Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Ex-teacher given until Oct. 26 to turn self in

Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com

A former Los Lunas elementary school teacher sentenced to 18 months in prison for drug possession will get a little more time before she's to report to jail.

After sentencing 39-year-old Joanna Chavez of Peralta to one and a half years behind bars, District Judge John Pope told the former first grade teacher that she would have two weeks to turn herself in.

Chavez, who taught at Valencia Elementary School for 10 years, was arrested in March 2006 shortly after midnight in her classroom with several baggies of methamphetamine in her purse. She was arrested a second time eight months later in Nov. 2006 when Los Lunas police found her again with methamphetamine and other drug paraphernalia in her purse at a local car wash.

Chavez was immediately terminated from Los Lunas schools after her first arrest and the New Mexico Department of Education has since taken away her teaching certification.

On Tuesday, Chavez and her attorney, Robert Cooper, asked Pope to allow her to turn herself in to authorities on Nov. 1, saying that she had a scheduled doctor's appointment on Oct. 23 and a parent teacher conference the next day. Cooper told Pope that Chavez was also having difficulty finding after-school child care for her daughter.

Cooper told the judge that after not being able to get in touch with Deputy District Attorney Ron Lopez last week regarding the possible extension, he contacted District Attorney Lemuel Martinez, who had no objection.

Pope asked Lopez why the district attorney's office would agree for an extension when in the past it has continued to advocate for convicted felons to start their sentences as soon as possible.

Lopez told Pope that he has conferred with Martinez and said he agreed to an extension because of Chavez's doctor's appointment.

Pope agreed to allow Chavez to turn herself in, but not on Nov. 1. Instead, he ordered that she report to the Valencia County Adult Detention Center on Oct. 26 by 10 a.m.

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