A Northern New Mexico fire chief arrested in March at the scene of a fire he was commanding was exonerated in a bench trial Friday morning.

Eddie Velarde, chief of the Velarde Volunteer Fire Department, was found not guilty on charges of obstructing a sheriff's officer, disorderly conduct and concealing his identity.

Velarde's attorney, Diego Zamora, in June served notice to Rio Arriba County that he may file suit on behalf of Velarde for wrongful arrest.

Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Lt. Adam Archuleta on March 29 arrested Velarde, 54, at the scene of a small brush fire in Lyden, in which Velarde's department was the lead agency working the blaze. According to police reports, Archuleta arrested Velarde because he was creating general hysteria at the scene that was doing more harm than good.

"He was calling for a mass evacuation (of surrounding residents) with all these agencies responding under the false belief that this was a much larger emergency," said Jake Arnold, a spokesman for Sheriff Tommy Rodella, in March. "Numerous times at the scene, he was yelling about people being trapped when the fire was nowhere near any structure."

Within 10 minutes of Velarde's arrest, Arnold said in March, the 2- to 3-acre fire was contained.

On Friday, Arnold said the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office wouldn't have much to say about Madrid's verdict. "We don't dispute rulings from the bench," Arnold said.

After Archuleta presented the case Friday to Rio Arriba County Magistrate Joseph Madrid, attorney Zamora requested and received a directed verdict of not guilty without having to call as witnesses Velarde or any one of numerous firefighters whom the lawyer says would have testified they were at the scene of the March fire and saw their chief do nothing wrong.

In the tort claim notice he filed last month with Rio Arriba County, Zamora wrote that his client "sustained compensable injuries with resulting damages for which Rio Arriba County is vicariously liable."

On Friday, Zamora wouldn't comment on that tort claim notice or whether he and Velarde have decided to proceed with potential litigation for what Zamora has described as a "malicious" arrest.

After Thursday's court proceedings, he said, Velarde "was heading back up there to work the (Las Conchas) fire."

Velarde has helped work to control the Las Conchas Fire several days this week and would have been back there Friday morning had it not been for the trial.

"He's a damn good firefighter and this was just wrong from the start," Zamora said.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.