High school students will hear appeal case

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Coming to Gallup High School — an actual New Mexico Court of Appeals case.

The state court of appeals will hear oral arguments on an actual case in Gallup in the auditorium at Gallup High School, beginning at 1:15 p.m. April 24.

McKinley County Attorney Doug Decker, who is helping coordinate the event, said the court of appeals has been going across the state in recent months holding hearings to show high school students as well as the public how the court works. The court, which normally holds its sessions in Santa Fe, has already held sessions in places like Farmington and Roswell.

The case that the court will hear is from the 11th Judicial District, which includes Gallup. It’s from a case heard in the Farmington District Court and involves a man, Donald Bullcoming, who was convicted of DWI.

Bullcoming appealed, arguing that he was not intoxicated at the time of the accident but had left the scene and drank vodka with other men. By the time he was found and was required to perform the field sobriety tests, he admits that he was drunk. On the other hand, the driver of the vehicle that he struck told police that Bullcoming smelled of alcohol and that his eyes were bloodshot.

A number of issues have been raised by Bullcoming’s public defense attorney.

During the closing argument, the prosecutor in the case said Bullcoming never told police officers that he began drinking after he left the accident. The defense objected and moved for a mistrial, which was denied.

In addition, the court allowed one of the officers to testify, over the objections of the defense, as a lay witness as to the cause of the accident. The officer did not witness the accident but issued an opinion that Bullcoming was not paying attention because he was intoxicated.

Decker said he expects between 500 and 600 students to attend the hearing, with students coming not only from Gallup but from some of the other high schools in the county as well. Since the auditorium holds more than 1,000 seats, the public is invited to attend as well.

“This is a great opportunity to see how the court of appeals works,” said Decker, “and to see how the appeal fits in with the trial.”

The hearing itself is not expected to take very long, with both sides getting no more than 30 minutes to present their side.

Decker said that the court of appeals judges will then meet in private at the school and discuss the merits of the appeal. If they can arrive at a decision at that time, the three judges plan to come back and announce their decision. If they can’t, they’ll take the case under review and issue a decision in the following weeks.

Bobbie Franklin, a local attorney and president of he McKinley County Bar Association said 14 area attorneys have volunteered to visit high school government and political science classes the week before the hearing and distribute copies of the briefs in this case. They will also talk to the students about the appeal and answer any questions they may have about how the appeals process works.

All three district judges in Gallup — Grant Foutz, Bob Aragon and Ed DePauli — have also agreed to visit classes at Gallup High School. Other attorneys will be going to Rehoboth High and Catholic High School. George Kozelinski, another local attorney, has agreed to visit classes in the county.

Exactly what high schools will participate is still up in the air, Franklin said, because some of the schools are having problems with providing buses. The event is not expected to be completed until about 3:30 p.m., which conflicts with the time the schools will be using the buses to transport students home.