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Judge takes case under advisement

PORTALES — In a hearing to dismiss drug trafficking charges against a Portales man Thursday morning, Judge Donna Mowrer ruled she would make a decision in one week, after taking the matter under advisement.

Antonio Salguero, 30, was one of several people arrested on drug trafficking charges in April 2016 in a drug sting by the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Malin Parker was called to the stand by Salguero’s attorney Chris Christensen of the public defender’s office, who posited that the sheriff “showed reckless disregard for the truth” by stating in Salguero’s arrest affidavit that the informant who led to his arrest had previously led to two felony arrests, when no one was arrested.

Christensen asked Parker if he had given false information under oath in Judge Matthew Chandler’s court and before a grand jury, to which he replied “absolutely not.”

“We have testimony statements from Mr. Parker on the stand today concerning these two felony arrests. He has not answered those directly. He’s answered every which way but directly,” Christensen said, “saying, ‘I believed, I thought, I assumed. But no, I did not have reckless disregard for the truth. But yeah, I told the judge that two felony arrests had been made. That’s not false information.’ Yes, it is, because the two felony arrests were not made.”

Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover argued that the defense’s assertion that the entire affidavit is false because of inaccurate information is “disingenuous.”

“Defense council has a copy of the video that the sheriff talked about. He knows that that information is accurate. If not, he could have challenged the sheriff while he was on the stand,” Stover said. “There was no challenge to the sheriff after my cross examination, no challenge to him of any of the information in the second paragraph of the affidavit for arrest warrant. Why was there not? Because in truth, defense council knows it’s all accurate, and not only all accurate, but accurate based on recordings he has in his possession.”

Mowrer moved to reset a dismissal hearing for another Portales man arrested in April 2016, 38-year-old Armando Pena, due to lack of time.