SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A judge has landed himself on the other side of the law after getting arrested in Santa Fe for drinking and driving. El Paso Magistrate Judge, Ray Gutierrez, was arrested last Saturday.
According to the criminal complaint, Santa Fe County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the Santa Fe Opera in reference to a car crash. When they got there, Gutierrez said he was trying to back out of the parking lot but accidentally hit another vehicle.
Deputies asked him if he had anything to drink at the Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta. The complaint says Gutierrez admitted to having five wine samples and bringing a gun into the event.
He performed poorly during the field sobriety test and blew above the legal limit before deputies arrested him.
Because the Wine & Chile Fiesta is a licensed liquor event, Gutierrez was also charged with unlawful carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor establishment. That is a fourth-degree felony.
Gutierrez has since been released from the Santa Fe County Detention Center. A spokesperson with the Council of Judges in El Paso told our sister station, Gutierrez has been placed on administrative leave pending this investigation.
