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A Bernalillo court ruled Wednesday morning that former UNM President F. Chris Garcia, who faced charges of prostitution in 2011, should be allowed access to property seized by authorities during investigations relating to the case.
Second District Judicial Court Judge Stan Whitaker approved a court order after the confidential hearing that morning. The request for the order was filed by Garcia’s lawyers Robert Gorence and Andrea Harris in October.
Gorence said that because Garcia’s case has been thrown by the court earlier this year, police had no more reason to keep Garcia’s property in their custody.
“Now that the case has been dismissed, you can’t indite someone for something if there’s no crime,” he said. “There’s not an investigation in any respect.”
In June 2011, Albuquerque Police Department arrested Garcia, 71, along with UNM professor David Flory and five other people who managed the site southwestcompanions.com for online prostitution ring. But in January, the New Mexico Supreme Court stated that no state law prohibited running the website and dismissed the case.
Search warrants were issued for Garcia’s residence and on-campus office in 2011 in compliance with the investigations, and in 2012, he became subject to a grand jury investigation, according to the court order request. But after the Supreme Court dissolved the case this year, APD notified Garcia that “the State no longer needed the items for prosecution of this matter.”
But when Garcia contacted APD about retrieving property in September, the department told him that it would not release seized items until a court order was approved, according to the request.
According to the request, Garcia “respectfully requested that this court enter an order directing APD Evidence to return each and every item that was seized from his residence and workplace forthwith.”
Gorence said seized property included computers and phones.
Gorence said Garcia would be unable to provide comment about the hearing.
Gorence said Garcia is still not allowed on campus property. Still, he said they plan to appeal to UNM for Garcia to take back his employment position at the University.
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“He doesn’t have access to his office at UNM,” Gorence said. “He has lost privileges at UNM. He wants reinstatement as a professor.”
Although UNM banned Garcia from its Albuquerque campus, he still retains his professor emeritus title at the University.
Gorence said his team would strive for an appeal to UNM about Garcia’s reinstatement “early next year after the holidays.”
