if we want to break this cyclical pattern \u2014 not just specific to people if they have a mental health crisis but if they have a drug addiction \u2014 they have to have housing, they have to have transportation, they have to have a job to integrate back into society to become a productive member,\u201d Dunivan said. Unfortunately, he said, finding funding for such resources is a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Dunivan is looking for solutions in other programs, like Houston\u2019s, that have been successful in helping police departments address behavioral health issues. Another program he\u2019s studying is Santa Fe\u2019s LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) program, which is based off a program that got its start in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>LEAD, which Santa Fe started in 2014, is a pre-arrest diversion program for people who have, as \u201cthe root cause of their criminal activity,\u201d an opiate addiction, said Santa Fe\u2019s LEAD Program Manager Shelly Moeller.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of going through the cycle of arrest, incarceration and prosecution, offenders are diverted into heavily case-managed treatment programs and services to help with their addictions, Moeller said.<\/p>\n<p>Santa Fe implemented the program in response to a spike in property crimes committed by people addicted to heroin and other opiates, said Jerome Sanchez, the former property crimes sergeant for the Santa Fe Police Department who co-chaired the task force that created the LEAD program. In an interview, he described discovering that the problem \u201cwasn\u2019t for a lack of law enforcement effort,\u201d but instead due to addiction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery single person we were running into on the streets is addicted to heroin. There\u2019s not a single person \u2014 not one \u2014 that we\u2019ve interviewed that has not been addicted,\u201d Sanchez, who is now a consultant for LEAD, recalled telling the police chief.<\/p>\n<p>In Las Cruces, property crimes <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2017\/09\/27\/fbi-rates-violent-and-property-crime-down-las-cruces-dona-ana-county\/709077001\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">declined by about 5 percent in 2016<\/a>, according to data released this year by the FBI. However, drug offenses increased by about 15 percent in 2016, according to LCPD data. Moeller said she has been in discussions with LCPD and Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s Health and Human Services Department, among others, about establishing a LEAD program in Las Cruces. She said the stakeholders are planning to host their first meeting before the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The LEAD program in Santa Fe starts at the first contact with law enforcement, Moeller said. Officers are trained to identify potential candidates for the program and ask them to participate.<\/p>\n<p>From there, a case manager is called to the scene to provide \u201charm reduction\u201d education, which emphasizes safe drug use. \u201cUpon first contact with a client, case managers provide overdose prevention education and make sure the client has Narcan and access to clean syringes and other harm reduction services,\u201d Moeller said. From there, participants begin individualized treatment plans and set goals.<\/p>\n<p>Potential clients who do not agree to participate are arrested and charged for their alleged crimes. But that\u2019s rare, Moeller said. Out of about 150 referrals, only two have been arrested because they declined to join the program.<\/p>\n<p>Sanchez said one of the biggest challenges in Santa Fe was getting officers on board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult for officers to understand and to wrap their heads around not arresting people because it\u2019s not something that they\u2019re used to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Sanchez said the program has been successful. She recalled its second client, who came in barefoot. \u201cI literally didn\u2019t think she would last until the end of the day, and I honestly thought she would be dead,\u201d Sanchez recalled. Today, he said, that client \u201chas completely transformed her life. She\u2019s no longer homeless, she\u2019s working, she self-supporting herself and fully functioning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another client, Sanchez said, had been to nine treatment centers and not had any success before LEAD. \u201cShe\u2019s also completely turned around her life and we\u2019re even considering hiring her,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Moeller said LEAD costs about $650,000 to operate per year. It is partly funded by the city of Santa Fe, with help from grants and reimbursements from Medicaid and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.<\/p>\n<p>According to the LEAD website, a cost-benefit analysis conducted in 2013 of 100 individuals arrested by Santa Fe police for opiate possession or sales revealed a cost of more than $4 million between 2010 and 2012, or an average of $42,000 per individual, for incarceration. The projected cost of a LEAD client, by contrast, was estimated at $34,000 per individual over a total of three years.<\/p>\n<h3>An improper release<\/h3>\n<p>No such program existed in Las Cruces to offer Torres when he was arrested in May 2016 for shoplifting alcohol and drinking in public. Instead, in June of last year, a petition was filed to revoke his probation. He remained at the county jail, held on a $5,000 secured bond, until he appeared before Judge Douglas Driggers in 3rd Judicial District Court on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe petition to revoke probation contains four separate allegations that you violated your probation,\u201d Driggers told Torres, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/TorresCourtHearing.wav\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a recording of the hearing<\/a> obtained by the Sun-News. \u201cAs to the allegations contained in this petition \u2026 do you admit or deny?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI admit the allegations,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe court will accept your admission and hereby revokes your probation,\u201d Driggers responded.<\/p>\n<p>Before he was sentenced, Torres said he wanted to \u201cthank the court for allowing me the opportunity\u201d to be unsatisfactorily discharged from probation. He was sentenced to one year and 290 days in prison, the balance of his original 14-year term from the 2008 kidnapping case.<\/p>\n<p>Torres should have been transported after that from the county jail to the state prison system. But the system failed that day \u2014 failed to protect Torres from himself, and the public from a man that law enforcement considered dangerous.<\/p>\n<p>Torres shouldn\u2019t have been allowed to post bond. But that\u2019s what happened. He was released Aug. 12, 2016, the day after the hearing before Driggers, when the Socorro-based Priority 1 Bailbonds Inc. received funds to pay the $5,000 bond. The bond had remained in effect even though Driggers sentenced Torres to prison.<\/p>\n<p>The mix-up is something Driggers said he had never before seen happen before in his 14 years on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe jail is to hold the defendant until he is transported to the Corrections Department to serve his time,\u201d Driggers said in an interview. But in this case, after Torres was sentenced to prison but before Driggers\u2019 order was filed, Torres posted bond, according to Driggers. He blamed \u201ca lack of communication between the court and the jail\u201d for allowing Torres to get out.