VIDEO: New Mexico State Police officer charged with driving drunk
Story continues below
Traffic and Roads: Three killed in 11-car pileup west of Lordsburg
Don't Miss: Navajo storyteller brings representation in front and behind the camera
Crime: Six suspects arrested in connection to home invasion in Taos County
On patrol near Gallup, a McKinley County Sheriff's deputy noticed an SUV going the wrong way. When it turned onto Highway 66 on February 27, the deputy watched as the vehicle hit a curb, popping two tires and decided to pull it over.
But the driver, later identified as New Mexico State Police Officer Rachel Hall, refused.
Deputy: 'How much alcohol have you had tonight?'Hall: 'Nothing.'Deputy: 'So why are you slurring?'Hall: 'I'm not slurring.'Deputy: 'Go ahead and step out of the vehicle for me okay?'Hall: 'Negative. Negative.'
The deputy called for backup and ordered her out of the SUV again. Hall told him she was making a phone call to her sergeant.Deputy: 'Oh don't care who you're calling. Step out of the car. I will break the window.'
That's exactly what happened when backup arrived a short time later.Deputy: 'Break it. Break it.'Hall: 'Sarge. Do you hear this?'Deputy: 'Step out.'Hall:'Sarge. Sarge. Sarge.'
The deputy found an open bottle of vodka in Hall's vehicle. Hall was arrested and refused to take a breath test. NMSP has placed her on administrative leave. She pled not guilty to five charges including aggravated DWI.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
4 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Elgin detectives wade into five unsolved murders, one missing person case for new podcast
Elgin Police Department's 'Somebody Knows Something' podcast launches its second season Aug. 11 fresh off its debut success in cracking the 42-year-old Karen Schepers missing person case. This time around the cold-case detectives will be focusing on five unsolved murders and one missing person case from the 1970s. 'We are doing this because there is such a momentum (after the first season) that we can use to tap into these cases,' Police Chief Ana Lalley said. 'We have got to be constantly challenging ourselves.' Earlier this year, detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian launched a podcast in which they revisited the Schepers' case and reported their actions step by step. In a shocking turn of events, the detectives were able to find Schepers' car and remains in the Fox River, solving a case that had been open since April 1983. Houghton is joined in the second podcast by detective Christopher Hall, who was tapped for the assignment after Vartanian was promoted to sergeant. Hall, a night shift patrol officer for nine years and former SWAT team member, became a detective in May. He jumped at the chance to be part of the Cold Case Unit, he said. 'I think the work is fascinating,' Hall said. 'It's like jumping into a time capsule, so to speak, to work each case. It's a challenge, but I wholeheartedly take on that challenge with Andrew. 'If I can give one family, just like Karen's family, that resolution, that piece of mind, it's a win for me. It's what keeps me motivated and moving forward with these cases.' The Elgin Police Department has 41 unsolved homicides, 27 unsolved sexual assault cases and five missing persons cases, Hall said. 'Our goal in each episode is to humanize who the victim was, share some information on their case, seek information and remember the victim,' he said. 'We want to honor the victims.' Because they're reviewing five cold cases, rather than one, the new episodes will be a little longer than those in the first season. 'We are actively working the cases,' Houghton said. 'We thought we would work chronologically.' The oldest case involves the death of 35-year-old Guadalupe Alanis on June 30, 1971. He was working as a foreman at Woodruff and Edward Foundry on North State Street when he was shot and killed. Alanis was buried in Mexico and none of his family could be found to be still living in the area, the detective said. 'There are certain challenges the further you go back,' Houghton said. 'The evidence gets more degraded. We have far fewer people with us who we can interview again.' The other unsolved murders they will be exploring are: The missing person case involves Barbara Glueckert, 14, who was reported missing on Aug. 21, 1976. She was last seen walking to church, and is believed to have been invited to attend a concert in Huntley by a man identified as Thomas Urlacker. Glueckert's family filed a civil suit against Urlacker in 1980 and was awarded $5.15 million, according to published reports. Some episodes will involve family members or close friends, Houghton said. 'Some people are happy to talk to us for the investigation but don't want to be used in a podcast,' he said. They will be using information from actual police reports and voice actors will read witness statements, he said. The hope is someone comes forward with new information on any of the cases. Houghton said he learned at a training session that the most common way cold cases are solved is when there is a change in relationships. People come forward with information after they break up with a significant other or no longer feel forced to stay quiet, he said. Sometimes, people will remember details that may not have been shared with police at the time. In the Schepers case, police did more interviews with witnesses who saw her the night she went missing, which helped them build a more specific timeline of her disappearance. The podcast also helps put a human face on the victims so listeners can form a connection with them and their family, Lalley said. 'They were always very respectful to Karen and her family and respectful to the investigation,' she said. 'People saw how genuine Houghton and Vartanian were and what we were trying to accomplish: to give her family peace.' Houghton said they didn't want to wait six months to put out more content, especially after the first one generated such a strong following. 'We wanted to get information out there while people are still interested in the podcast,' he said. 'We were going to be happy if we had a few hundred people (Iistening but it ended up) in the 1% of all podcasts globally. … It's kind of crazy.' Houghton and Vartanian have been nominated for an award as Podcast America's Greatest Detective. They will be going to Aurora, Colorado, in September for the competition.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
‘You owe me an apology, you racially profiled me.' New details emerge in allegation against Milton official.
