Judge dismisses police officer's appeal of law enforcement certification suspension
Sep. 20—A Las Cruces police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a man accused of stealing beer tried to appeal the temporary suspension of his law enforcement certification, but a state district judge in Santa Fe has dismissed the complaint.
The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Certification Board suspended Officer Brad Lunsford's certification amid an investigation into the shooting at point-blank range that killed 36-year-old Presley Eze in 2022. Lunsford appealed the board's decision, and the board responded by filing a motion seeking dismissal, arguing the suspension is temporary and therefore not yet appealable.
Judge Francis Mathew agreed following a hearing Friday.
Lunsford's attorney, Luis Robles, argued in court the suspension — in place almost a year — puts Lunsford in the position of having to wait months, possibly years, without being able to challenge the ruling. He called it a suspension with no end date.
"How long does my client have to be deprived of his rights for it to be a final decision, when it's wrong from day one?" Robles said.
Assistant Attorney General Blaine Moffatt, arguing on behalf of the certification board Friday, said the board's investigation is ongoing and eventually will result in an appealable decision.
"The temporary suspension and summary suspension are really for a matter of public safety," Moffatt said. "... There has to be an investigation done ... to be able to bring the disciplinary action before the board. We just haven't gotten to that process yet. So, while there is a time frame there, it isn't indefinite — it's not something meant to be permanent."
Robles has argued the suspension violates Lunsford's due process rights because it was entered without a conviction and before the officer was notified about it or could have a chance to be heard by the board.
The attorney also argued those points at the board's Dec. 13 meeting, but board members voted to uphold the suspension.
A grand jury indicted Lunsford on the manslaughter charge — a third-degree felony punishable by up to three years in prison — in December 2023, accusing him of killing Eze during a scuffle after a gas station clerk reported Eze had taken a beer without paying and was drinking it in a vehicle in the parking lot with two friends.
Lunsford and another officer forcibly removed Eze from the vehicle to detain him, according to reports at the time.
During the struggle, Eze gained possession of another officer's electronic weapon, though the weapon never deployed.
"In response, Officer Lunsford immediately drew his service weapon and shot Eze on the back, left side of his head, at point-blank range," Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in an October statement announcing his office's intention to charge Lunsford.
Eze, 36, was a married father of a 3-year-old boy who had been living in El Paso while installing solar panels in the region, his parents said in an interview earlier this year. He was an American-born son of Nigerian immigrants, born and raised in Connecticut, and had been planning to move his family back to that state.
Eze was Black, and an attorney for the family has said the killing was racially motivated.
Lunsford — who is on paid administrative leave from the Las Cruces Police Department — is scheduled to stand trial in February. He's also facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Eze's family that is pending in U.S. District Court.
