Proposed Monique’s Law calls for monitoring of inmate phone calls

By John Cardinale

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — Christopher Beltran took a plea deal for a second-degree murder charge for the death of his girlfriend Monique Gonzalez.

“Trying to prove first-degree is incredibly difficult in New Mexico,” Jason Spindle, Deputy District Attorney for New Mexico’s 5th Judicial District, said.

Spindle prosecuted the case and said there were warning signs before Beltran killed his girlfriend.

“We knew that they were having conversations. She was visiting him. She had spoken to him several times,” Spindle said.

Target 7 was able to get a hold of those conversations.

“You don’t want to show me where you are at fool. Straight up, I’ll find you myself. I’ll kick in your (expletive) door by myself fool straight up,” Beltran said, in a call to Gonzalez.

The phone calls Beltran made were being recorded, but not monitored.

“We can’t go back in time. I wish we could. It’s such a sad thing that happened,” Republican New Mexico Sen. Cliff Pirtle said.

Pirtle represents Roswell where the murder happened. He is now proposing “Monique’s Law.”

“It calls for when somebody is set for release, that we start to review the phone calls before their release. We make sure that there isn’t a threat that went unnoticed. The requirement is that if you don’t review those phone calls, the person can’t be released,” Pirtle said.

However, during our initial investigation into the case in October, Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero told Target 7 it is not possible to monitor every phone call.

“We monitor people specifically that we have concerns on. People who we know might be engaging in illegal behavior or negative behavior,” Tafoya Lucero said.

We did find that seven states, including California, use artificial intelligence on prison phone calls that key in on certain words. But the technology has caused debate.

“A number of different electronic rights organizations are challenging this or fighting against it because they say that it violates just the very concept of personal privacy,” KOAT Legal Expert John Day said.

However, Senator Pirtle said he does not believe Monique’s Law violates privacy.

“One of the things whenever you receive a phone call from an inmate, it says this phone call is recorded. So, you’re consenting to that. I don’t think that’s an issue,” Pirtle said.

Pirtle hopes the law gets support from people on both sides of the aisle.

“Look, it could be our sister, it could be our daughter. It could be our best friend that this could happen to. And don’t want that to happen. And so, if there is a threat, this is going to ensure that that person is protected,” Pirtle said.

Target 7 reached out to the Democrats several times for comment on whether they support Monique’s Law. They did not get back to us.

Monique’s Law is currently in the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.

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