According to the unredacted report, Talbot told officers that Hall approached her in the Milton High School lobby before a town meeting on June 17. She said Hall grabbed her left elbow and told her she would 'appreciate it if you didn't snap when I was speaking.' Talbot said she replied, ''What are you talking about? Take your hand off of me,'' but Hall would 'not let go right away,' the report said. Advertisement Hall was apparently referring to someone else she had seen at the meeting the night before, Talbot told police. 'Later that night, Ms. Talbot said she walked up to the stage area in the auditorium and approached Ms. Hall and said, 'you owe me an apology, you racially profiled me,'' the report said. Hall is white and Talbot is Black. 'Ms. Hall replied, 'I have pictures that someone sent to me of you and two other women in the audience,'' the report said. 'It was reported that Hall then grabbed Ms. Talbot again.' Advertisement Talbot said she again told Hall not to touch her, according to the report. 'Ms. Hall then said, 'I don't even know your name,'' the report said. 'Ms. Talbot then said, 'that's why you should not touch me or put your hands on me.'' When Hall said, 'you were sitting with Beverly (Beverly Ross Denny) and some other black women,' Talbot responded 'you are racially profiling me,' the report said. When police spoke with Hall, she said she was told that three town meeting members who were sitting together at the meeting the night before had been 'making rude gestures and snapping their fingers' each time she rose to use the microphone. Hall 'was sent a photo of the three women sitting together but would not tell me who gave her the picture,' the report said. 'She said the picture did not show anyone snapping their fingers.' Hall also provided her own account of approaching Talbot in the lobby, police said. Hall indicated that she 'politely asked Ms. Talbot, 'it would be nice if you could be respectful and not snap your fingers when I go to the microphone,'' the report said. 'Ms. Hall then said Ms. Talbot got close to her and in her face and said she was not snapping her fingers and a lot of black people look the same.' Hall said she later 'put her right hand on [Talbot's] arm and said, 'I apologize if you were not the person snapping your fingers,'' the report said. 'She said she put her hand on her arm. Hall said to me, 'you know how you do this to calm someone down.' She said she did this in a caring gesture.' Advertisement After the meeting concluded, Hall told police, Talbot approached her and 'got in her face again and was angry and confronted her about the snapping of her fingers the night before.' Hall told police she touched Talbot's arm 'gently again to calm her down because she was upset and Ms. Talbot said, 'don't touch me again, your [sic] touching my arm, that's assault and battery.'' Hall then walked away, according to the report, which said police also pulled video footage at the school. The footage showed Hall approaching Talbot and 'placing her left hand on Talbot's right arm/elbow area at 7:30 p.m. by the entrance to the auditorium. The two began to talk and the conversation continued into to [sic] auditorium.' Additional footage captured the later encounter just before 11 p.m., after the meeting ended. Police said 'you can see Talbot come down to the stage and approach Hall to speak with her. During this conversation you can see Hall place her hand on Talbot again.' The conversation continued, and then the women separated, according to the report. 'A few moments later you can see Hall and Talbot speak again for a few moments and then go their separate ways,' the report said. Police said they also pulled footage from the night before, to see if anyone had been snapping their fingers when Hall took the mic. 'During these times on video you can see Talbot and two other women sitting together,' the report said. 'During the video the women are active in their seats but their [sic] is no visible evidence that Talbot or the other women were snapping their fingers during the times Hall was speaking.' Advertisement A week later, Talbot texted police to inform them she would like to pursue charges but then momentarily backtracked, the report said. Talbot wrote in a follow-up text that rather than press charges, 'she wanted to have a sit-down meeting with Hall and her 'representative,'' and that she wanted Hall to apologize for profiling her. That same day, police told Hall about Talbot's wishes, and Hall said authorities could pass along her contact information to Talbot, records show. Police later told Talbot they could email Hall her information as well. But Talbot then said 'she is not comfortable with Hall having her personal information or communicating with her directly,' the report said. Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at
Indianapolis Star
4 days ago
- Indianapolis Star
Court docs: IMPD Detectives had suspects' names all along throughout 2021 cold case
Ail Smith Jr.'s loved ones never understood how the business and family man could be shot and left for dead. His wife said the last time she saw the 47-year-old, they had just finished working on their box truck company. That was hours before Smith was found shot in the head, rolled up in a rug, and left in the trunk of his own car set on fire back in 2021. "What was the reason? Why did he do it?" His father, Ail Smith Sr., told IndyStar this week following the announcement of arrests in the case. Court documents reveal Christopher Hall, 42, was arrested for assisting the man accused of killing Smith. IndyStar is not naming the man accused of the killing because he has not been charged at the time of this article's publication. At the time of his arrest, he was already in federal custody for taking a stolen vehicle across state lines. But Hall was formally charged, and court documents for his arrest detail what detectives pieced together to solve the 2021 cold case after four years. At 