Trio of dismissal motions denied in drug sting

PORTALES — District Judge Donna Mowrer has denied a trio of dismissal motions in connection to Roosevelt County Sheriff Malin Parker and a 2016 drug sting.

Attorneys for Armando Pena, Antonio Salguero III and Chance Plummer filed separate motions earlier this year to dismiss drug trafficking charges against their clients. Each one argued arrest affidavits should be invalidated due to an alleged false statement by Parker.

The three men were arrested with five others in February 2016 as part of a drug sting operation ran by Parker’s office.

Parker, attorneys with the Portales Office of the Public Defender said, stated in a recorded interview that his informant in the case had never given him information leading to arrests. That, the attorneys said, contradicted his statements in the arrest affidavits.

Public Defender Evan Arendell, Pena’s attorney, cited law in which the Court of Appeals declared that, “if a litigant established a deliberate falsehood or a statement in the affidavit made with a reckless disregard for the truth, then the court was to review the affidavit without those offending statements for probable cause.”

“Allegations of negligence or innocent mistake are insufficient,” Arendell quoted the case law.

In her denial of the motion, Mowrer said defendants had not established Parker’s statement as a “deliberate” falsehood.

“Even if this court deletes the offending statement from the affidavit, the remainder of the affidavit still established probable cause (for arrest),” the denial reads.

Pena does not have a new trial date set. Plummer’s trial is set for Aug. 8-9, while Salguero’s is set for June 15.

In another case, the attorney for a Portales man accused of sexual assault filed a motion to dismiss charges on Tuesday.

Roy Brown, 29, is charged with first-degree criminal sexual penetration for an alleged home invasion and rape of a Roosevelt County woman in June 2016.

Craig Acorn, Brown’s attorney, alleged that the district attorney’s office concealed the discovery of DNA from a third party.

District Attorney Andrea Reeb denied the accusation, saying that her office had not received any results from the state lab, and had also been unaware of the additional DNA discovery. She also added that she believes the additional DNA to be from a consensual partner.

Acorn also asked that his client’s bond be lowered. Mowrer left the bond at $50,000 cash only, and told attorneys that she would have a decision on the motion to dismiss within two weeks.