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Frustration over mental health system reportedly prompted Capitol threat

Santa Fe New Mexican, The (NM) - 7/30/2014

July 30--Police say Matthew Pacheco, a Taos resident, wanted everyone to know how upset he was about society's mistreatment of mentally ill people. So, for a period of nearly 12 hours, he called various authorities to let them know of his plan to commit suicide and "blow up the state Capitol." And he wanted reporters to be on hand to witness it.

This is according to a police affidavit and recorded phone messages left at newspaper offices.

State police arrested Pacheco on Monday afternoon in Taos. He had no weapons on him, The Taos News reported.

Because of the threats, as many as 225 state employees who work for the Legislature, the Governor's Office, the Secretary of State's Office and the Administrative Office of the Courts were told to evacuate. That meant some workers got a half-day off.

"I didn't want to have my people standing around outside in case someone came [to do violence]," Artie Pepin, director of the state Administrative Office of the Courts, said Tuesday.

Pacheco was being held at the Santa Fe County jail on one of count of making a bomb scare (a fourth-degree felony), as well as misdemeanor counts of using a telephone to threaten, harassment and "interference with members of staff or the general public." His bond was set at $50,000 cash.

According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant filed at the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, the first threatening call was received by the Santa Fe Regional Communications Center -- which handles police dispatch for several agencies in the Santa Fe area -- at 2:38 a.m. Monday. The call was from a man who said "he would blow up the Capitol Building," the document states.

Apparently police had little trouble at the outset of the investigation tracing the call to Pacheco's home in Taos.

According to an account on The Taos News website, the Santa Fe dispatch center told Taos police of the threat at 3:22 a.m. The newspaper reported that after the call from Santa Fe, a Taos dispatcher typed into a call log, "He was going to the capital tomorrow to blow himself up to show how messed up the system is because the psychiatrist just keeps giving him meds and they don't help anything."

According to The Taos News, Taos police Chief David Weaver confirmed that one of his officers was dispatched to Pacheco's address at 3:28 a.m. and met with Pacheco and his mother for about 45 minutes.

Weaver, who couldn't be reached by The New Mexican on Tuesday, told The Taos News that no report was filed, but the department later briefed state police.

By about 9 a.m., Gov. Susana Martinez's constituent services office got a call from Pacheco, who allegedly made a bomb threat and said he would kill himself at the Capitol. The governor wasn't in the building Monday.

Two Santa Fe newspaper offices -- The New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal -- got similar calls Monday morning.

Sometime before 10 a.m. Monday, The New Mexican's advertising department received an anonymous voice mail from a man.

"Hi. I don't know what day it is. I think it's Monday the 28th," the caller said. "There's gonna be a suicide in front of the state Capitol because a man wants to know why society wants to treat mentally ill people so injust. He's reported it as mental abuse, and the authorities don't care. So he's going to go commit suicide in front of the state Capitol at 12 noon today to show society their injustice. Have your reporters there."

Police redirected the governor's main phone line to the state police crisis team at about 11:15 a.m. Pacheco then called and talked to a state police investigator.

"Matthew stated he would go down to the Capitol Building and make a bloody mess," the arrest affidavit says.

At about 12:30 p.m., Capitol security instructed all employees in the building to evacuate, as well workers in the North Annex of the Capitol, which is connected to the Roundhouse by a partially underground walkway. Among those who had to leave were members of the Legislature's Investments and Pensions Oversight Committee.

At 1:41 p.m., the affidavit says, Pacheco made contact with state officials again, saying "he would hurt himself if law enforcement gets near him and he didn't need weapons, rather he would choke himself."

At about 4:30 p.m., state police arrested Pacheco at a Taos drugstore, Lt. Emmanuel Gutiérrez said.

"The New Mexico State Police is also working with local mental health professionals to ensure that the man's well being is given due consideration," Gutiérrez said in a news release.

The Taos News reported that Pacheco has a history of mental illness and run-ins with the law.

"In 2012, he challenged several traffic citation in Taos Municipal Court by pleading insanity," the paper said. "Pacheco's mental competency was also questioned when he was charged with battery that same year."

The Taos News is a sister paper of The Santa Fe New Mexican.

Contact Steve Terrell at sterrell@sfnewmexican.com. Read his political blog at www.santafenewmexican.com/news/blogs/politics.

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