By ROBERT NOTT
The Santa Fe New Mexican

The House of Representatives voted 50-17 on Saturday to approve a bill creating a crime category and penalty for threatening physical injury at public facilities such as schools, places of worship and businesses.

House Bill 68 would make that crime a fourth-degree felony. The bill also includes a provision that would increase the charge against a violent felon possessing a firearm from a third-degree to a second-degree felony.

HB 68 would increase the charge for recklessly fleeing a police officer and causing injury to another person from a fourth-degree to a third-degree felony. If that suspect caused “great bodily harm” to someone during that pursuit, the charge would rise to a second-degree felony.

The bill also includes a provision adding more jail time for cases involving felons who possess a firearm while engaging in drug deals, aggravated assault and some violent offenses.

“This is a bill targeted at tougher sentences,” said Rep. Meredith Dixon (D-Albuquerque), during Saturday’s floor debate on the bill. She is one of three sponsors of the legislation, all Democrats.

Support for the bill was bipartisan, as was opposition. Some House Republicans expressed gratitude that Dixon had agreed to some amendments that did away with a clause making it a crime for anyone — including law-abiding residents — to possess a handgun while passing through a school zone.

Rep. Ryan Lane (R-Aztec), said the bill likely would ensure more felons “spend more time off the streets”.

Rep. Brian Baca (R-Los Lunas), asked Dixon if the threat of a crime would include those made over social media outlets. Dixon said yes. Baca is the deputy superintendent of the Los Lunas School District, and he said such threats sow fear among students and parents and become a distraction.

Data submitted by the state Public Education Department showed there were 3,058 threats reported in K-12 schools nationally during the 2018-19 school year, according to the bill’s fiscal impact report.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, has made fighting crime a priority in this year’s 30-day legislative session.

Following the passage of HB 68, Lujan Grisham issued a statement saying, “The importance of this legislation was, unfortunately, highlighted just this week with the shooting of a New Mexico State Police officer by an individual illegally in possession of a firearm”.

Lujan Grisham was referring to the Friday shooting of a New Mexico State Police officer a day earlier near Sedillo Hill, an area between Edgewood and Tijeras. On Saturday, state police arrested two suspects in the shooting. The officer is in stable condition.

The governor also said New Mexicans, including police officers, deserve to be safe in their community.

“It is essential that violent offenders are held accountable for their action,” she said.

Still, some crime reform bills have stalled or slowed as the final deadline for action — Thursday — nears.

On Friday, the House did vote to approve a measure doing away with the statute of limitations on second-degree murder charges.

But legislative efforts to impose stricter guidelines for releasing a violent offender pending trial seem to have little chance of succeeding at this point. One such effort was tabled in a Senate committee hearing early this week.

And House Bill 5, which initially included similar pretrial release mandates to the Senate bill, has since been stripped of those provisions. Instead, it now focuses on requiring the pretrial division of the judicial court system to provide round-the-clock monitoring of the locations of people who have been charged with a felony and released before trial.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to hear that bill soon. But given it, like HB 68, needs to go through at least one Senate committee before the full body of the Senate votes on it, time is the bill’s enemy.

Around the same time the House began debating HB 68, the Senate passed a similar bill that would make the threat of a shooting a misdemeanor.

“Currently, if you call this building or any public building and tell them that you placed a bomb or are going to place a bomb in the building, it’s a fourth-degree felony,” said Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, who sponsored Senate Bill 34.

“But if you call this building or any other public building, synagogue, school, anything like that, and say that you’re going to bring a gun and shoot people in the building, it is not a crime. This bill will fix that,” he said.

The bill, which was amended six times before it was approved 34-5, heads next to the House.

Staff reporter Daniel J. Chacón contributed to this story.