[1st-mile-nm] Article on PRC Nominee Jerome Black Jr.

Thu Jun 26 14:11:28 PDT 2008

This article appeared in the Santa Fe Reporter on 6-25-2008.  Jerome Block 
Jr. is the son of long-time PRC Commissioner Jerome Block Sr.

There has been some speculation that at least some voters thought they were 
voting for the former Commissioner.

FYI.

> 
><http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-062508-failure-to-appear.php>http://sfreporter.com/articles/publish/outtake-062508-failure-to-appear.php
>
>NEWS
>Failure to Appear
>By Dave Maass
>
>Published: June 25, 2008
>
>Jerome Block Jr.'s legal history includes missing court dates.
>
>Aggravated DWI, unlawful riding, urinating in public, ditching out on 
>court-ordered child-support mediation and breach of contractï¿½these are 
>the charges that Jerome Block Jr., the Democratic nominee to represent 
>District 3 on the Public Regulation Commission, has faced in court over 
>the last decade, SFR has discovered.
>
>
>Several attempts were made to reach Jerome Block Jr. for this story. File 
>Photo
>
>Block missed an interview appointment he set with SFR to discuss his 
>record and did not return repeated phone calls prior to deadline.
>
>Each election cycle, the Albuquerque Journal asks candidates in every race 
>a series of standard questions, including whether they have been arrested.
>
>Block told the Journal he had been arrested in 1998 for ï¿½suspicion of 
>DUIï¿½ and had been found ï¿½not guilty.ï¿½
>
>However, in investigating Blockï¿½s legal history, both criminal and 
>civil, SFR has uncovered several facts in discordance with Blockï¿½s 
>public statement.
>
>At 31, Blockï¿½s official criminal record is clean. However, despite his 
>claims to the Journal, he was not found ï¿½not guiltyï¿½ by a court for 
>his drunk driving arrest.
>
>Not only was his explanation of his exoneration inaccurate, but he failed 
>to disclose a second DWI-related arrest a year later, to which he pleaded 
>guilty.  Furthermore, Blockï¿½s record shows a history of missing court 
>dates, including two failure to appear charges tied to a citation for 
>urinating in public and three skipped court-ordered mediations for a 
>child-support case.
>
>According to the police report filed by the Albuquerque Police Department, 
>on June 26, 1998, an officer witnessed Block drive through a red light 
>into an intersection, then back up. After being pulled over, Block 
>allegedly failed the field sobriety test and told the officer he had 
>consumed two beers and a Long Island Iced Tea. He was arrested and 
>underwent a breath test, which established his blood alcohol content at 
>0.17, more than double the legal limit, the report says.
>
>Block was charged with aggravated DWI, an offense that currently comes 
>with a mandatory jail sentence. The then-21-year-old pleaded not guilty. 
>The court records show the case was temporarily dismissed with the note, 
>ï¿½State not prepared,ï¿½ which typically means the arresting officer was 
>unavailable to attend the hearing.
>
>A week later, on Aug. 9, 1998, Block was cited by APD again, this time for 
>ï¿½disorderly conduct,ï¿½ during the cityï¿½s annual Summerfest. According 
>to the police report, Block was caught urinating on a bush on APD 
>property, five yards from the crowded foot traffic on Civic Plaza.
>
>Albuquerque Metropolitan Court handled both cases separately. Block 
>received two failure to appear charges after missing court dates in the 
>disorderly conduct case. All three charges were abandoned; the records of 
>why have since been destroyed.
>
>Although prosecutors reopened the aggravated DWI case, the charge was 
>dropped under a rule that said that if a defendant isnï¿½t adjudicated 
>within six months, the court must dismiss the case.
>
>ï¿½Anybody worth their saltï¿½defense attorneys, prosecutors or 
>judgesï¿½will tell you itï¿½s a game,ï¿½ Linda Atkinson, executive 
>director of the DWI Resource Center in Albuquerque, tells SFR. ï¿½Defense 
>attorneys generally knew that if you did delays and you made motions for 
>pre-trial discovery and one of the biggest ones that gets to be a problem 
