Criminal Defense Blog
Posted on May 30, 2018
The Romero Law Firm, P.A. is proud to announce that our founding attorney, Román R. Romero, has been recognized by The American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys (AIOCLA) as one of the 10 ...
Continue reading "Attorney Romero Wins 10 Best Client Satisfaction Award" »
Posted on Dec 16, 2013
Mr. Romero represented a client that was charged with trafficking a controlled substance (cocaine) in April, 2011. The defendant in the case was stopped after allegedly blocking traffic and driving ...
Continue reading "Drug Trafficking Charges Dismissed" »
Posted on Aug 19, 2013
In State v. Samora, a juror was excused from jury duty because he did not understand English very well. The Defendant's trial lawyer failed to timely object to excusing the juror, and later was ...
Continue reading "Objection: Trial lawyer failed to object" »
Posted on Aug 12, 2013
In State v. Bradford, the prosecution failed to submit complete jury instructions to the grand jury concerning a felony embezzlement charge. On appeal, the Court of Appeals made it clear that the ...
Continue reading "Jury Instructions: What's not there can be just as important as what is there!" »
Posted on Jun 27, 2013
In N.M., everyone has a right to a reasonable opportunity to have an independent blood or breath alcohol test after taking a State breath or blood alcohol test. The firm will be testing the limits of ...
Continue reading "Testing the Independent Test" »
Posted on Jun 20, 2013
According to reports, an Albuquerque man has been accused of striking a little three-year old boy with a hammer inside a local grocery store. The incident occurred around 1pm last Monday, in ...
Continue reading "Man in a Wheelchair Hits Three-Year Old with Hammer" »
Posted on May 13, 2013
In State v. Antonio T., our Court of Appeals held that when a high school vice principal was interrogating a student, he was not acting as an agent for law enforcement. In turn, the vice principal was ...
Continue reading "Is your high school principal a cop?" »
Posted on May 2, 2013
In State vs. Ochoa, it was held that New Mexico law departs from federal precedent, and makes pretextual stops illegal. In other words, even if the arresting officer has a valid reason to detain ...
Continue reading "Pretextual Stops" »
Posted on Mar 14, 2013
The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently o.k.'d the government's secret interception (and use) of the data sent and received from a pay-as-you-go cell phone to locate and convict a ...
Continue reading "When is a Ping a Private Thing?" »
Posted on Jan 5, 2012
My firm just recently convinced a District Court Judge to allow us to serve process in a civil case via facebook. This is the first time it has been done in New Mexico. It'll probably get ...
Continue reading "E-file, E-service of Process, Ver-e- Nice!" »
Posted on Oct 11, 2011
The District Attorney's Office and law enforcement officers around the state have started charging passengers of vehicles with DWI for allegedly doing something to encourage the act of DWI. The ...
Continue reading "DWI : Accomplice Liability" »
Posted on Jul 6, 2011
I've been asked for my take on the Casey Anthony trial quite a few times lately. Here it is: I didn't keep up with much of the trial itself. I watched bits and pieces of it and couldn't ...
Continue reading "The Casey Anthony Trial" »
Posted on May 25, 2011
As you may know, the STOP Ordinance here in Albuquerque declares the act of driving over the speed limit a nuisance. It allows the City of Albuquerque to camera record drivers, capture images of ...
Continue reading "Red Light Cameras" »
Posted on Mar 18, 2011
Freedom of speech is and always has been one of the core values Americans believe in. The U.S. Supreme Court took the opportunity to re-examine the boundaries of freedom of speech recently in the case ...
Continue reading "Say What?" »
Posted on Dec 8, 2010
Are the breath-alcohol testing machines used by law enforcement officers reliable? The answer, admittedly, is: sometimes. Scary isn't it? First of all, most law enforcement officers will admit ...
Continue reading "DWI: Breath-Alcohol Tests" »
Posted on Oct 21, 2010
Pursuant to New Mexico law, a driver, merely by being licensed to drive in this state, implies his/her consent to submit to a breath test, a blood test, or both upon reasonable request from a law ...
Continue reading "DWI: Breath or Blood" »
Posted on Oct 12, 2010
The New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (JPEC)has completed its evaluations of New Mexico's judges recently. The commission compiles data and composes a grid that displays their ...
Continue reading "Judicial Performance Evaluations" »
Posted on Oct 10, 2010
The S.I.D. (Special Investigations Division) Agents were working overtime at the tailgating scene in Las Cruces, New Mexico this weekend. I was tailgating with family and friends there prior to the ...
Continue reading "S.I.D.: Sorry, Impossible Demeanor" »
Posted on Oct 6, 2010
The U.S. Congress Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on over-criminalization. One of the focal cases involves a man named Abner Shoenwetter. He was a seafood broker that was convicted of buying ...
Continue reading "Nope. It's Against the Law" »
Posted on Sep 28, 2010
In a recent New Mexico Supreme Court decision, the Court held that a stand-in can lay an adequate foundation to permit the admission of evidence that they had no first-hand information about. It was a ...
Continue reading "DWI: Who Can Testify About What?" »
Posted on Sep 16, 2010
In the ever seemingly distant past, the Court of Appeals was asked to decide whether a charge of "DWI" on a criminal complaint amounted to sufficient notice for the charge of driving while ...
Continue reading "DWI: Sufficiency of Complaints" »
Posted on Aug 11, 2010
In New Mexico, some statutes require criminal defendants to spend mandatory time in jail upon being convicted of certain crimes. Driving while under the influence is one such crime if the case ...
Continue reading "Mandatory jail time does not mean mandatory jail time" »
Posted on Jul 7, 2010
Many stops are perfected by police officers for drivers failing to maintain their lanes of travel. I have to say that about a third of the driving while intoxicated (DWI) cases I see start with a ...
Continue reading "Using cellular telephones while driving" »
Posted on Jun 29, 2010
Possession with intent to distribute illegal narcotics cases filed in New Mexico seem to be on the rise recently. The manner within which the narcotics are possessed, transferred or used has been, and ...
Continue reading "Sale of Illegal Narcotics" »
Posted on Jun 14, 2010
I have posted on this issue before, and there is finally some clarity on the issue. The Supreme Court finally decided the Sims case. Now, driving while under the influence of alcohol has to involve ...
Continue reading "DWI: Driving...what exaclty is it?" »