The Santa Fe New Mexican, July 25, 2013

Page 1

Bittersweet ending: Fuego win ninth straight, still miss playoffs Sports, B-1

Locally owned and independent

Thursday, July 25, 2013

www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢

George William Smith, 44, surrendered to officers Wednesday following a SWAT team standoff.

Standoff ends in arrest of ex-cop Man surrenders after SWAT team fires tear gas into southeast-side home

Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar says she correctly followed the state’s marriage laws when a same-sex couple requested a marriage license in June.

Clerk defends marriage license denial Salazar says case should be in District Court By Tom Sharpe The New Mexican

officers using the GPS signal from his monitoring anklet, Pacheco said. Pacheco said the SWAT team was called because officers who made the initial contact with Smith realized that, given his police training, he knew the tactics they might use. A perimeter was set up around 11 a.m., and a negotiator tried to persuade Smith to surrender and leave his house peacefully. “As long as he is talking to us, we know he’s not trying to harm himself or others,” Pacheco said at the scene during the standoff. Shortly after an initial round of 11 gas canisters were fired into Smith’s home, police using a loudspeaker tried to get him

Santa Fe County Clerk Geraldine Salazar says the same-sex couple asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to force her to issue them a marriage license are going about it the wrong way. Salazar’s response to Alexander Hanna and Yon Hudson’s petition for a writ of mandamus says the state constitution limits such direct petitions to the Supreme Court to cases against state officers, boards and commissions. Because Salazar is an elected county officer, they should have started in state District Court, says the response signed by Assistant County Attorney Willie R. Brown. In addition, the response maintains that Salazar “correctly followed the state’s marriage laws which, viewed in their entirety, clearly apply only to persons of opposite sex, and were enacted without any known sexually discriminatory animus decades before adoption of the state’s Equal Rights Amendment and laws prohibiting employees from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation.” Brian Egolf, who is representing Hanna and Hudson, said Salazar initially indicated to his clients, as well as to others, that she favors marriage

Please see STANDOFF, Page A-4

Please see CLERK, Page A-4

Two sheriff SWAT team members prepare to confront George Smith on Wednesday, while he was barricaded in his home. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

By David J. Salazar The New Mexican

Part of a southeast-side neighborhood was blocked off for hours Wednesday while a sheriff’s SWAT team tried to coax a 44-year-old Santa Fe man already facing criminal charges to come out of his house, where officials say he had barricaded himself with a weapon. George W. Smith, a former sheriff’s lieutenant in South Carolina who had been free on bond while facing armed robbery charges, surrendered to authorities around 2:30 p.m. — shortly after officers fired 21 canisters of tear gas into his home on Calle de Sebastian.

Smith was transported by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center for evaluation after his exposure to tear gas. Lt. William Pacheco of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said Smith sustained no other injuries. According to Pacheco, when Smith reported Wednesday morning to the Santa Fe County jail to have his electronic ankle monitor checked, his wife — Assistant District Attorney Dorie BiagiantiSmith — walked over to the sheriff’s office at 35 Camino Justicia to file a report alleging he had assaulted her Tuesday night. When Smith realized his wife had made the assault report, he fled to his home in the 1800 block of Calle de Sebastian, where he was located by

Coming soon: Back-to-school tax savings The New Mexican

Here’s something to look forward to for those needing to buy clothes, shoes or computer equipment: The annual back-to-school tax holiday is coming next week. For one weekend, there will be no gross receipts taxes due on certain clothing, school supplies and computer equipment sold in New Mexico retail stores. The tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday, Aug. 2, and concludes at midnight Aug. 4, state Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said Wednesday. The tax holiday was started in 2005 with the intent of helping families with school-age children. But you don’t have to be a parent or a student to take advantage. Anyone

Please see SAVINGS, Page A-4

Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com

Oscar Wilde: Celebrity or Notoriety? Opening night of a four-day seminar presented by The Santa Fe Opera; keynote address by biographer and grandson of Wilde Merlin Holland on Confounding the Critics — Surviving the Scandal: The Remarkable Reputation of Oscar Wilde, 6 p.m., reception follows, Santa Fe Woman’s Club, 1616 Old Pecos Trail, $50, four-day seminar $85, 946-2417.

Obituaries David John Gonzales, July 19 Carolina Rodriguez, 84, Santa Fe, July 23 PAGE A-10

Surveillance measure defeated

Today

House legislation would have halted NSA program. A-5

Partly sunny; early evening thunderstorm. High 82, low 60.

Santa Fe’s most wanted Police release list of nine criminal suspects. LOCAL, A-6

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-5

Comics B-12

Popular hike to ‘The Wave’ claims third life in month Deaths have park officials reassessing dangers of trek near Utah-Arizona border By Paul Foy

The Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — They left their two young children with relatives and set off to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary at one of the most beautiful hiking destinations in the Southwest. Months earlier, the luck of a draw had brought Anthony and Elisabeth Ann Bervel coveted hiking permits for The Wave, a region of richly colored sandstone patterns near the Utah-Arizona border. But just hours into Monday’s trek, 27-yearold Elisabeth Bervel died of cardiac arrest, becoming the third hiker in a month to succumb to the brutal summer heat and disorienting open country, where no marked trail shows the way. The deaths have prompted officials to reassess the dangers for people who make the hike and perhaps seek an outside investigation of the risks, said Kevin Wright, manager of Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.

Please see HIKE, Page A-4

PAGE A-12

Lotteries A-2

Opinions A-11

Police notes A-10

Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Brian Barker, bbarker@sfnewmexican.com

Sports B-1

Time Out A-8

Scoop A-9

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010

A section of the rock formation known as The Wave in the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona. Elisabeth Bervel, 27, died Monday of cardiac arrest at the site. The popular hiking destination also claimed the lives of a California couple earlier this month. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 206 Publication No. 596-440


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