Local news in brief Oct. 3

| The New Mexican and wire services

10/2/2008 - 10/3/08

Muggers steal $300k in pearls

Four men jumped a traveling jewelry salesman Thursday afternoon at his Cerrillos Road motel, tied him up and stole $300,000 worth of pearls, police said.

The 65-year-old man — a Nevada resident — told police he was going into his room at Motel 6, 3695 Cerrillos Road, between 4 and 4:15 p.m. when two men jumped him, said Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Benjie Montaño. The salesman said he tried to fight off the men, but two other men joined in and were able to get him into the room and tie him up with his belt and a telephone cord, Montaño said.

The men threw a blanket over the salesman and tried to suffocate him before making off with the pearls, he said. The man was able to untie himself after the thieves left. The salesman could only describe one of the men as having a round face, Montaño said.

The salesman suffered abrasions on his head and complained of a sore back, but was not taken to the hospital, Montaño said.

Woman sues dealer for 'lemon'

A Taos area woman claims in a lawsuit that Santa Fe Mazda Volvo sold her a "lemon" that had already been rejected by a customer in Texas.

Joe Ruth, who took over as general manager at Santa Fe Mazda about 10 days ago, said Thursday that he had not seen the complaint and did not know about the case.

Vanessa Martinez of El Prado, near Taos, alleges the 2004 Mazda RX-8 coupe she purchased March 29, 2007, had been repurchased by the Mazda Corp. in August 2006 following a complaint under the Texas Lemon Law about the car stalling and not restarting.

The state District Court complaint states "all decals and hanging tags, disclosing the lemon buyback, had been removed when the dealer put the car on its sales lot," and the dealer failed to disclose "clearly and conspicuously in writing that the car was a lemon buyback."

Although Mazda apparently replaced the car's engine, the complaint says, the problem continued. A few months after Martinez purchased the car, it stalled at a stop light and would not restart for about 15 minutes, the complaint says. It says another dealer found a report disclosing the car was part of the buyback program. When Martinez and her father told Santa Fe Mazda they had been deceived, the lawsuit says, the dealership "gave them the runaround."

Game director's license suspended

ALAMOGORDO — The head of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department has had his hunting rights temporarily taken away.

The Game Commission voted Thursday to revoke Director Bruce Thompson's hunting license for two years.

Thompson was accused of shooting a deer on private land during a hunt in southeastern New Mexico last November. It's illegal to hunt on private property in New Mexico without permission from the landowner.

Thompson has said he believed he was on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, based on coordinates entered in his global positioning system unit.

Thompson was convicted earlier this year of unlawful hunting and illegal possession of a deer. He was ordered to serve 182 days of unsupervised probation and pay fines as a result of his no contest plea to the charges.

Pedestrians sue city after falling

Two people say the city of Santa Fe is at fault for injuries they sustained while walking through the downtown two years ago.

Sara Bowman of Arizona says that she stepped into a pothole obscured by water and leaves while she was crossing the street at the corner of Palace and Lincoln avenues on Oct. 6, 2007. She seeks unspecified damages in a complaint filed Monday by lawyer Alexander Wold Jr. of Albuquerque.

Gerald Sandler of St. Catharine, Ontario, Canada, says he tripped on an uneven section of sidewalk along Alameda Street while walking with his wife on Sept. 29, 2006, causing him to fall onto his hands, arms and face. He also seeks unspecified damages in a separate complaint filed last week by lawyer Charles Finely of Albuquerque.

City Attorney Frank Katz did not return a call seeking comment Thursday.

History student to speak on Villa

Brandon Morgan, a Ph.D. candidate in the history department of The University of New Mexico, will be giving a lecture today on the impact of the Mexican revolution on citizens of New Mexico. When Francisco “Pancho” Villa passed through Deming in 1914 on his way to Sonora, citizens gathered to pay homage to him, Morgan says. But following the
1916 raid on Columbus, Villa became the vilest of bandits.

The lecture is at 3 p.m. at the Center for Southwest Research, Willard Reading Room, Zimmerman Library, and is free and open to the public.

Workers’ resort stay costs $61,000

ALBUQUERQUE — Federal court employees from Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces spent two days at a Pojoaque resort at a cost of $61,000 to taxpayers.

The Knowledge and Personal Growth Offsite Workshop was mandatory for employees of the clerk’s office for the U.S. District Court in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Wednesday.

The price tag for the two nights at the swanky Buffalo Thunder Resort was $650 for each of the 94 employees who attended.

“It was a team building, you know, to work on some team activities, to let staff get to know each other, to build better communication between our offices so we can provide better customer service throughout the state (and) better service to the bar, the judges and each other,” said Matt Dykman, clerk of the U.S. District Court for New Mexico.

Insurance plan stops taking enrollees

ALBUQUERQUE — A state-subsidized health insurance program that helps low-income workers and small businesses has stopped accepting new enrollees.

The state Human Services Department announced the State Coverage Insurance will hit its maximum enrollment of 40,000 members two years earlier than expected, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Thursday.

“This is way beyond the anticipated enrollment for this time, which means we must slow down,” said Carolyn Ingram, director of the department’s medical assistance division.
People who are already enrolled in the program will continue to receive coverage as long as they meet the guidelines.

New Mexico pays about $100 million a year to supplement the cost of State Coverage Insurance.