Second chance
First Judicial District Attorney Marco Serna has asked a judge to reconsider a ruling that threw out the case of an accused murderer because the court said prosecutors had denied the man his constitutional right to a speedy trial. Judge T Glenn Ellington granted that defense motion last month, which dismissed the case against Robert Mondrian-Powell. The 59-year-old man had been living with Elvira Segura in Nambé. Investigators discovered the woman's badly decomposed body in September 2016. Mondrian-Powell then spent 20 months in custody ($) without facing trial for murder.
Twelve still in hospital after crash
A dozen people were still in the hospital last night after Sunday's massive crash along I-25 near Bernalillo. At least one person is in critical condition and sheriff's deputies say they are still trying to notify family members of those who were killed in the chain-reaction crash, which ended when a passenger bus flipped on its side and was struck by a semi-truck headed in the opposite direction.
ART of the dud
The Word recently mentioned the construction boom along Central Avenue. That's the route for the still-dormant Albuquerque Rapid Transit line, which Mayor Tim Keller says may be running by the winter. The city says it will soon begin training bus drivers for the slightly different buses, meaning car drivers will now begin to see what it's like to cruise along Central with realistic traffic. Meanwhile, the city says $75 million in federal funding that the Berry administration said was virtually guaranteed is still up in the air.
Oversight deten-shun
State lawmakers yesterday began considering a demand for more oversight of how immigration detainees are being treated by private prison contractors, despite the fact that federal authoriites and the private companies declined invitations to speak to the legislative panel. As SFR reported last month, the death of a transgender woman at an Otero County facility run by the GEO Group and conditions at CoreCivic's Cibola County detention center have come under the microscope. State Reps. Jim Dines and Moe Maestas, a Republican and Democrat, have both said the state has a right to know more than it does about how detainees are treated.
Family gathering
El Paso's Annunciation House is one of four non-governmental organizations that will shelter reunified families who were separated at the US-Mexico border. A federal court order says the government must bring families together again by July 26. The group says it has room for 100-120 families, but also has pledges of assistance from nearly a dozen other support organizations and churches in Las Cruces and El Paso. The other centers will be in San Antonio and McAllen, Texas, as well as Phoenix.
MS-13
You may have already caught wind of this one, but here's the story behind the scuttlebutt. Border Patrol agents say they arrested two alleged El Salvadoran gang members trying to cross the border last week. The two men were taken into custody in separate incidents. One had an extensive criminal history in Dallas and Denver.
Olive juice
Sometimes things look like what we desire, but upon closer inspection, they're something different. After several reports of a statue of the Virgin Mary that appeared to be weeping in its place in a Hobbs Catholic church, Bishop Oscar Cantú ordered an investigation. The tearful liquid was sent for chemical analysis and appears to be a scented olive oil. That doesn't rule out a miracle, the bishop says, because church investigators aren't sure how the oil got there. The hollow statue didn't appear to have anything inside it that would dispense the liquid. Diana Alba-Soular at the Las Cruces News ($) is on the case.
American bandstand
If you're wandering around downtown Santa Fe tonight, or if you want to, the bluesy strains of Alex Maryol will greet you as they waft from the city's bandstand. He's been playing there (and everywhere) for more than a decade. The show starts at 6 pm and it's free.
Thanks for reading! The Word thinks the combination of falling asleep to thunder and waking up to birds is rather pleasant.
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