Stephen Geisik leaves the courtroom after his hearing on alleged probation violations was continued for 60 days. Photo by Maire O’Neill/ladailypost.com
Former Los Alamos resident Stephen Geisik, 27, will remain in the Los Alamos Detention Center for another 60 days to allow the Office of the Public Defender to find an attorney to contract with for his defense for a probation violation hearing in First Judicial District Court.
Judge Jason C. Lidyard ordered the continuance following a May 30 discussion with Geisik’s public defender Jennifer Burrell and Assistant District Attorney Kent Wahlquist. Wahlquist told the Court that he agreed with Burrell’s request for a continuance.
Geisik was arrested by New Mexico State Police (NMSP) Feb. 23 and charged with two counts of child abuse. Court documents filed by Adult Probation and Parole officials indicate that Child Youth and Families Department (CYFD) representatives and NMSP arrived at his residence Jan. 20 and removed his two children for a 48-hour period. The documents allege that CYFD informed Geisik that he needed to remove two cats from his residence and purchase two new mattresses for his children. When a probation officer conducted a field call Feb. 22, Geisik told them he had taken the cats to a shelter and purchased two mattresses and that he was waiting to hear from CYFD. The following day, NMSP arrested him on the new charges, which violate the terms of his probation.
Burrell told Judge Lidyard that Wahlquist is reviewing possible new charges against Geisik.
“I will be up front on what I wanted in this case when he was sentenced three years ago,” Wahlquist told the Court. “I argued for 30 years in prison. I need to do this (probation violation) hearing in a way that it will hold up to appellate scrutiny and I think if I do it today, I don’t know that it would.”
Geisik was placed on probation after being found guilty in May 2014 by a jury of two counts of criminal sexual contact and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In April 2015 Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced him to 364 days in the Los Alamos Detention Center and gave him credit for two years and nine months of pre-trial detention. She sentenced him to 15 years for each of the criminal sexual contact counts and suspended 11 years, three months and a day of each of those sentences, which were to run concurrently. She sentenced him to 18 months for the contributing to the delinquency of a minor count and also suspended that sentence. The two criminal sexual penetration counts were declared serious violent crimes and Geisik was placed on supervised probation for a minimum of five years and no more than 20 years.
Judge Lidyard has reset the probation violation hearing for July 18.
