ALBUQUERQUE – Attorney General Hector Balderas announced that pediatrician Juan Torres Santos, who was found guilty of one count of Sexual Exploitation of Children in October 2015, lost his appeal to the New Mexico Court of Appeals June 22.

Torres Santos was previously a licensed pediatrician in Pennsylvania and in Texas, and was working on his application for a medical license in New Mexico at the time of his arrest. Torres Santos appealed his conviction claiming there was not sufficient evidence he intentionally possessed child pornography and that the district court should not have allowed the Office of the Attorney General to show the jury evidence of the child pornography.

The...

An investigation continues into a Toyota 4Runner that overturned June 18 at mile-marker 10 and not far from New Mexico 264, according to a Navajo Nation police report. Sgt. Shane Bennet recorded that the Toyota SUV was traveling eastbound and rolled over. A witness at the scene said he heard a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed, telling Bennett that “he heard a loud crash.”

Three females approached the crash scene and one said that she was in the vehicle earlier in Gallup. Bennett’s report stated that fire personnel attempted to get the driver out of the vehicle, but stopped due to the fact that the driver was dead.

By Bernie Dotson

Sun Correspondent

GRANTS – New Mexico State Police were called to investigate a single commercial motor vehicle crash on I-40 at mile post 87, at 3:49 am on June 20.

The commercial motor vehicle left the roadway, entered the median and overturned.

The driver of the vehicle, Mr. John Valdez, 56, of Desert Hot Springs, Calif. was not wearing his seat belt, and sustained fatal injuries, he was pronounced deceased at the scene.

The passenger of the vehicle Mr. Abdelnebi Basyouni, 59, of Fontana, Calif. was asleep in the cab section of the vehicle, he sustained injuries during the crash and was transported to University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, NM.

This vehicle crash is still under...

A Mentmore female remained jailed June 20 after being taken into custody on bringing contraband into a jail facility charges, officials said. Valerie Lopez remains behind bars and without bond on a separate charge from Cibola County, officials said.

Lopez, 27, appeared before 11th judicial Court Judge Lyndy Bennett June 12 for an arraignment after being arrested in Gallup on May 5 for a probation violation charge.

A trial date has been set for Nov. 28 after Lopez pleaded not guilty in front of Bennett for the contraband charge. The disposition of the Cibola County no bond charge was not immediately available.

Lopez was jailed in early May on the probation violation. But when she was...