Pueblo sends unpaid speeding tickets to collection agency
Posted at: 02/20/2012 10:42 PM
By: Gadi Schwartz, 4 On Your Side
Headed west from Albuquerque on I-40 just past the Rio Puerco, there is a stretch of interstate where speeding laws get a little blurry.
A 4 On Your Side report has found if State Police officers or sheriff departments' deputies pull over a driver there is one set of laws, but if a tribal officer pulls someone over on the same stretch of road, another set of law applies.
Federal law has long established that non tribal members can not be charged with crimes in tribal court.
Instead crimes committed by non-tribal members are referred out of the reservation and into the states court system.
But Laguna Pueblo is one of several New Mexico tribes that have adopted civil ordinances to enforce traffic laws.
The ordinances are similar to the states criminal traffic code, but drivers can be sent to a collection agency if they fail to pay their fines and the tribe does not have to split any of the fees collected with the state.
County Commissioner Eddie Michael said he is opposed to the way Laguna is issuing citations on roads and highway paid for by taxpayers.
"If the state is going to regulate the speeds on these roads then I think that is where the money should go," Michael said.
Normally, traffic fines are split 11 ways into different programs for the states judicial system and road safety.
Michael also said he has a problem with the issue of jurisdiction over non-tribal members.
"If I want to go before a judge I want to go in front of a magistrate judge, somebody that is elected not appointed," Michael said.
Federal case law shows tribes can have civil jurisdiction over non-tribal members in certain instances, but there are still legal questions in New Mexico as to whether an officer can pull someone over and legally detain them while only investigating a civil infraction.
There is also a question of whether tribes should access a national crime database while running driver information on a system that is supposed to be used to investigate crime, not civil matters.
Laguna Pueblo Governor Richard Luarkie sent KOB Eyewitness News 4 a statement that the Pueblo has sovereign status and "The Pueblo's authority to issue speeding citations to individuals that violate the Pueblo's traffic laws is no different than a state exercising its authority to issue speeding citations to individuals that violate its laws within its boundaries."
The Sheriff of Cibola County, Johnny Valdez, said he is for more enforcement of traffic laws on the interstate and local roads but thinks pueblo officers should be issuing the same citations as everyone else.
"We need all the help we can and we need to work together to keep traffic control down," said Valdez. "But that is the reason why we have state law."
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