Matthew O’Neill
A judge has ordered a convicted sex offender, an Albuquerque lawyer, released from a three-year prison sentence into a monitored program with the Bernalillo County jail.
The reason: He cannot get sex offender treatment in prison due to the pandemic.
On Feb. 17, 2nd Judicial District Judge Courtney Weaks suspended two years of 51-year-old Matthew O’Neill’s prison sentence.
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Weaks ordered O’Neill transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center to serve the remaining year in the Community Custody Program. Under the order, O’Neill would be released but would have to check in with MDC regularly, register as a sex offender, wear an ankle monitor and abide by other conditions – such as not being around anyone under the age of 18, aside from his children.
Medical Marijuana for Incarcerated Patients
A New Mexico judge has ruled in favor of incarcerated persons who are medical marijuana card holders such that they can use their medicine while in prison. District Court Judge Lucy Solimon has now set precedent for medical care for those in jail or prison or on probation on the heels of reported incidents of correctional officers confiscating medical cannabis products from patients.
This most recent case follows Joe Montaño who was the unlucky victim of a correctional officer confiscating his medical marijuana while Joe was serving a ninety-day sentence of home confinement. New Mexico’s Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act (2019) allows for medical cannabis to be administered by patients who are on parole or probation.
January 1, 2021
A New Mexico state district judge ruled this week that detainees in Bernalillo County’s house arrest program are allowed to use medical cannabis while serving out their sentence.
In her ruling, Second Judicial District Judge Lucy Solimon wrote that Bernalillo County’s Community Custody Program (CCP) is, in effect, the same as parole. New Mexico’s Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, as of 2019, allows medical cannabis patients who are on parole or probation to continue their use of medical cannabis.
“Although CCP is not specifically mentioned in the Compassionate Use Act, [Bernalillo] County fails to demonstrate that CCP should be treated differently than probation or parole,” Solomon wrote. “Therefore, it appears as though the Compassionate Use Act does apply to defendants on CCP as it does to defendants on probation or parole. The issue of whether medical cannabis patients on house arrest can use medical cannabis goes back to 2019 when Albuquerq
An MDC spokeswoman said the facility will comply with the order.
Joe Montaño, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated DWI and in October 2019 was sentenced to serve 90 days in MDC’s Community Custody Program, which allows people to serve their sentence on house arrest instead of in jail, followed by 12 months of supervised probation. Montaño has had a valid medical marijuana card since 2015, court documents show.
In November 2019, CCP officers found marijuana in Montano’s possession and forced him to serve the rest of his 90-day CCP sentence in MDC custody, according to court documents. He was released in January 2020.
A New Mexico state district judge ruled this week that detainees in Bernalillo County’s house arrest program are allowed to use medical cannabis while serving out their sentence.
In her ruling, Second Judicial District Judge Lucy Solimon wrote that Bernalillo County’s Community Custody Program (CCP) is, in effect, the same as parole. New Mexico’s Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, as of 2019, allows medical cannabis patients who are on parole or probation to continue their use of medical cannabis.
“Although CCP is not specifically mentioned in the Compassionate Use Act, [Bernalillo] County fails to demonstrate that CCP should be treated differently than probation or parole,” Solomon wrote. “Therefore, it appears as though the Compassionate Use Act does apply to defendants on CCP as it does to defendants on probation or parole.