Thursday’s Top Stories
- VIDEO: Man fatally stabs coworker at Golden Pride
- Woman from Albuquerque wins on ‘Jeopardy!’
- Airbnb opens replica ‘Up’ house for stays in Abiquiu
- Woman sentenced after drunk driving killed grandchild in New Mexico
- APD releases latest episode of ‘Duke City Case Files’ highlighting 2018 unsolved murder
- Local group celebrates immigrant workers on International Workers’ Day
- Police move in, begin dismantling demonstrators’ encampment at UCLA
- Kyiv’s forces are up against a concerted Russian push in eastern Ukraine, a military official says
Thursday’s Five Facts
[1] NMSP settles lawsuit after officer pleads guilty to rape – New Mexico State Police is paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars to a woman who was raped by a former officer when she was in high school and he was her soccer coach. Court documents state in 2019, then NMSP officer and Grants High School girl’s soccer coach, Adrian Molina, told the girl to meet him at a school parking lot, gave her homemade wine, and sexually assaulted her. Police say he later raped her again. State Police is now paying out $400,000 to the victim. Molina ended up pleading guilty to criminal sexual penetration and is now on supervised probation until July. He’s since been fired from the high school and state police.
[2] City of Albuquerque pays out hundreds of thousands of dollars in crash settlements – A new report shows the City of Albuquerque shelled out more than $3 million to settle lawsuits in the last three months of 2023. About a quarter of that went to people who were in crashes caused by city workers including Albuquerque Police Department officers. The quarterly report also lists payouts for trip and fall cases, discrimination, whistleblower lawsuits, and failures to fulfill public records requests.
[3] Slight cool down and calmer winds – Skies are clear statewide, and we will see mostly sunny skies again today. Winds are breezy in eastern NM, where a backdoor cold front is moving in, which will cause temperatures to cool down by around 5 to 10 degrees across the state today. The winds will stay light throughout the day, at around 15 to 30 mph for most spots, and slightly higher gusts around southern Colorado and the northern mountains.
[4] Albuquerque Police Department seeing increase in recruits – The Albuquerque Police Department says it’s seeing more cadets joining the force after years of declining interest and a flood of retirements. Chief Harold Medina says the department currently has around 885 sworn officers and more than 70 cadets on the way. APD has also struggled with retaining officers but Medina says they’re now seeing more officers stay on the force due to changes in state law surrounding officer retirement funds.
[5] Red, White, and Balloons event in Albuquerque is back – A popular 4th of July event is coming back to the Balloon Museum this year. The Red, White and Balloons event has been on hold since the pandemic, but is coming back this year. The returning event is a five-hour ticketed experience where people can see the fireworks and get access to food trucks, games live music, and a balloon glow at the museum.
