SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico undersheriff is accused of ordering his subordinates to draw guns on other officers who arrested his boss in May, officials said.
Prosecutors say Rio Arriba County Undersheriff Martin Trujillo ordered his deputies to respond to the Rio Arriba County station, where other officers were gathered to execute a warrant on Sheriff James Lujan.
Lujan faces a number of charges, including allegations he arrived at an SWAT scene intoxicated and interfered with the operation, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
Trujillo directed his officers to draw their weapons on the Taos County sheriff’s deputies and Española police officers, prosecutors said. The decision created “an extremely volatile and dangerous dynamic between law enforcement agencies,” the affidavit said.
“It was kind of like a blue-on-blue situation,” said Ninth Judicial District Attorney Andrea Reeb, who is handling the case against Lujan.
Trujillo, 53, surrendered to New Mexico State Police on Friday and was booked into the Los Alamos County jail. He was released the same day.
He is charged on the accusation of criminal solicitation to commit assisting the assault upon a peace officer, which is a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine, according to the affidavit.
“He’s absolutely innocent and it appears to us he is some sort of pawn in political machinations,” Trujillo’s lawyer Damian Horne said.
Lujan was not immediately available for comment.
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