In Sports
Dexter wins Class 3A state softball tourney
PRCA Pro Rodeo comes to Roswell
Lady Demons ride shutout pitching performance from freshman Bryana Munoz. -Page B1
Jesse Andrus and Mike Hillman Memorial will continue tonight. - Page B1
Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 124, No. 117 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
May 16, 2015
Saturday
www.rdrnews.com
Dexter police chief under investigation By Jared Tucker Multimedia Journalist
Jared Tucker Photo
A police cruiser sits outside the Dexter Police Department Friday afternoon where a day earlier Police Chief Mario Contreras was placed on administrative leave by Mayor Mitch Daubert.
Dexter Police Chief Mario Contreras is under a criminal investigation by state police and has been placed on administrative leave by the town’s mayor. The Daily Record received a tip Friday morning from a reader on the investigation. According to an email from a man named Robert Stark, Dexter Police Chief Mario Contreras was placed on administrative leave by Mayor Mitch Daubert Thursday. New Mexico State Police Capt. Lance Bateman con-
firmed Friday his agency has initiated an investigation but would not disclose any details. Among the allegations in Stark’s email are requests from Contreras for sexual favors, demands for illicit photos and threats and continued harassment if women don’t comply with his demands. “This is the type of behavior that gives all officers a black eye,” Stark said. “This needs to be dealt with. He must be held accountable.” Daubert said he’s surprised at the allegations, but wouldn’t confirm or
An uplifting experience
deny Stark’s accusations are the reasons he put his police chief on leave. “If the allegations stand, we will take it very serious,” Daubert said. Stark alleges some of Contreras’ victims are employees of the local Family Dollar Store and Allsup’s Convenience Store. One Dexter Family Dollar employee said she was ordered by her district manager not to speak to the media. The Daily Record was unable to obtain a statement from the company by press time. Allsup’s Convenience Stores corporate office in
NMMI divorces alumni group for the second time By Jeff Tucker Record Staff Writer
Timothy P. Howsare Photo
Kendra Jones, the reigning Miss Roswell, gets a boost from the other lovely ladies in her family during the Walk for Hope, held Friday night at Cielo Grande Recreation Area. The annual event was attended by hundreds of people and all proceeds will benefit Chaves County residents needing assistance during cancer treatment. Second from left is Kendra’s mother, Crystal Hester. Kendra’s sisters, from left, are Kayla, Kelsey and Kirstie Jones. Crystal is a team captain and coordinator for Walk for Hope. She also is the vice president of the Chaves County Cancer Fund. Donations can be given after the event. For more information on available funds for patients going through cancer treatment, contact Crystal at 420-2253 or crystalhester@allstate.com.
Clovis did not return phone messages by press time. Daubert said Contreras was appointed Dexter’s police chief about six months ago following the resignation of his former chief around Christmas. Prior to his appointment, Contreras served as a uniformed officer for the Town of Dexter for 10 years, he said. Contreras hung up the phone when called by the Daily Record. Multimedia journalist Jared Tucker can be contacted at 575-622-7710, ext. 301, or mmnews@ rdrnews.com.
The board of regents of New Mexico Military Institute on Friday voted again to terminate an agreement with its alumni group, potentially bringing an end to the alumni group’s ability to use NMMI logos and trademarks or to raise funds on behalf of the military school. The five-member board of regents, after an hourlong executive session Friday afternoon, voted unanimously to give a 60-day notice to the Institute Alumni Association of the board’s intent to terminate the military school’s memorandum of agreement with alumni group. A second vote was taken Friday by the board to once again request the alumni association to turn over
all its funds to an organization under the control of the board of regents. It also passed 5-0. “It’s a divorce,” board member Phillip Ingram told the Daily Record after the meeting. Friday’s votes were the second time the NMMI board of regents has tried to sever ties with its estranged alumni group. On April 22, 2013, the NMMI board of regents provided the alumni association with a letter stating the military school was terminating its MOA with the alumni association on the grounds that the alumni association had allegedly failed to maintain a financial accounting system and failed to provide an annual audit to NMMI. See NMMI, Page A3
‘Justice’: Jury orders death for the Boston Marathon bomber
An honored tradition
BOSTON (AP) — After slouching through his trial for months with a bored look on his face, the defendant was ordered to rise. For close to half an hour, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was on his feet, fidgeting as he listened to the reading of a 24-page worksheet in which a jury dismantled, piece by piece, any hope he had of
mercy. By page 21, his fate was clear: death by injection. In the nation’s most closely watched terrorism trial since the Oklahoma City bombing, the 21-year-old Tsarnaev was sentenced to death Friday by a federal jury that swept aside arguments he was just a “kid” who fell under the influence of his fanatical older brother. The decision — which
came just over two years after the April 15, 2013, bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260 — brought relief and grim satisfaction to many in Boston. “We can breathe again,” said Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds on her legs. The death sentence sets
LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — B.B. King believed anyone could play the blues, and that “as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.” But no one could play the blues like B.B. King, who died Thursday night at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he had been in hospice care. Although he kept performing well into his 80s, the 15-time
Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and other problems. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and exhaustion. For generations of blues musicians and rock ‘n rollers, King’s plaintive vocals and soaring guitar playing style set the standard for an art form born in the American South and hon-
ored and performed worldwide. After the deaths of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters decades ago, King was the greatest upholder of a tradition that inspired everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Robert Cray to the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille,
See BOSTON, Page A2
‘Blues can never die’: B.B. King reigned but music lives on
Bill Moffitt Photo
Students graduating from the Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell nursing program received their pins during a ceremony at the Performing Arts Center at the campus Friday afternoon. Graduation from the two-year nursing program took place at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Shown receiving her pin is Tory Norris. The pin is considered a gift from teachers to the students and goes back to the 12th century and later with Florence Nightingale in the 1800s. Photos from Friday night’s ENMU-R and this morning’s NMMI graduations will appear in Sunday’s paper. Today’s Forecast
HIGH 75 LOW 47
Index
Today’s Obituaries Page B4
• James A. (Jay) Bruin • Geraldine M. (Fron) Evans
• Marie Huffsmith Hamm • Tillie Hidalgo
See KING, Page A2
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Horoscopes.........A8
Sports. ................B1
Lotteries. ............A2
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