New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez unveiled two legislative priorities to expand crime victim protections on Friday.
Torrez held a press conference in Albuquerque to announce the two bills, one called Victim’s Right to Refuse Pretrial Statement or Interview, will be sponsored by state Rep. Tara Jaramillo, D-Socorro. The second, an amendment to the Victims Rights’ Act, will be sponsored by state Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque.
Torrez said the Victim’s Right to Refuse bill would protect minors and adults who have been sexually assaulted from excessive pretrial interviews. The amendment to the Victims Rights’ Act would amend the law to enforce the protections already written into the law by providing a means for civil action if the protections are violated.
Torrez said the bills are important pieces of legislation, in part, because New Mexico is one of the few states that does not guarantee protections for victims of abuse or sexual assault during the judicial process. He said such guaranteed protections already exist at the federal level.
Torrez talked about his own experience as an attorney watching a pretrial interview of a small child who was a sexual assault victim. He said that such interviews can retraumatize the victim. He said the Victim’s Right to Refuse bill would create clear procedures for those pretrial interviews so the victim is “treated with dignity in the process” and if those principles are not upheld, the bill “guarantees the rights will be respected.”
“Even prosecutors will be held accountable,” Torrez said. “Because to do anything less would maintain the status quo treating victims as second-class citizens.”
He said adult victims can refuse to give multiple pretrial interviews or request that the pretrial interview be shortened. Torrez said bills will not impact the right of the accused to face the accuser during a trial before a judge and jury. He said if a case goes to trial, the victim will still have to take the stand and be subject to cross examination in a courtroom.
“This doesn’t have any impact on that right [of the accused],” he said.
But he said that when the judge and jury are not in the present, during the pretrial process, the goal is for the victims not to be retraumatized. He said that, at times, the range of questions the victims are asked in pretrial interviews are “not geared toward guilt or innocence but geared toward intimidating and retraumatizing.”
He said New Mexico experiences high dismissal rates because the state’s judicial system permits re-interrogation of victims. He said that by protecting victim’s rights, there will be higher rates of prosecution of sexual assault crimes of both adults and children and communities will be safer.
“This is a feature of our system that’s been sitting in plain sight for way too long,” he said. “This brings balance and puts justice at the center of the system.”
Tony Ronga, the father of a young woman who was sexually assaulted several years ago by a high school teacher in Las Cruces, spoke during the press conference about the hurt his family experienced because of what he described as a lack of justice for his daughter and other victims. The teacher, Patrick Howard, received probation, which the judge terminated early this year, despite pleas from the family. Howard pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual contact with a minor and a count of battery in 2021, according to the Las Cruces Bulletin.
Krisztina Udvardi, chief executive officer of All Faiths Children’s Advocacy Center, said during the press conference that victims should only be interviewed once by highly trained staff. She said a more positive experience in the legal system for victims reduces stress and that unaddressed trauma increases the risk of mental health disorders and broader societal issues.
Jaramillo said during the press conference that the legislation would “ensure victims are protected from unnecessary trauma” and “bring New Mexico in line with the rest of the country.”
Dixon said victims of human trafficking and battery were also being added to the amendment to the Victims Rights’ Act. She said the amendment would also require victims to have seven days’ notice in advance of a court proceeding. She said the amendment would “strengthen protections for victims of crime and make it easier for their voices to be heard.”
Torrez said that he believes these bills will have bipartisan support in the legislature. Though he also said he anticipates a legal challenge if enacted.
“But that’s an important conversation for the judiciary to engage in,” he said.