Rio Communities’ officials board up nuisance townhouse

RIO COMMUNITIES — A nightmare. Four years of living hell.

That’s how MaryAnn Jaramillo described her life on Zamora Court in the city of Rio Communities, living next to an abandoned home that was a base for criminal activity.

“I couldn’t sleep at night. There was all this noise. I could hear them taking an ax to furniture to break it up to burn,” Jaramillo said Friday afternoon.

Fearing a fire would start in the townhouse attached to hers and spread out of control was a constant worry for the retiree, and spending $1,000 to clear up a bedbug infestation that migrated through the wall into her home was just one of many horrible realities.

On Friday, March 7, Rio Communities Police Chief Felix Nunez and code enforcement officer Damian Flynn were among those at a long-time problem property on Zamora.

Contractors boarded up windows and doors of the abandoned home as Flynn and Rio Communities Mayor Josh Ramsell hung up bright yellow warning signs, declaring the home “substandard” and “unsafe to occupy.”

Inside the home were gaping holes in the wall and ceilings where wiring had been ripped out for the copper. Filthy furniture crowded the rooms, clothing and trash covered the floors, along with drug paraphernalia. The smell of urine and feces could be detected at the front door.

“You can see they were flopping here,” Nunez said, illuminating bare mattresses with a flashlight. “The foils are what they use to smoke fentanyl.”

In addition to drug use, the house was probably also used for prostitution and human trafficking, the chief said.

According to Jaramillo, after the woman who owned the home died, her daughter inherited the property. Nunez said the daughter has been missing for nearly a year.

Jaramillo remembers when the daughter moved into the house with her boyfriend and their two small children.

“From what I could tell, they were pretty much set with the house and car paid off. Things started getting worse and worse. I noticed the kids were always there,” Jaramillo said.

She and her sister, Gloria, would give them food and lend the couple a car to go to the grocery or take the children to the park.

“I could tell they were struggling and we wanted to help. They didn’t have any utilities,” Jaramillo said. “After the kids were taken by (the Children, Youth and Families Department) it got worse.”

With no utilities, Jaramillo said she would come outside in the morning to find the neighbors had run extension cords for electric and garden hoses from her house to theirs.

“It just got progressively worse. There were all these people we didn’t know and they were coming to my door. Right to my door,” she said. “I would call the (Valencia County Sheriff’s Office) but, I hate to say this, it was like pissing in the wind. They wouldn’t do anything.”

In the last 12 months, 911 call records show law enforcement — both VCSO and RCPD — were called out to the problem property 16 times.

Nunez said they have arrested four people at the home, three of who had felony warrants, and recovered four stolen vehicles.

“We’ve been in foot pursuits of wanted people out of this house. We got numerous nuisance calls from neighbors,” the chief said.

One call came from Jaramillo and it went far beyond a mere nuisance. She and her sister were eating breakfast when they saw a man coming up the driveway. He entered the home, carrying a hammer, walked out the back door and into her yard.

There, he broke down the fence between the two properties and then smashed the transformer the neighbors had illegally tapped into, taking out power for the area for nearly nine hours.

“His reasoning? (The woman next door) had stolen $1,500 worth of fentanyl from him and that’s the only way he could get in there,” Jaramillo said.

She described Nunez, who was named chief in August 2023, and the city police department “the best thing that ever happened. It’s awesome. They’ve listened to us. We can voice our opinion and concerns. This is the best thing that ever happened to us. They’re willing to listen and take you serious. Everybody here was scared but nobody wanted to do anything about it. I’m just so pleased with the way things are going right now, you have no idea.”

Getting to the point of being able to board up the property and have some control over it is a months long, multi-step process for the city.

“We don’t want to have people living in this type of situation or live next to it. The private property rights in the state of New Mexico are good and strong for good reason,” said Mayor Ramsell. “We totally support that, so when we run into a situation like this, there’s a process we have to go through and I know that can be frustrating for everyone involved.”

To declare a property a nuisance and put a lien against it starts with an investigation by code enforcement to see if there’s cause under the city’s ordinances, said Rio Communities City Manager Martin Moore. If cause is found, the city council has to approve a resolution declaring the property a nuisance. That decision is then published and the property owners, or anyone with ownership interest in the property, has to be given a chance to protest.

“If we can’t find the property owner, we have to try to locate and notify them by mail. If we can’t do that, we have to post in public places,” Moore said. “After all that is done, there’s a waiting period of 30 to 45 days. Once all of that is done, then we’re in a position to start doing this.”

Depending on the complexity of the case, that process can take three to six months, the manager said.

“We have to make sure we follow that process. We don’t want to violate anyone’s property rights,” Ramsell said. “At the same time, we also have to make sure we’re protecting the community. So today, we’re at the point where we’re able to fully secure the building and prevent additional entry and use of this building.”

The city has put a lien against the property for the cost to secure and clean up the most dangerous debris in the home, but that lien will only be paid back if the property sells. Since it is attached to town homes on both sides, the city can’t simply tear it down.

The city’s lien stands behind a little more than $8,000 in back taxes. County property tax records indicate the tax bill hasn’t been paid since 2018.

Nunez said there is a second nuisance property on Norma Street the city should be closing up this week, and there are at least two more going through the process of being declared a nuisance. The house on Norma will most likely be completely razed to the ground, since it’s a stand-alone structure, Ramsell said.

“We know this is a frustrating situation and it takes time,” the mayor said. “We don’t want people to think we aren’t listening to them. This doesn’t happen quickly. What we did on Friday is the culmination of the process.”