In mid-November, Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story, alongside officials from the United States Attorney's Office in New Mexico, posted a video on social media saying that a longtime criminal was now in federal custody.
According to Chief Story, this individual has been arrested more than 70 times in three years and had broken “hundreds” of windows and sent people to the hospital. But Story said that state laws surrounding a defendant's competency in a courtroom has often kept him out of jail, leaving him to turn to the federal justice system to put the man in jail.
“That was a frustration. He could game the system. He will tell us one thing that he is not incompetent and but he can play the system and they dismiss all of his cases,” Story said.
Story says that competency laws in the state have long been a headache and the difference in results between the state and federal courts speak for themselves. In a meeting organized by the Republican Party, he told lawmakers that every person who has gone to the federal system has been found competent.
“Competency has been a big issue in New Mexico. The requirements should be the same for both New Mexico and the federal system but the results are very different. People who have been repeatedly found incompetent through the New Mexico system have been found competent in the federal system the first time and that has happened with juveniles and adults,” Story said.
Laws surrounding competency in a courtroom are in place to protect a defendant's right to participate in their own trial. In New Mexico, if a question of competency is raised, a medical professional will evaluate the defendant. Their evaluation then goes to the judge who then makes the final call. If found incompetent, the process moves to see if the defendant is dangerous, a process that Story also says has its flaws.
“When the district attorney goes to the dangerousness hearing, they have to jump through hoops and orchestrate this perfect argument and even then they sometimes are not found dangerous,” Story said.
If the defendant is then found not dangerous, the charges can be dropped.
However, some say that there are safeguards in place to make sure people do not take advantage of the system. Stacy Boone, Senior Statewide Behavioral Health Program Manager for the Administrative Office of the Courts, says that the professionals doing the evaluations are well trained.
“They receive pretty comprehensive training in how to spot folks that may be what they call malingering in the clinical sense and trying to sway the results. In terms of safeguards, the parties in the court can always request a second opinion,” Boone said.
Boone also says that judges have to work within the rules set by state and that a competency hearing involves everyone including the prosecution.
“The judges ultimately make the finding and the ruling on those cases but it is very much guided by and dictated by New Mexico law and how it currently exists,” Boone said.
However, there are more programs gaining traction around the state to address the common concerns. Doña Ana County is home to the first competency diversion pilot program in the state. This program helps those who face mental health challenges and are charged with misdemeanors get treatment. If completed, their charges can be dropped.
James Ketcherside, program manager for the competency diversion program, says they meet people who are in jail to get mental health treatment but it is voluntary.
“We have helped guide several individuals and the ones that have been successful, we have yet to see one come back so we are very proud of that,” Ketcherside said.
Ketcherside says that they have helped over 200 people in this program but not all finish the whole 6 months. He says he hopes to see the program grow in the future.
“Building that bridge between the courts and the community is essential. We are building it now and it is just getting started. I really hope that in the future this behavior health program that we have, I see it going public to help the public eventually,” Ketcherside said.
For KRWG Public Media, I’m Noah Raess.
