Two law enforcement investigations into Montezuma County District Attorney Christian Hatfield appear to have stalled.
Possible drunken driving charges against Hatfield still have not been filed, as the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office awaits blood test results from a sample collected Aug. 30, when Hatfield crashed his 2020 Toyota 4Runner SUV on U.S. Highway 64 east of Farmington.
A second case was opened Oct. 23, after Hatfield took part in a thread of texts that contained insulting, inaccurate and sexist comments against a reporter for The Journal in Cortez.
In New Mexico, San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari confirmed Nov. 27, nearly three months after the crash. that he contacted the laboratory and was told the results were still pending.
During the tow inventory of the vehicle done by the New Mexico State Police, it was noted in the report that there was “an open container of an alcoholic beverage located on the front right passenger floorboard labeled Mexican lager. The container was crushed from the sides but still had residual liquid.”
New Mexico State Police also noted there was “a pill bottle with several pills inside next to this open container,” and the label on the bottle contained Hatfield’s name and the drug name Ambien, according to the report.
The blood work was “checked in and ready to be mailed,” as of 8:39 a.m. Oct. 4, according to an email sent by Sheriff’s Office evidence custodian Elijah Montoya. The email was obtained through an Inspection of public records request made to the office on Oct. 13.
According to emails obtained by the Tri-City Record, officials discovered that the blood sample had been “sitting in the fridge” since Aug. 30 because the request to process it did not make it through the Law Enforcement Records Management System.
When questioned about whether the sample would still be viable, Ferrari said, “I can’t answer that. Some drugs will metabolize in the blood.”
However, he did state, “we haven’t had any issues in the past,” with blood-alcohol samples, and he did not “believe” the three-month time frame would negatively affect the sample.
The Tri-City Record called the New Mexico Forensic Laboratory to check on the delay in processing the sample and was referred to Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer Herman Lovato, who stated that blood alcohol samples are sent to the New Mexico Department of Health Scientific Laboratory Division, which is the only public health, environmental and drug laboratory in the state.
The laboratory test “for alcohol and drugs in DWI criminal cases and for autopsy cases,” according to the DOH website, which also states “the lab performs more than 350,000 tests on nearly 80,000 samples” in a year.
The Tri-City Record called the Department of Public Health and spoke with Public Information Officer David Morgan, who stated, “The standard time frame for return of toxicology results from the New Mexico Department of Health’s Scientific Laboratory Division after receipt of a test sample is four to 10 weeks.”
The accident happened on Aug. 30. It is not known when the blood sample was collected, but that it was reportedly sent to the laboratory five weeks later on Oct. 4. It has been about eight weeks since the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office sent off the sample.
Blood tests for alcohol may not take as long as when a laboratory is testing for drugs, because the blood has to be diluted and tested multiple times for each possible drug that could be present, according to the American Board of Forensic Toxicology.
In the Montezuma County case, a sheriff’s investigator looked into Hatfield’s interaction with a Journal reporter as possible harassment, after the reporter shared text messages she received from Hatfield and a third party, according to the incident report.
The third party was later identified as retired Durango defense lawyer Thomas Williamson, who in an emailed response to the Tri-City Record, identified himself as the third party.
The messages from Hatfield attacked the reporter’s values.
“I did not know until I asked around that you were an ultra-right-wing christian nationalist … who had gone to Jerry Falwell ‘college.’ I should have been less naive in assuming journalistic integrity. I have since read your badly written, intellectually muddled Federalist op-ed opinions. Ballantine (Ballantine Communications Inc.) used to have standards. My parents wrote for the Boston Globe.”
“What’d she gets (sic) wrong?” the Williamson asked. “Didn’t she just read cop report?”
“She said there were drugs and alcohol in my car,” Hatfield wrote to the third party. “The report said no alcohol, no drugs, aside from a full bottle of Ambien I filled the day before.”
Williamson then added a sexual slur in his response to Hatfield:
“She’s just being creative. You’re obviously not Godly and that might explain it … Demand (c**t) retract.”
Hatfield ended the thread by stating, “I personally pulled every item from my car at the salvage yard.”
According to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, a search warrant was still pending, but Ferrari confirmed that Hatfield could have removed items from his vehicle because the Sheriff’s Office did not seize the car for “evidence.”
Williamson later apologized to the reporter, after learning she was in the thread.
That text read, “I aplkigize (sic) for my language. I thought I was just talking to Hatfield.”
Williams characterized his use of the sexist slur as just talk between friends and not directed at the reporter.
“While I regret my language, it’s a big difference to use such language in conversation with a friend as opposed to using a slur, which incidentally I also do concerning men, to the person being discussed,” he wrote in his email to the Tri-City Record.
The Tri-City Record called the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office Nov. 26 to check on the alleged harassment case.
“We turned that over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation,” said Undersheriff Tyson Cox.
The Tri-City Record contacted the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for an update on the case.
“I can confirm CBI is not investigating the matter involving the DA in Cortez,” Public Information Officer Rob Low responded with a text message.
In the San Juan County case, the Tri-City Record and The Journal are awaiting copies of the blood warrant, search warrant and arrest warrant for Hatfield. All were requested on Oct. 23, along with dash camera and lapel camera videos from the crash. The requests have not yet been fulfilled.
However, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with the Tri-City Record regarding the requests.
Records Clerk Jennifer Coponiti sent an email on Nov. 13 stating, “Just an update, we are still waiting for results. I will follow up with you NLT 12/2/2024 with any updates.”
With regard to the video evidence Montoya wrote on Oct. 25, “I am reaching out to let you know that our department is currently critically understaffed and requests for bodycam are severely backlogged. It will be an extreme delay before we are able to process your request.”
Hatfield, a former defense attorney who has worked in Farmington and Durango, was appointed district attorney in 2023 by Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat. He lost his bid for reelection to Republican Jeremy Reed, a former deputy district attorney under Hatfield.
