New Mexico governor Susana Martinez—once hailed as a possible VP pick for Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, and/or Jeb Bush—is at the center of a bit of controversy concerning a noise complaint at a hotel room at which she was attending a holiday staff party.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports:
Santa Fe police were dispatched to Gov. Susana Martinez’s hotel room at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa about 1:30 a.m. Sunday after a caller complained of loud noises emanating from the room and someone throwing bottles off the balcony.Santa Fe County dispatchers on Friday released recordings of Martinez talking to dispatchers after the complaint was made. She insisted on knowing who made the complaint and telling dispatchers that police officers were not needed.
It seems that it was an hotel employee who placed the complaint call and that the governor became “at times impatient” with the dispatcher.
The Santa Fe New Mexican continues:
The governor said she and her disabled sister were in the room, along with six other people eating pizza. She said they were not making noise. If there was a disturbance in the room, she tells the dispatcher, it would have happened about six hours earlier, but does not provide further explanation in the recording.Martinez tells the dispatcher who she is, and then asks who complained. The dispatcher tells her he can’t give her that information.“Why can you not? It is public record,” Martinez responds. “Give it to me.” Her tone was occasionally impatient.She insists on knowing who made the complaint and asks if it was another guest in the hotel.“What room number?” she asks. “Are they next door?”A dispatch log said a complaint was made about guests “partying” in a room on the fourth floor. “Caller adv they were warned to stop / They haven’t / Caller would like them escorted off the property,” the shorthand notes of the log say.The person mentioned in the log as the caller was a hotel employee.
KRQE reports that Martinez told the dispatcher to “call off” the police and notes that the Santa Fe interim police chief was in attendance at the party:
The Santa Fe officers did not attempt to contact the hotel guest who made the complaint, nor did they go up to the governor’s fourth-floor room to investigate further. Ross said the officers made a sweep of the outside of the building to look for evidence of broken bottles, but found nothing.Santa Fe’s interim police chief, Patrick Gallagher, was at the holiday party as an invited guest. Ross said the chief was not notified of the call until Monday morning.
Following is audio of telephone exchanges related to the incident:
[Featured image via Santa Fe New Mexican]
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