Former Rio Arriba sheriff sentenced to three years

SANTA FE — State District Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood sentenced former Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan to three years in prison followed by a year and a half of probation Thursday, a day after a Santa Fe jury convicted him of two felony charges after he helped a man avoid arrest and then directed a deputy not to tell anyone.

“While all elected officials have a duty to fulfill the responsibility of their elected office, there are some elected officials such as a judge, a district attorney and a sheriff that are held to a higher standard,” the judge told Lujan as she sentenced him.

She said he had let down the people of Rio Arriba County who had elected him and the sheriff’s office he led.

“Rio Arriba does not have its own laws, nor is the law applied any differently there than anywhere else in the state,” the judge said. “The law is the law. You are not above the law, nor can you ignore the law when it serves your purpose.”

Lujan, 60, resigned as sheriff about an hour after he was convicted Wednesday, Rio Arriba County Manager Lucía Sánchez confirmed. She said he sent a single-sentence letter in which he wrote that he was stepping down with a heavy heart.

Sánchez wrote in an email the Rio Arriba County Commission will meet in an executive session at 4 p.m. Monday to discuss the process of replacing Lujan and might take action after the closed-door meeting.

Wednesday’s guilty verdict on charges of aiding a felon and intimidating a witness came after Lujan’s second trial on the counts, in which he was accused of helping former Española City Councilor Phillip Chacon evade Española police after leading officers on a high-speed chase in 2017.

A Rio Arriba County jury was unable to reach a verdict following an initial trial in June.

Lujan also is awaiting trial on three misdemeanor counts of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer in another case involving Chacon.

His defense attorney, Jason Bowles, said he intends to appeal the verdict and asked McGarry Ellenwood to allow Lujan to remain free pending the appeal. The attorney said the appeal will be based on restrictions regarding his cross-examination of Cody Lattin, the former sheriff’s deputy who testified Lujan had intimidated him by directing him not to tell anyone about Lujan’s efforts to aid Chacon.

The judge denied Bowles’ request and had Lujan taken into custody by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies.

Clovis-Portales District Attorney Andrea Reeb, a special prosecutor in the case, said appeals are to be expected, but she is not concerned about any aspect of the trial warranting a reversal of Lujan’s convictions.

Reeb told the court she first found out about Lujan’s felony case after she was appointed to prosecute the misdemeanor case, in which Lujan is accused of showing up at Chacon’s house drunk in 2020 while police were executing a search warrant and trying to take over the operation.

“I started noticing a pattern with this individual,” Reeb said.

“Every encounter with law enforcement was combative. It was always a power thing with him,” she said. “It was always this arrogance. It was always, ‘I’m the top law enforcement official in the land, or in Rio Arriba County.’”

She said she received calls from numerous people accusing Lujan of wrongdoing, but most were afraid to get involved, and she was unable to pursue prosecution.

“That led us to start the investigation in this case,” Reeb said.

Lujan’s convictions exposed him to a potential penalty of 4 1/2 years in prison.

Reeb asked the court to impose the maximum, saying as a law enforcement official elected to uphold the law, he should be held to a higher standard than the average person.