By MILAN SIMONICH
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Political courage seldom flashes before our eyes at the state Capitol. This week was an exception.

Five Democratic senators defied Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who favored a Republican’s bill to make it easier to keep defendants jailed in felony cases.

The senators closed ranks to stop the bill from advancing on grounds it would violate the state constitution. Their decision leaves them vulnerable to backlash in an election year, but they never blinked.

State prosecutors already have vast resources available to make their case for keeping defendants in jail pending trial, a fact proponents of the bill sidestepped.

Under existing law, a District Court judge may order a defendant to remain jailed if the prosecution proves the defendant poses a threat to others, and no conditions of release will reasonably protect the safety of others. The standard is clear and convincing evidence.

Senate Bill 122 would have changed the law to give prosecutors an advantage.

At a pretrial detention hearing requested by the state, “it shall be presumed that the prosecution has proven by clear and convincing evidence” that the defendant is likely to pose a threat to others and no conditions of release will reasonably protect others.

Defendants would have the opportunity to rebut the presumption afforded to the government. Money, or lack of it, would be more important than ever under this revamped judicial system.

A wealthy defendant with a singularly focused attorney might be able to argue effectively for a client’s liberty. Someone without a paid lawyer would be at a disadvantage, as an overloaded public defender would face a prosecutor already presumed to have evidence on his or her side.

Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, an Albuquerque Democrat and retired law professor, said the bill would not survive a legal challenge.

“It’s just waste of time to go through this, pass this and have it declared unconstitutional,” she said.

The Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee then voted 5-4 to block the bill. Siding with Sedillo Lopez were four other senators from metropolitan Albuquerque: Jerry Ortiz y Pino, Bill Tallman, Moe Maestas and Brenda McKenna.

Democrat Sam Bregman, the governor’s appointed district attorney of Bernalillo County, supported the bill.

His staff of prosecutors in the state’s most populous county last year filed pretrial detention motions in 1,088 felony cases. Judges sided with Bregman’s staff in 60%, up nine percentage points from 2022.

Bregman in an interview said some of his office’s defeats demonstrated the need for the Republican bill, which was sponsored by Sen. Craig Brandt of Rio Rancho.

Bregman spoke of the case of Joe Anderson, a convicted killer who was released by a judge after Anderson was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder.

Anderson served a seven-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter and was freed from prison in 2019. Three years later, Albuquerque police said, Anderson pursued and shot a motorcyclist to death.

At a detention hearing, state District Court Judge Emeterio Rudolfo said Anderson posed a danger to the community but decided the defendant was eligible be released from jail on certain conditions. One was that Anderson wear an ankle monitor.

Prosecutors appealed, and the five state Supreme Court justices overturned Rudolfo’s decision.

“Twenty minutes after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Anderson cut off his ankle monitor and was in the wind,” Bregman said.

Albuquerque police tracked down Anderson, and subdued him with a beanbag fired from a 40-caliber gun.

“What happened with Joe Anderson was not a one-in-a-million case,” Bregman said.

Just this month, he said, judges released two other defendants charged with murder.

Bregman rejected the notion of his prosecutors being outperformed by the defense during detention hearings. He said his staff was well-prepared and made good arguments.

As for the political process, Bregman had no criticism of senators who bottled up the bill he favored.

“I respect the Legislature’s decision. We will keep grinding at it,” he said of detention hearings.

Republican Sens. Ron Griggs and Greg Nibert have another proposal aimed at improving the prosecution’s chances of winning detention hearings. That measure, Senate Joint Resolution 11, is a proposed amendment to the state constitution.

If it clears both chambers of the Legislature, the proposal would be decided by a vote of the people in November.

Odds are low that minority Republicans can get their proposal on the ballot, especially in a 30-day session approaching the halfway point.

As for detention hearings, every judge I’ve ever known was terrified about releasing a defendant who might hurt someone.

Bregman won’t say a discouraging word about Judge Rudolfo, and Lujan Grisham probably won’t, either.

The governor appointed Rudolfo as a judge in October 2022, just six weeks before police arrested Joe Anderson on suspicion of first-degree murder.