>is the interview with the police officer, you could just play this waiting 
>game because the minute somebody didnï¿½t show up, they could claim the 
>six-month rule and thatï¿½s how it gets dismissed.ï¿½
>
>Since 1999, the Second Judicial District Attorneyï¿½s Office, now headed 
>by Kari Brandenburg, has tightened up the law so fewer cases fall through 
>these cracks.
>
>ï¿½Weï¿½ve just adopted new policies on discovery, pretrial interviews and 
>the six-month rules,ï¿½ Brandenburg tells SFR. ï¿½Now we can ask the court 
>for an extension.ï¿½
>
>Nevertheless, Brandenburg says that because the case never went to trial, 
>no judge or jury ever determined guilt one way or another, despite 
>Blockï¿½s claim to the Journal.
>
>Block also told the Journal: ï¿½I am in full support of DUI laws in New 
>Mexico, and I applaud all efforts taken to stop people from drinking and 
>driving. I have learned from that experience from my youth, and I will 
>make sure the event does not repeat itself.ï¿½
>
>However, Santa Fe County jail and Santa Fe Police Department records show 
>that Block had a second arrest on DWI-related charges one year after the first.
>
>On July 7, 1999, Block was taken into custody for ï¿½unlawful riding.ï¿½ 
>SFPD Sgt. Gillian Alessio tells SFR this is a charge reserved for 
>passengers who should have reasonably known the driver was too intoxicated 
>to get behind the steering wheel.
>
>According to the SFPD report, officers had responded to a domestic 
>violence call and, upon arriving, saw a car driven by Robert Martinez, 
>(listed on the report as Blockï¿½s brother), speed away from the scene. 
>Officers caught up to the vehicle and arrested Block and Martinez. The 
>latter had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21.
>
>Municipal Court records show Block pleaded guilty to the offense of 
>unlawful riding and was assigned one-year probation, 24 hours of community 
>service and alcohol and drug testing. He completed these requirements and 
>the charge was subsequently cleared from his record.
>
>Over the years that followed, Block picked up two speeding tickets, which 
>were both dismissed.
>
>In 2004, however, Block was again in the court system when the mother of 
>one of his children filed motions to set child support and child custody 
>guidelines.
>
>The child was born in November 2002 to Kimberley Gonzales, almost exactly 
>nine months after Block filed for a marriage license with his current 
>wife, Stephanie Block.
>
>The court records show that Block failed to appear at all three mediation 
>hearings set by the court, leading Gonzalesï¿½ attorney, Caroline Bass, to 
>file a letter with the court accusing Block of intentionally impeding the 
>process.
>
>Soon after, Block retained lawyer Kathrin Kinzer-Ellington, who 
>represented Block while the court set the child support. A year later, 
>when Gonzales filed for an increase in child support, Kinzer-Ellington 
>withdrew from the case. The record shows that Kinzer-Ellington was unable 
>to inform Block directly of her withdrawal and instead notified his 
>father, former Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Sr.
>
>According to Bass, this was typical throughout the case; process servers 
>found it difficult to locate Block, who uses multiple addresses in 
>official records.
>
>Block also was unresponsive in his most recent case.
>
>Throughout his primary campaign, Block was involved in a legal dispute 
>brought by First Community Bank, which claimed that Block had defaulted on 
>two loans totaling $8,150.  On Feb. 4, 2008, with no response filed or 
>appearances made by Block, the Bernalillo District Court awarded the bank $430.
>
>Two days later, Block paid up.
>
>Block won the six-way June 3 Democratic primary election for the PRC with 
>22.8 percent of the vote. While there is no Republican challenger, the New 
>Mexico Green Party nominated activist Rick Lass to run for the seat in the 
>general election.
>
>
>Â© Copyright 2000–2007 by the Santa Fe Reporter
>
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