12:30 a.m., on Nov. 9, 2021, Indianapolis Metropolitan police were called about a vehicle fire at a home in the 7500 block of Woodlawn Avenue. At the scene, Indianapolis firefighters and police noticed the driver's door on a 2011 white Chrysler 300 that was registered to Smith was fire-damaged, and the trunk was raised open. They found him inside with a gunshot wound to his head, according to court records. A witness at the scene said he was inside the home when he looked out of his bedroom window and saw two vehicles, Smith's and a dark-colored car, traveling westbound on Woodlawn Avenue toward Sears Street, according to court documents. When Smith's car drove into his driveway, the witness initially thought Smith was trying to turn around. It became strange when the other vehicle followed and turned off its headlights, so the witness grabbed his firearm and exited out the back door of his home to see what they were doing. He was walking out of his back patio door when he heard a loud boom. He saw that the white vehicle was on fire. The witness went back inside the home to tell his fiancée to call the police, court records stated. Evidence collected at the scene included a wallet containing the identification of the man who would later be arrested for killing Smith. There was also a piece of paper containing Hall's name and phone number. Police also collected two glass pipes containing suspected narcotics residue. One was found in a field in front of the house, and another was between Smith's left arm and body, according to police records. By 10:36 p.m. that evening, an anonymous tip came in to police claiming Smith was shot in front of a man and his girlfriend, but it wasn't at the location where Smith was found. The tipster claimed Smith was hanging out at an unknown house when, randomly, a second man walked into a kitchen, grabbed a rifle, returned to the living room Smith was in, and shot him, according to the court documents. The bullet went through Smith's head, with a round going through a TV. The man and his girlfriend "freaked out" and tried to clean up the blood, according to the tip. They rolled Smith's body inside a rug and loaded him into the trunk of his own car. The man who shot Smith drove Smith's car, while the other man and his girlfriend drove behind in a dark-colored Pontiac Grand Prix. Pulling FLOCK cameras, IMPD Detective Ronald Sayles was able to see the suspected Pontiac travel to a home over seven miles away from Woodlawn Avenue in the 8100 block of East 50th Street. On Nov. 10, 2021, IMPD SWAT served a search warrant for the address and conducted a walk-through of the residence to search for evidence. They observed possible droplets of blood on the floor at the entryway to the kitchen and on the sidewalk, according to court documents. But that didn't turn out to be the home where the crime happened. Ail Smith, Jr.: Arrest made in 2021 cold case of man found shot in burning car in Indianapolis The homicide investigation spanned years. On Nov. 22, 2021, prints from a swab on Smith's car came back for Hall. Another anonymous tip came in claiming Hall and Smith didn't know each other. On Nov. 23, 2021, Detective Sayles spoke with the owners of the property on East 50th Street, who said Hall was renting the home from them, but they hadn't heard from him since October. On Dec. 1, 2021, while reviewing phone records from Smith, Sayles found the last three phone calls made from one number. The detective called the number, and it went straight to voicemail with a man's voice stating his name, which is the same name as the man that police would later arrest for the killing. On Dec. 13, 2021, Sayles noticed another number with multiple phone calls to Smith's phone from Hall the day before Smith's body was found. On Jan. 10, 2022, while speaking with Smith's wife, Sayles recalled previous conversations with her where she mentioned a friend of Smith's who allegedly sold illegal narcotics. On Jan. 13, 2022, the detective went to the man's home and spoke to multiple people, confirming he lived there. On Jan. 17, 2022, Hall was taken to the IMPD Homicide Office, but provided little information to police. He did, however, tie the man accused of killing Smith back to the same address Sayles had visited four days before. Hall also said he no longer had his cellphone. On Jan. 19, 2022, a search warrant of that address found a large bloodstain on the carpet, a single bullet hole above the TV stand, and a Samsung TV in the garage with a bullet hole through the screen. On Jan. 20, 2022, multiple witnesses spoke to police about the man accused of killing Smith, with one witness sharing that he often bragged about killing people. According to court records, the man himself was brought in and said he knew Smith. He also said he had recently lost his wallet. On June 7, 2022, a skin cell swab revealed that DNA found in the trunk of Smith's car belonged to the man accused of killing him. A year later, on April 4, 2023, court documents revealed that a lab report on the rug found in the man's home had been slightly cleaned, but human blood was present, and likely came from Smith. But arrests didn't happen in the case until this year. A break in the case came on June 23. That day, Sayles spoke with a key witness. They didn't provide a motive but placed Smith at the home where police believe he was shot and killed. According to the witness, Smith came over to speak with the man accused of killing him in a back bedroom before leaving for a short time and later returning, according to court documents. Smith was sitting on a couch in the living room when the man came into the room with a rifle, fired once, and shot Smith. The man then collected cellphones from witnesses at the scene. According to court documents, the man said it had to be done. Hall still sits behind bars at the Marion County Jail, and his jury trial is set for Jan. 27, 2026. The man accused of killing Smith remains in federal custody.
