I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Did Brian Condit, Gov. Bill Richardson’s chief of staff, violate state law when he, Richardson and the governor’s entourage left the scene of a Sept. 5 boating accident at Elephant Butte Lake? There is no clear consensus.
Condit was piloting a houseboat called the “Bloody Mary” on Saturday when, in an attempt to dock the craft at the marina at Elephant Butte State Park, he lost control, leading to an accident that caused thousands of dollars of damage to another boat.
The same state law that allows an operator of a boat to wait two days after an accident before contacting authorities, as Condit did, also says that the operator of a boat must take certain steps. One is to render assistance to individuals affected by a collision or accident. The other is to give his or her “name, address and identification of his vessel in writing to any person injured and to the owner of any property damaged in the collision, accident or other casualty.”
But the governor’s office did not respond Thursday to an e-mail asking if the responsibilities enumerated in the law applied to Condit.
At first glance it appears an open-and-shut case.
budget secretary Katherine Miller
Condit was at the helm of the houseboat that caused the accident. But he, the governor, budget secretary Katherine Miller and security officers were gone within minutes from the scene of the accident, according to an eyewitness.
Carl Shaw Jr., whose houseboat was grazed in the incident and saw the accident unfurl, told the Independent that the governor’s party didn’t interact with anyone at the marina. They disembarked the houseboat, were ferried ashore in a smaller boat and got into vehicles and left.
Condit was cited Wednesday with operating the vessel in a negligent manner and damaging another person’s property.
But based on interviews and statements from officials and political candidates, the issue of Condit’s responsibility as an operator is still cloudy.
Jodi McGinnis Porter, spokesperson for the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, said the state officers investigating the accident decided there were two co-operators of the boat: Condit and Leon Fay, the owner of the 81-foot “Bloody Mary,” which Condit was operating at the time of the accident.
According to an incident report and eyewitness accounts, Fay stayed at the scene of the accident after the governor’s party, including Condit, departed the scene. He asked if people were OK, Shaw said. He also accepted responsibility for the accident, according to the incident report.
In the agency’s estimation, Fay met the requirements of the law, which requires that the operator render assistance and share information, Porter said.
But state Rep. Antonio “Moe” Maestas, D-Albuquerque, said Thursday he wasn’t so sure.
Maestas, an Albuquerque attorney, said the way he read the law in question suggests that each operator, if there are two operators, must render aid and provide others with his or her name and address.
Did Condit do that? That’s the question, Maestas said. The incident report filed by the investigating officers doesn’t provide an answer.
On Thursday, Doña Ana County District Attorney Susana Martinez, who also is a Republican candidate for governor, echoed Maestas’ thoughts, if in a sharper tone.
“The law requires that ‘the operator of a vessel involved in a collision, accident…shall give his name, address, and identification of his vessel, in writing, to any person injured and to the owner of any property damaged in the collision,’” Martinez said in a statement. “From the current media reports, it is not clear that Governor Bill Richardson’s chief-of-staff complied with the law.”
Fay was classified a co-operator by the investigating officers because he took control of the houseboat after Condit had piloted it into the marina and sideswiped one houseboat, according to an incident report.
By that time it was too late, however, witnesses said. The houseboat, thrust by momentum, headed across the slip toward D-dock and smashed into a second houseboat, “The Floating Irish.”
