The Court of Appeals affirmed a judge’s decision to dismiss Patricia Dorado’s case with prejudice after repeated prosecution discovery violations.

Damien Willis, Organ Mountain News

LAS CRUCES - The New Mexico Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a Doña Ana County meth trafficking case after finding that a district judge properly sanctioned the state for repeated discovery violations.

In a memorandum opinion filed Monday, the Court of Appeals affirmed Judge Conrad F. Perea’s decision to dismiss the case against Patricia Dorado with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile it.

Dorado had been charged with trafficking by possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, a first-degree felony, in a case stemming from a Jan. 27, 2021 traffic stop in Las Cruces.

According to a probable cause statement filed in magistrate court, a Las Cruces police officer stopped a vehicle near Valley Drive and La Posada Lane after observing a wide right turn and checking temporary tags on the vehicle.

Dorado was a passenger in the vehicle. The officer searched her purse with consent and found two small plastic baggies of suspected methamphetamine, several small clear plastic baggies and a glass pipe, according to the statement.

A Metro Narcotics agent wrote that the suspected methamphetamine weighed about 4.77 grams and field-tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine. The agent also wrote that the packaging, paraphernalia and circumstances were consistent with street-level drug sales.

The case was indicted in March 2023 in Doña Ana County District Court. The indictment charged Dorado with trafficking by possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and listed Metro Narcotics Agent Jesse Rogers as the witness whose testimony supported the indictment.

But the case began unraveling over discovery.

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In August 2023, Perea dismissed the first case without prejudice after finding that Dorado had been arraigned May 22, 2023, that the state’s initial discovery deadline was June 29 and that, as of Aug. 4, Dorado had not received initial discovery disclosures “in the form of videos.”

Perea found that the state had violated local discovery rules and dismissed the case without prejudice, allowing prosecutors to bring the case again.

The state reindicted Dorado in November 2023 under a new case number. The second indictment charged the same offense, listed the same alleged date and relied on the same witness.

In February 2024, Perea dismissed the second case with prejudice.

In that order, Perea found that the two cases involved the same defendant, the same alleged Jan. 27, 2021 incident, the same charge and the same testifying witness. He also found that reindicting the case created a new case number and a new scheduling order, giving the state what he called a “second bite at the apple.”

Perea found the reindictment could mask the fact that the case had already been dismissed without prejudice and could sidestep the local rule that makes dismissal with prejudice the presumptive sanction for repeated discovery violations after a case has been refiled.

The judge found the state was culpable for failing to provide discovery required by local rules, that Dorado was prejudiced because her defense attorney could not proceed within the requirements of the rule and that no lesser sanctions were available.

The state appealed, arguing that Perea’s explanation was inadequate, that dismissal with prejudice required a finding that the state intentionally violated a court order in bad faith and that Perea misread the local rule as requiring dismissal with prejudice.

The Court of Appeals rejected those arguments.

Writing for the court, Judge Zachary A. Ives said Perea’s order explicitly addressed the three factors courts must consider before imposing severe sanctions for discovery violations: the culpability of the offending party, prejudice to the other party and the availability of lesser sanctions.

The appellate court also rejected the state’s argument that culpability required intentional bad faith. Later precedent makes clear that a party may be culpable for discovery violations even without intentional, bad-faith conduct, Ives wrote.

The opinion also noted that Dorado had argued the state failed to provide a police report, failed to provide a recording of a confession during an interrogation and that the prosecutor and main investigating officer failed to attend a scheduled pretrial interview. The state did not dispute those facts in district court, according to the opinion.

The Court of Appeals said the record supported Perea’s finding that Dorado was prejudiced because the discovery failures prevented her attorney from preparing and timely filing pretrial motions, including a possible motion to suppress.

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The appellate court also said Perea considered lesser sanctions before dismissing the case with prejudice.

Dorado’s attorney argued that lesser sanctions would not help because there had been three violations, trial was already set and the case had already been dismissed once for previous discovery violations, according to the opinion.

The state asked Perea not to impose sanctions, to extend deadlines for pretrial interviews and to exclude the missing police report. But the Court of Appeals noted that the state made no argument about how the court should address the missing interrogation recording.

The Court of Appeals concluded that the record supported Perea’s decision and affirmed the dismissal.

Judge Jennifer L. Attrep and Judge Gerald E. Baca concurred.

Damien Willis is founder and editor of Organ Mountain News. If you have a personal story to share or a lead we should follow up on, reach out at OrganMountainNews@gmail.com or connect with him on X at @damienwillis.