<\/p>\n<p>To ensure an improper release doesn\u2019t happen again, Driggers said he\u2019ll issue a separate detention order in future cases to require that a defendant remain in custody \u201cso that there isn\u2019t a misstep.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Driggers said he believes the error would have been eventually caught after Torres bonded out, and a warrant would have been issued for his arrest. But that hadn\u2019t yet happened nine days after Torres\u2019 release \u2013 when he caught the attention of police for the last time on Aug. 21, 2016.<\/p>\n<h3>The final encounter<\/h3>\n<p>It was a somber Sunday as thousands of mourners, including scores of police officers, gathered at the Pan American Center to bid farewell to Officer Jos\u00e9 Israel Chavez of the Hatch Police Department. Chavez had been shot and killed by an armed fugitive on Aug. 12.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, police say Torres stole a white Chevrolet pickup from an 86-year-old man around 3 p.m. near the intersection of Lohman Avenue and Solano Drive, west of the Lohman bridge over Interstate 25. Soon after, officers spotted and pursued the pickup near the intersection of Lohman and Foothills Road, on the other side of the Lohman bridge. They stopped the pursuit because of heavy traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Around 4:30 p.m., police saw the pickup drive past the initial crime scene, back on the west side of the Lohman bridge.<\/p>\n<p>Sgt. Michael Henke and Officers Johnathan Boehne and Christopher Gamez followed the pickup east toward the bridge, but they again broke off the pursuit near Walton Boulevard because of heavy traffic.<\/p>\n<p>Less than a minute later, officers caught up with the pickup. It was abandoned on Lohman, in the eastbound lanes above the interstate. Torres was walking away from the truck, armed with a large hunting knife and carrying a bottle of beer.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lcsun-news.com\/story\/news\/crime\/2016\/09\/02\/lcpd-officers-justified-fatally-shooting-man\/89786722\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">26-second video<\/a> recorded by Boehne\u2019s lapel camera captured the encounter. Boehne swerved around traffic to get to the abandoned pickup. He stopped behind another patrol unit, stepped out and drew his firearm as he spotted Torres approach a blue Chrysler sedan. According to police, Torres tried to open the door to the car, which was occupied by a man and his 10-year son, but couldn\u2019t because it was locked.<\/p>\n<p>Boehne\u2019s video shows the blue sedan slowly driving away while Torres walked west, took a swig from the beer bottle and held the knife. Boehne yelled:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDrop the knife! Get out of the way! Drop the knife! Drop the knife, now! Drop the knife. Drop the knife! Put it on the ground! Drop the knife!\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_468719\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-468719\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3-336x189.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Gabriel Torres\" width=\"336\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3-771x434.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-3.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">LCPD lapel footage screenshot<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Las Cruces Police Department Officer Johnathan Boehne points his gun at Juan Gabriel Torres on Aug. 21, 2016, just before Boehne and another officer fired on Torres.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Torres gestured at Boehne and said something as the officer issued two final commands. Then he appeared to lunge toward Boehne. Although the video cuts off at that point, LCPD said Boehne and Henke fired their weapons, striking Torres seven times.<\/p>\n<p>The bullets ended a life plagued by substance abuse, mental illness and many years in incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks later, the district attorney determined that the shooting was justified under New Mexico law, clearing Henke and Boehne of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>LCPD has declined to discuss the shooting, citing pending litigation. Less than a month after the shooting, an attorney representing Torres\u2019 family, Gary Mitchell of Ruidoso, sent a tort notice to the city seeking damages for what he called Torres\u2019 wrongful death. Mitchell has not returned calls seeking comment on the ligation.<\/p>\n<p>Torres left behind a grieving family.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is where the father of my kids, Gabe Torres, got shot and died,\u201d Calderon said while walking over the Lohman bridge in June, when she and her children marked Torres\u2019 birthday at the spot where he died.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEver since then, it&#8217;s been really hard for the kids \u2014 and for me as a mother to see my kids hurt,\u201d Calderon said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_468720\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-468720\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4-771x615.jpg\" alt=\"Juan Gabriel Torres memorial\" width=\"771\" height=\"615\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4-771x615.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4-336x268.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4-768x612.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4-1170x933.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/JGTorres-4.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Robin Zielinski \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maggie Calderon, Juan Gabriel Torres&#8217; ex-girlfriend, and their children &#8212; Juan Gabriel Torres Jr., right; Breeana Torres, background; and Jerry Torres (not pictured), place balloons on a memorial for Torres.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>She spoke as passing vehicles honked at the family. That brought back painful memories of a candlelight vigil the family held in 2016, soon after Torres\u2019 death. During that gathering, Calderon recalled that motorists honked and some yelled things like, \u201cHe deserved it; go to hell.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Calderon said she wishes people would be more sympathetic to families in such circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody knows what he was going through,\u201d she said. \u201cAll they know is that, oh, he had a knife. He has tattoos. He has a bottle of beer, and basically they labeled him.\u00a0And that&#8217;s what people do \u2014 is judge people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Carlos Andres L\u00f3pez can be reached 575-541-5453, <a href=\"mailto:carlopez@lcsun-news.com\">carlopez@lcsun-news.com<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@carlopez_los\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@carlopez_los<\/a> on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Juan Gabriel Torres spent the last years of his life in and out of jail and prison for crimes often tied to addiction and mental illness. Then he was shot dead by police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":471071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[142,115,117,145,203,3281,107],"class_list":["post-470548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crime","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-health-care","tag-las-cruces","tag-law-enforcement","tag-medicaid-freeze","tag-roundhouse","series-distressed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470548","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=470548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}