Police to question driver in wrong-way crash

Santa Fe police are expected today to begin questioning a Rowe man they suspect was driving drunk when his wrong-way vehicle collided with another car on Rodeo Road on Friday, seriously injuring him and an Eldorado woman.

Santa Fe Police Captain Gerald Rivera said Patrick Jimenez, 40, veered into oncoming traffic Friday on Rodeo Road near Calle Pava and struck a Hyundai Accent driven by John Geier, 78, of Eldorado, police said. Geier suffered cuts and bruises but was not hospitalized.

However, his passenger — 82-year-old Shurley MacBarns — suffered a broken shoulder, a broken hip and a broken leg. She was hospitalized at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.

Jimenez, who has at least two DWI convictions according to court records, remained in St. Vincent's intensive care unit Sunday with head and chest injuries, Rivera said, but he is expected to be able to speak with police today. Results of blood-alcohol tests are still pending, but Rivera said Jimenez smelled of alcohol at the crash scene.

Investigators also have said that Jimenez's Kia Optima had an ignition interlock device, often required of drivers who have been convicted of driving while intoxicated. Police also have said Jimenez might have been drunk because he was passing another vehicle and driving recklessly at the time of the crash.

N.M. GOP gets involved in ad squabble

ALBUQUERQUE — The New Mexico Republican Party chairman interjected himself Sunday into a squabble over negative campaign ads by two GOP gubernatorial front-runners, saying an investigation of the ads backed up allegations made by one campaign but not the accusations made by the other.

Complaints by several Republicans prompted Harvey Yates Jr., to put together a committee to look at the ads being run by Doña Ana County district attorney Susana Martinez, and Allen Weh, a former state GOP chairman, Yates said in a statement.

The committee, which asked both campaigns to back up their ads, found documents furnished by Martinez's campaign "reasonably supported" her ad against Weh.

But Yates said the committee found that documents outlined by Weh's campaign didn't reasonably support either his radio or his TV ad.

Martinez's campaign manager, Adam Deguire, said the party's analysis speaks for itself, and directed reporters to statements put out previously by Martinez's campaign in response to Weh's ads.

Weh's campaign manager, Whitney Cheshire, said the campaign stands by the accuracy of its ad.

Yates said in his statement that dishonesty in political advertising should not be tolerated in either party.

"Republicans expect honesty in government. How likely is that result if dishonesty in campaigning is tolerated in those we elect to run government?" he said.

Bomb scare leads to Civil War relic

ALBUQUERQUE — An Albuquerque man's call about a possible explosive device turned up what could be a cannonball from the Civil War era.

Kenny Honeycutt asked police whether a device given to him by a friend several years ago could be dangerous.

Honeycutt said he wanted it checked out because his grandchildren come over to play.

Police sent a bomb squad Friday.

Honeycutt says he'd used the item as a doorstop for a while, and didn't think anything of it until a friend told him it was likely a cannonball dating from the Civil War era.

Police say it's an explosive device from the 1800s, but they found no powder inside.

That means it cannot detonate.




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