RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – Nearly three months after a 16-year-old Rio Rancho JV baseball player admitted to peeing in an opposing team’s water jug during a game, the Sandoval County District Attorney’s Office said it wasn’t a crime.
“In New Mexico, battery consists of the unlawful touching of another person in a rude and insolent manner. So in this case, we don’t have any touching of another person,” said Chief Deputy DA Jessica Martinez with the Sandoval County District Attorney’s Office.
Former prosecutor and current state Senator Moe Maestas disagrees. “If I spit in somebody’s hamburger and they take a bite, that’s battery,” said Maestas.
Email says some students drank from contaminated water jug
According to an email sent out to parents at the time of the incident, some students drank from that contaminated jug. Due to that, the teen was facing 15 battery charges, according to Rio Rancho police, one for each person who drank the water, but those charges have all gone away.
“New Mexico doesn’t have a statute that makes it criminal for someone to mess with someone else’s food and or pee in a water bottle,” said Martinez. “While the act is gross and not right. It’s not morally right, it’s not a crime in New Mexico.”
The DA’s office said their hands are tied unless the legislature makes that act criminal, but Maestas says that’s just not true. “The statute is written very, very broadly to encompass any unlawful touching, obviously throwing a rock or spitting on somebody,” said Maestas.
He also says we’ve seen that law work. “A person was convicted of throwing urine on a jail guard from a cup, spitting in a hamburger, there’s no question the courts would uphold the charge, and then it would be up to the jury to find the person guilty, but there’s no question. The current statute fits for what happened out in Rio Rancho,” said Maestas.
‘Up to the state to move forward’ in case: Senator
Maestas hopes this doesn’t end here. “It’s up to the state to move forward, but I think it’s a political statement more than a legal statement. Any lawyer worth their salt knows the battery statute would capture this scenario,” said Maestas.
The incident ended Rio Rancho’s JV season for the rest of the school year. KRQE News 13 reached out to the school district to see if the teen involved faced any disciplinary action. They said they do not comment on disciplinary matters.
