(Screenshot via the Otero County Commission livestream). Struck has an immunity deal with prosecutors for his testimony. He called it a great day for America and added, The people are showing that they have had enough, prosecutors said. Earlier this year in New Mexico, Otero County commissioners at first declined to certify the county's primary election, citing baseless claims about the security of voting machines. "But now we had this thing happen where people in the U.S. engaged in an armed insurrection to stop the legally mandated counting of votes and the peaceful transfer of power. Thanks for contacting us. Otero County Commissioner and founder of Cowboys for Trump. Couy Griffin first elected official barred from office for participating in Jan. 6 attack. Local news, weather, sports, events, restaurants and more, Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin guilty in first Jan. 6 misdemeanor trial, QAnon Shaman stays in jail as judge slams his arguments: So frivolous as to insult the Courts intelligence, He kicked back in Pelosis office on Jan. 6. That resolution was also sponsored by Griffin. "I just want those that have already come to the conclusion that I'm guilty, I just again ask you to put the brakes on a little bit and let the legal process take place," Griffin said. Griffin was arrested on Jan. 8, 2021and charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building relating to his participation in theCapitol riot. Now he has regrets., In middle of Jan. 6 riot, Oath Keepers chief reached out to Proud Boys. He breached security barriers outside of the building and eventually assumed a leadership role in the mob and egged on the violence, Mathew said in his ruling. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP) Listen Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin leaves the federal court in Washington on March. More:Couy Griffin released from pretrial detention after being held on Capitol riot charges, More:Matherly, Marquardt demand Griffin resign from Otero County Commission. McFadden, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said there was ample evidence that Griffin knew he was in a restricted area and didnt leave. Griffin is one of at least 10 people charged in the riot who either held public office or ran for a government leadership post in the 2 years before the attack, according to an Associated Press tally. Watch Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin get arrested in Washington D.C. Couy Griffin has been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority. Otero County, New Mexico - Wikipedia Griffin is one of three members of the Republican-led Otero County commission that is refusing to certify June's primary election results, citing unfounded conspiracy theories about voting. He is among only three riot defendants who have asked for a bench trial, in which judges decide a case without a jury. Recall supporters did not collect enough signatures by the deadline on September 28, 2021. A federal judge on Tuesday convicted Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin of trespassing in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, handing the Justice Department its second victory at trial in the probe and affirming its use of an unusual misdemeanor charge against breach participants who, like Griffin, were not violent. In . Griffin represented himself during a two-day bench trial last month in District Court in Santa Fe. Address 1101 New York Avenue Alamogordo, NM 88310 After being jailed in connection with the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Otero County Commission Vice Chairman Couy Griffin was back in attendance at the Feb. 11. The resolution on the table calls the COVID-19 public health orders unconstitutional on series of grounds including that itinfringes on New Mexicans' First Amendment right to free exercise of religion and to peaceably assemble. 0:36. He was found guilty of the charge at a federal district court hearing on March 22 and sentenced on June 17 to 14 days of time served and ordered to pay $500 in restitution, a $3,000 fine and complete community service and one year of supervised release. N.M. Supreme Court intervenes after GOP commission refuses to certify | Amy Barela | Otero County, NM McFadden set sentencing for June 17, after defense attorney Nicholas D. Smith declined an offer for immediate sentencing. And being in the audience of Thursdays meeting instead of being seated with the commissioners brought a specific feeling to his mind. The Soldiers' Monument, also known as The Obelisk, was toppled by Indigenous Peoples Dayactivists in October 2020, an event which has already resulted in five arrests. Griffin is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17. Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. The Otero County Commission met Thursday for the first time since former Commissioner Couy Griffin was removed from office by court order earlier this week because of his participation in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Phone: 575-491-7265. Nichols, and awarded a nearly $50,000 contract to audit about 24,000 votes to Echomail, which was among the companies who audited the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, AZ. The Albuquerque Journal has reported that Griffin's commission term concludes at the end of the year, but that he is considering a run for sheriff. Couy Griffin arrives for trial in Washington, D.C. Cowboys for Trump founder guilty of illegally entering US Capitol grounds in Jan. 6 riot, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Thats the thing that has hurt the most in this. Were here to serve you. By New Mexico state law, any New Mexican can file to have any New Mexico county official removed from office. U.S. Congress | An effort to recall Couy Griffin (R) from his position as the District 2 representative on the Otero County Commission in New Mexico did not go to a vote in 2021. The New Mexico Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the State's authority to impose such mandates. Ballotpedia features 408,500 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. "Griffin shall be removed from his position as an Otero County Commissioner effective immediately.". Marquardt and Matherly, along withNew Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, asked Griffin to resign following his Jan. 17 arrest in which he was charged withknowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority by federal authorities foris participation in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol building. Griffin, who is defending himself, said he went to Washington D.C. to peacefully protest and pray. Couy Griffin is no longer the District 2 Otero County Commissioner per a ruling by District Judge Francis Mathew. Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the worlds largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. NEW MEXICO(KRQE) The trial for Otero County Commissioner and Cowboys for Trump founder, Couy Griffin begins Monday in Santa Fe. The judge citied Griffins recorded statements saying that by the time he arrived on the grounds at 2:31 p.m., he erroneously thought Pence and Congress had already certified the election. District 2 Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin, 48 of Tularosa, was found guiltyin federal court March 22 during a bench trial for trespassing on federal grounds during theduring the Jan.6, 2021 Capitol riot. Of the many agenda items concerning the commissioner on the April 8 agenda, the item that generated the most contentious discussion was the ratification of a press release that Commissioners Gerald Matherly and Vickie Marquardt -- both Republicans -- sent to media calling for Griffin's resignation. Now its no longer the peoples choice. Official Couy Griffin found guilty of illegally entering Capitol Daves Hot Chicken will have you begging for more, and maybe for mercy, Josiah Gray finishes April with a flourish as Nats avoid a series sweep, at least 163 Republicans who have embraced Trumps false claims, National Football League began playing Lift Every Voice and Sing, what is referred to the Black national anthem. Each charge was punishable by up to one year in jail. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. "I don't think it's fair to accuse me of insurrection," he says. Griffin was accused of trespassing onto the west steps of the Capitol Building Jan. 6. Griffin told NPR that he was shocked by the ruling. District Court Judge Francis Mathew ruled that Couy Griffin, an Otero County commissioner, is now disqualified from holding public office because he violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth. Pence spent Jan. 6 at underground Senate loading dock, Secret Service confirms. Prosecutors played video clips that showed Griffin moving through the mob that formed outside the Capitol, where police used pepper spray to quell rioters. Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Sackett said the resolution was preposterous. Those actions must have occurred during the official's current term of office in order for a recall effort to be approved to circulate petitions. Griffin was booted from the board earlier in the week by court order due to his participation in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The quo warranto complaintasking for Griffin's removal from office was filed by Marco White on Santa Fe County, Mark Mitchell of Los Alamos County and Leslie Lakind of Santa Fe County. We are actively considering all options under New Mexico law. Ballot measures, Who represents me? Regardless of what happens next, Bookbinder says this is the first time a court has ruled that what happened on Jan. 6 was an insurrection. CREW represented three New Mexico residents who brought the civil lawsuit against Griffin this past March and called for him to be removed. But in charging documents and plea talks, prosecutors have also deployed stiffer misdemeanor charges against those accused of more egregious or disruptive conduct than passing quietly through restricted areas, or, in a small number of cases like Griffins, did not enter the Capitol. Griffin was booted from the board earlier in the week by court order due to his participation in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Griffin could have thought business was still taking place, but the burden was on the government to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, McFadden said. The judges verdict bolstered U.S. prosecutors decision to charge about half of the more than 750 people arrested to date in the Capitol siege with misdemeanors only if they did not assault police, damage property or act to obstruct the proceedings of Congress. Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin gestures before getting into a car after the first day of his trial in federal court in Washington on March 21. They wont even give me a key to my office so I can get my stuff out without being surveilled by the sheriffs department.. Well what bigger example is there whenever the courts remove a duly elected representative only to make way for the governor to hand select who she wants to represent the people? Griffin said. But its been very difficult for me, Griffin said. Prior to the verdict, the New Mexico Attorney General's Office discussed what a conviction would mean for the Otero County Commission, where Griffin holds the District 2 seat. "His protestations and his characterizations of his actions and the events of Jan. 6, 2021 are not credible and amounted to nothing more than attempting to put lipstick on a pig," Mathew's ruling states. Griffin "incited, encouraged and helped normalize the violence," Mathew wrote. I think that its just very difficult that I dont have the respect of being able to be out by Friday without having the county sheriff or the sheriffs department standing guard.. Griffin, however, attended the meeting and even spoke during the public comment session. State legislature | A key question in Griffins case was whether he entered a restricted area while Vice President Mike Pence was still present on Capitol grounds, a prerequisite for the US Secret Service to invoke access restrictions. Griffin, one of three members of the Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico, is among a handful of riot defendants who either held. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. Couy Griffin, a county commissioner in Otero County, New Mexico, stands outside a federal court in Washington on March 22, 2022, after receiving a verdict in his trial. "I was shocked by the response from the court. 17, 2022. White, Mitchell and Lakind were represented by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the New Mexico-based law firms of Freedman Boyd Hollander and Goldberg P.A, Dodd Law Office, LLC, and the Law Office of Amber Fayerberg, LLC, as well as by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. Griffin's actions were "overt acts in support of the insurrection.". It's one thing to be charged, it's another thing to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Griffin, the head of a group called Cowboys for Trump, claims he got. He was found guilty of the charge at a federal district court hearing on March 22 and sentenced on June 17 to 14 days of time served and ordered to pay $500 in restitution, a $3,000 fine and complete community service and one year of supervised release. "The court's decision sent a message that powerful people can't rise up against the execution of the laws of the United States and the peaceful transfer of power without consequences," he says, "and the country needs to be protected against those who would undermine our democratic principles.". [7][8], Recall supporters listed five reasons for recall in their request to the Twelfth District Court, including:[2], At the recall hearing, Griffin called the recall supporters' allegations "frivolous, baseless and politically motivated," according to the Associated Press. The NAACP, Common Cause and the National Council of Jewish Women submitted amicus briefs stating their support for Griffin's removal as an Otero County Commissioner. Couy Griffin @CowboyCouy . The resolution states that employees and elected . 145 likes, 4 comments - Bloomberg CityLab (@citylab) on Instagram: "Couy Griffin marched to the steps of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to stop the . "Griffin shall be removed from his position as an Otero County Commissioner effective immediately.". New Mexico StateAuditor Brian Coln said his office's work would continue in the face of the conviction. Couy Griffin is no longer the District 2 Otero County Commissioner per a ruling by District Judge Francis Mathew. At the hearing, both recall supporters and Griffin were able to present evidence and witnesses. Lujan Grisham knows that New Mexicans expect their elected officials to uphold our Constitution and rule of law, Sackett said. In considering closing arguments submitted by Griffin in the case asking Mathew to consider the will of District 2 constituents, the judge said: "The irony of Mr. Griffin's argument that this Court should refrain from applying the law and consider the will of the people in District 2 of Otero County who retained him as a county commissioner against a recall effort as he attempts to defend his participation in an insurrection by a mob whose goal, by his own admission, was to set aside the results of a free, fair and lawful election by a majority of the people of the entire country (the will of the people) has not escaped this court.". In September 2022, it was employed by a judge in New Mexico, who removed Couy Griffin, a county commissioner in Otero County, from office for his participation in the January 6 insurrection. I feel like I was just really railroaded," Griffin said. We've received your submission. Resolutions, when passed, do not hold the weight of law, rather indicate positions of understanding or support. Hawa said agents took Pence from his office at the Capitol to a secure location at an underground loading dock on the Capitol complex. Instead, he showed up as a passenger in a pickup truck that had a horse trailer on the back. [10] Griffin said he would not resign. C4T Leader Couy Griffin Refuses to Leave Commission Recall supporters filed paperwork on March 11, 2021. The hearing was held on April 8, 2021. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE 719-383-3000: CSU EXTENSION OFFICE 719-254-7608: HEALTH DEPARTMENT (LA JUNTA) 719-383-3040: HEALTH DEPARTMENT (ROCKY FORD) 719-254-5300: .
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