Police: Drunken sheriff tried to obstruct SWAT standoff
ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico sheriff is facing an obstruction charge after police say he showed up drunk to a SWAT standoff and tried to order officers away. A criminal complaint filed Thursday said Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan, in plain clothes, attempted to take over the scene involving a barricaded subject in Española on Saturday. Española's police chief says officers reported Lujan smelled of alcohol and ignored commands to leave the “kill zone” in front of the house of the barricaded subject. Lujan told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the accusations in the criminal complaint are false.
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