Authorities are doing some spring cleaning at the Santa Fe District Courthouse.
The First Judicial District Attorney’s Office and the Law Offices of the Public Defender are teaming up with the courts later this month to give people with outstanding warrants a chance to see a judge, meet with a public defender and receive favorable consideration for their case.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told The Independent that the main goal of the Fresh Start program is not to put people in jail but to clear up their warrants and send them home with a new court date. The program is designed as an alternative to warrant round-ups where police arrest people with outstanding warrants in large numbers. Carmack-Altwies says it “creates an inherently unsafe situation for the people that have the warrants and for their family members.”
Anyone with warrants from any New Mexico District or Magistrate Court is eligible to participate. That includes people with felony warrants who are accused of committing crimes that could be considered serious. Those with municipal-type warrants issued by small cities are ineligible.
“Obviously, sometimes in extremely small circumstances, there will be extenuating circumstances and I can’t guarantee it,” said Carmack-Altwies. “But for nearly everyone with a magistrate-type warrant, even with felony warrants, favorable consideration means that they’re going to get their warrant cleared, they’re going home that day with a piece of paper that says what their next court date is.”
According to Carmack-Altwies, some people with warrants are eligible for pre-prosecution diversion programs, meaning that instead of going home with a new court date, they could leave with their cases completely resolved.
Carmack-Altwies said that the DA’s office hopes that people with serious warrants attend the event, because “it looks very good to prosecutors and to judges when someone turns themselves in, takes responsibility for the fact that they haven’t showed up to court or they haven’t done what they were supposed to do. And when we see that kind of commitment and responsibility, we take that into account when we’re making plea offers or judges are doing sentencing.”
There will be law enforcement present at the events.
Edgewood Police Chief Roger Jimenez is familiar with other programs in the state where people can get their warrants resolved without being arrested and taken to jail.
“If they fail to appear, they have a warrant for their arrest. Usually, the Fresh Start program will mean that the warrant will be quashed,” Jimenez said.
A warrant can be “quashed” by a judge meaning that it has been voided.
Santa Fe County Courts have offered similar warrant amnesty programs but this is the first in the First Judicial District conducted as a partnership between different agencies.
If you would like to take care of an outstanding warrant through the Fresh Start in the First program, visit Santa Fe District Court at 225 Montezuma Ave. from 1 to 7 p.m. April 26 and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 27.