Official’s daughter charged in wreck

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Jessica Garza, 28, who is the daughter of City Attorney R. David Pederson, allegedly crashed into a parked car while driving drunk early Sunday morning.

Because it was her first DWI offense, charges have been filed at Municipal Court, which falls under the influence of the city attorney. To avoid the perception of impropriety and a conflict of interest, Pederson said Monday that he has requested the case be transferred to Magistrate Court. However the police officer who filed the original charges is the only one who has the power to move the case, which in fact requires that he dismiss the charges and file them anew. This had not yet been accomplished Tuesday afternoon.

Pederson’s position as city attorney makes him the de-facto legal advisor to police when they prosecute cases inside municipal court. And DWI violations — at least first offense violations such as Garza’s — legally fall under either jurisdiction, according to Gallup Police Deputy Chief John Allen and Deputy Chief District Attorney Jim Bierly.

“It is neither common nor uncommon to file first in Municipal Court,” Bierly said Tuesday. “But this one cannot be handled in municipal because he is the city attorney and it would be a conflict of interest.”

Garza is charged with aggravated DWI because she refused to give a breathalyzer sample when police found her slumped over her steering wheel in Pederson’s driveway about 2:30 a.m. She also faces hit and run charges — both misdemeanors — because she allegedly crashed into a parked, unoccupied car 30 minutes before police found her.

Garza allegedly crashed into a small passenger car belonging to 17-year-old Frank Jaramillo, who had parked it outside a friend’s house on Sunset Drive. He was in the house at the time, talking with three friends.

“All of a sudden we hear a loud crash and we saw the headlights through the window,” Jaramillo said during a phone interview Monday. “Then she just backs up and drives off.”

Garza was driving a green SUV, which Jaramillo said launched his car about 6 feet upon impact. He ran outside as Garza was apparently rocking the SUV back and forth, screeching the tires backward and forward — attempting to dislodge her car, which was bound by mangled metal. Once free, Garza lit out on three tires.

“She was riding on the rim of her front tire,” Jaramillo said.

“She was swerving ... I called police while I was running after her ... about a block. Then I lost her; she was going too fast.”

That was about 2 a.m., and the screeching ruckus woke a neighbor, who also called police. The neighbor declined to be identified, but said she smelled burnt rubber when she walked outside the next morning.

“Mainly what I heard was someone urgently trying to get out,” she said, using sound-effects to illustrate. “There was still a piece of what looks like a piece of the undercarriage in the street the next day.”

Based on Jaramillo’s description, police began looking for the green SUV, and McKinley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Marez found it about 2:33 a.m. It was parked in Pederson’s driveway on Red Rock Drive.

“As I approached the vehicle, I observed a female subject later identified as (Garza) sitting in the driver seat slumped over. The driver appeared to be passed out behind the wheel.

I opened the door to the Toyota, and removed the keys out of the ignition, which was turned off,” Marez wrote in the incident report.

The deputy then called for an ambulance.

He said Pederson never approached him during the incident. In fact, Marez didn’t know Monday if Pederson had even been home at the time. But Deputy Chief John Allen said Tuesday that Gallup Police Officer Andrew Antone, who is ultimately responsible for the arrest of, and charges against, Jessica Garza, did speak with Pederson that night.

Antone told Allen he had already called for a tow truck — just as he would have during any similar incident.

Pederson wanted to save the towing charge by leaving the car in his driveway. Police allowed him to reconcile with the tow-truck driver who had already been dispatched. Allen said that the incident was handled in the same manner as any other DWI arrest.

“Anyone who thinks his position is going to play into it is sorely mistaken,” Allen said.