Alfred Lovato, the former security officer for Gov. Bill Richardson, has been hired as a deputy by the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Department despite the fact that he faces an appeal in a high-profile vehicular homicide case and could still lose his police certification.

Sheriff Joe Mascareñas said Thursday that he hadn't been aware that prosecutors had appealed a judge's decision to drop charges against Lovato, who was a passenger in the car of politically connected lawyer Carlos Fierro in November 2008, when Fierro hit and killed pedestrian William Tenorio of San Felipe Pueblo.

"I haven't received any notice, nothing in writing about any appeal," Mascareñas said. "All I know was that the charges against him had been dismissed. We did a background (check) and he was clean. If it gets appealed, if he loses his certification, we'll deal with that then."

Lovato has been working as a deputy for about two weeks, the sheriff said. "He's doing fine. He's a good officer," Mascareñas said. Lovato is a former state police sergeant and was a member of Gov. Bill Richardson's security detail. He resigned that job after the accident.

State District Judge Michael Vigil in April dismissed charges against Lovato of vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Lovato's charges hinged on a state Court of Appeals ruling that allowed a passenger in a drunken driver's car to be charged with vehicular homicide under certain circumstances. However, Vigil ruled the decision cannot apply to Lovato because the Fierro crash occurred before the appeals court issued that ruling.

Days later a special prosecutor with the Administrative Office of the District Attorneys appealed Vigil's decision.

The Rio Grande Sun reported this week that the state attorney general had filed a misconduct complaint against Lovato and that the director of the state Law Enforcement Training Academy had recommended Lovato be decertified as an officer. A hearing on that complaint is pending.

Fierro was convicted of vehicular homicide last year. He later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of a fatal accident, a charge on which jurors couldn't agree. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and is incarcerated in Los Lunas.

Lovato had been drinking with Fierro in the hours before Tenorio was killed.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at roundhouseroundup.com