Anson Stevens-Bollen
For Rose Lopez, whose younger brother Anthony Benavidez was fatally shot by Santa Fe police officers Jeramie Bisagna and Luke Wakefield in July 2017, the question has taken too long to answer.
Did the officers commit a crime when they gunned down Benavidez in his apartment?
"I just want to know if anyone will hold these men responsible in my brother's killing," Lopez tells SFR. "I want to know what's taken so long. I feel like it's not being treated like a murder investigation—I feel like it's just being treated as if he was a nobody, as if he was not even a person."
Lopez says she's heard nothing from an independent panel of district attorneys who are reviewing whether officers on the Santa Fe police SWAT team broke the law when they approached Benavidez' apartment window, smashed it open, and then shot him dead.
Two DAs indirectly involved with the review say the long wait is part of an ongoing—and slow—statewide shift in the way prosecutors weigh the law when cops kill.
Over one year ago, on Jan. 12, 2018, New Mexico State Police investigating Santa Fe officers' actions that day turned over their case file to 1st Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna. Then, Serna handed the files to 11th Judicial District Attorney Rick Tedrow, who is overseeing two panels of district attorneys reviewing four separate killings by police around the state.
SFR's own review of some of those materials, including recorded audio from interviews by State Police of Bisagna and Wakefield, revealed officers admitted to serious missteps that led to Benavidez' death.
Wakefield was wearing sunglasses, which he said made it hard to see into Benavidez' dark room. He screamed, triggering Bisagna's already heightened emotional state. Bisagna fired first, and then Wakefield. They fired a combined 17 shots at Benavidez, a man living with schizophrenia and experiencing a mental health crisis.
Both officers have since been promoted at SFPD.
Serna acknowledges that the lengthy review process can be painful for all parties involved.
"I understand any frustration with that, I sympathize with them," he tells SFR. "That being said, I wanted to take this process out of the District Attorney's office, because we deal with these officers on a daily basis and there's definitely a perceived conflict of interest."
The Benavidez case represents the realization of a campaign promise by Serna to hand off potential prosecutions of cops to outside counsel. It is a change from the way district attorneys in Santa Fe used to do it, which was to put together an "investigative grand jury" to review officers' conduct without having the power to indict them.
It's more fair that way, Serna believes, but he didn't anticipate it might take longer to complete.
"I don't know if I anticipated it would take over a year [for district attorneys to review the case]," he tells SFR. "But I knew it would take a significant period of time, given the fact it would be on a volunteer basis. So, I wish it was sooner, yes, but I understand why it's not."
According to Tedrow, six DAs are currently reviewing four separate police shootings from the past year: the Benavidez case, one in the 2nd District (Bernalillo County) one in the 11th (McKinley/San Juan counties) and one in the 9th (Curry/Roosevelt).
There are two panels, each made up of three DAs, and both panels are reviewing two separate instances where police killed someone. Tedrow could not recall all of the DAs' names when he spoke with SFR, nor could he remember who was assigned to which case.
He says the two panels did not begin reviewing any of the cases until this past November because the DAs decided to review them all at the same time. The Benavidez case files, completed in January 2018 by State Police, were the first ones he received.
"What we did is have each district attorney with [a case] to review, I asked them to submit it so we could put it on our electronic case management where the panels could access it," Tedrow tells SFR. "We did it all at once. We got all the information and put it out there for the panels so they could review it from their home areas."
He did not offer a timeline for when a decision could be made in the Benavidez case. Serna tells SFR he would be the one to inform Santa Feans whenever he learns of a decision by the panel.
SFR asked all city councilors to comment on the length of time the review by the panel of DAs has taken. Most did not respond.
"I would like to see a conclusion on the investigations of this case, especially for the family of Anthony Benavidez to have some closure," Councilor Renee Villarreal tells SFR by email. "Unfortunately, we are not privy to information about how the investigation is proceeding."
Councilor Signe Lindell says councilors "would all like for investigations to be efficient and conclusive." Councilor Peter Ives believes "you cannot judge an entire police force based on the actions of a limited number of officers."
Rose Lopez tells SFR the end-of-year holidays without her brother were particularly hard for her and her three sons—Benavidez' nephews—to endure.
"He was always here at my house [in Albuquerque], we did a lot together," says Lopez, who describes Benavidez as outgoing and generous when he was alive. "He was very close with my kids. The boys are having a hard time with this as well. On Halloween, he would come and pick them up and take them to haunted houses. That hasn't happened in two years."
Lopez quotes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to sum up her feelings on the lengthy review into the killing.
"'Justice too long delayed is justice denied,'" she says. "We want answers."
