ABQ RAW staff
Posted 2/8/2022 10:18PM
Updated 2/9/22 9:00AM
Michele Curtis was charged with aggravated DWI
Foothills ABQ – Albuquerque Police officers were dispatched to the intersection of Lomas and Tramway reference a motor vehicle crash with injuries. When officers arrived, they found Michele Curtis. According to a criminal complaint, officers smelled alcoholic beverages emitting from Curtis.
Curtis attempted to pull away from officers while yelling she knew Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Curtis stated multiple times she was on her way to her kids’ school to pick them up. Officers asked her what she was drinking and she admitted drinking a little bottle of tequila.
It was later learned that Curtis was also involved in a hit and run crash nearby at a McDonald’s near Lomas and Juan Tabo. At the McDonald’s Curtis backed into a vehicle and then fled the scene. She then crashed again at the Lomas and Tramway intersection. Curtis refused field sobriety tests at the scene, and a breath test at the prisoner transport center downtown.
Sources tell us Metropolitan Detention Center refused to book Curtis because of a medical procedural protocol issue. Since Curtis was involved in a crash it is policy to have her cleared by a hospital which APD Officers accomplished. However after the medical clearance MDC personnel still refused her intake. As an alternative to booking Curtis will be summonsed in the mail to appear before a judge at a later date. Because of the non MDC booking we do not have a booking photo from her arrest.
Curtis was appointed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in May of 2021 to the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department (IAD). At the time Lujan Grisham announced new members including Curtis to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) Task Force. The Task Force would develop a State Response Plan that addresses long-term solutions to MMIWR incidents in the state. The plan would be presented to the appropriate legislative interim committees and the Governor as soon as possible.
We reached out to the Governor and the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department for comment. We have not heard back and will update the story if they do.