PRC candidate doesn't recall charge

Records show Jerome Block Jr. was accused of disorderly conduct soon after DWI citation

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

6/27/2008 - 6/28/08

The Democratic nominee for the state Public Regulation Commission seat representing Santa Fe and northeastern New Mexico says he doesn't recall being charged with disorderly conduct 10 years ago.

"I can honestly say that doesn't ring a bell," Jerome D. Block Jr. of Santa Fe said Friday. "I'm sure something like that would stick in my mind. ... I was raised properly, and I would never do that."

Block, son of former PRC member Jerome Block Sr., won a six-way contest in the June 3 Democratic Primary. He faces Green Party candidate Rick Lass in the November general election for the District 3 seat on the five-member commission that regulates rates and services for electricity, natural gas, telephones, motor carriers and insurance.

According to online court records, Block Jr. was charged with disorderly conduct in the 500 block of Marquette NW in Albuquerque on Aug. 29, 1998 — two months after he was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated (with a blood alcohol content .16 or higher), speeding and running a traffic light in the 2900 block of Princeton NE in Albuquerque on June 26, 1998. All charges were ultimately dismissed.

Last April, when The New Mexican asked him during an interview if he had ever been arrested, Block Jr. admitted only that he had been arrested for "suspicion of DWI."

"I guess I was acquitted," he said at the time. "I was never convicted. The court case timed out. ... I would say acquitted, yes sir."

The New Mexican reported the DWI case against Block Jr. was "dismissed" — based on online records that showed the charge was dismissed on April 6, 2007.

Block Jr., who works as a title-insurance sales manager, did not say anything about the disorderly conduct case at the time, and an initial search of online records did not turn up the charge. However, records for Albuquerque's Metro Court state the disorderly conduct charge was dismissed Aug. 19, 2006.

But Block Jr. said this week that he doesn't recall the dismissals entered in either case or know why the online records would show he was twice cited for failure to appear in court on the disorderly conduct case.

"I imagine if that were the case, a bench warrant would have eventually been issued," he said.

The Santa Fe Reporter this week reported an Albuquerque police report showed Block Jr. was cited for disorderly conduct after he urinated on a bush five yards from crowded foot traffic on Civic Plaza during the annual Summerfest.

Regarding his drunken-driving arrest, the now 31-year-old Block said Friday: "I had just turned 21 and was so excited about being able to go to an establishment and drink. That (DWI) incident really had me shaken up, and I stayed away pretty much socially, and I wouldn't ever attend a Summerfest after something like that happened to me."

He also said, "Right now, my supporters have rallied once again, and they're upset about this whole deal, and they don't have any question about my character, and they will show it on Election Day in November when they elect me to the PRC."

PRC District 3 covers most of Santa Fe County, minus its western and southern portions, plus all of Los Alamos, Taos, Colfax, Mora, Union, San Miguel and Harding counties and parts of Rio Arriba, Sandoval, Guadalupe and Bernalillo counties.

The $90,000-a-year position opened up this year when Ben Ray Luján, son of state House Speaker Ben Luján of Nambé, decided to run for Congress. He is the Democratic nominee to succeed U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who is running for the U.S. Senate.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.