New Mexico Criminal Records

New Mexico closes the police file and opens the courthouse. The Department of Public Safety's arrest record is released only on the subject's notarized authorization, for $15, so a stranger cannot buy a New Mexico rap sheet; the courts, by contrast, put every level of court in the state, from municipal court to the Supreme Court, on one free case lookup with no registration. The state's expungement act is young, in force since January 1, 2020, and its judgments run fourteen years, longer than most. This page gives the New Mexico rule and the New Mexico search for each record, with government sources only.

The Department of Public Safety's Law Enforcement Records Bureau states the terms: "The processing fee is $15.00 per record check in the form of a money order or cashier's check made payable to: 'New Mexico Department of Public Safety'. NMDPS must receive the authorization form with the 'original' signature." Its background check page adds that "to obtain arrest record information" the authorization form "must be completely filled out (legibly) and submitted to this agency for processing. The form must be notarized and the fee is $15.00 per record check." The reason is the Arrest Record Information Act, 29-10-1 and following NMSA 1978, which keeps arrest record information confidential except to the person, to those the person authorizes in writing, and to the agencies the act names, with conviction information released to the employers and licensing boards the fingerprint programs cover. So a New Mexico state record produced by name for a third party without a notarized authorization did not come from the Department; it came from the courts, and the criminal records page explains what a copy of a court index misses and why a name match is not a person.

The Judicial Branch's public records page points to one place: "See current electronic court records from all New Mexico Courts," through the NM Case Lookup, and the branch's self-representation guide spells out the coverage: "NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED. Court records for the New Mexico Appellate Courts, District Courts, Magistrate Courts, Metropolitan Court, and Municipal Court are available online at the New Mexico Case Lookup." Felonies are tried in the district courts, one for each of the thirteen judicial districts; misdemeanors in the magistrate courts in the counties, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court in Albuquerque and the municipal courts in the cities; and all of them post to the same lookup by name or case number, with the charges and dispositions. The documents behind the docket are in re:SearchNM, which the branch describes as "a software application that provides access to Odyssey court case information and documents to registered users," and the court's inspection of public records page adds that "court case records may be inspected in person at the court clerk's office at the courthouse where the records are located." The county pages on this site link each courthouse. A background check company's "New Mexico court record" is a copy of Case Lookup on the date it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

The Department's expungement page dates the law: "Effective January 1, 2020, a new Criminal Records Expungement Act, Sections 29-3A-1 through 29-3A-7 NMSA 1978 took effect. This Act allows a qualifying individual to petition a court for expungement of a number of criminal and related public records," and the Supreme Court's handout on the act records its history, "Laws 2019, ch. 203; Laws 2021 (1st S.S.), ch. 3, effective January 1, 2020, as amended June 29, 2021," the amendment being the one that made cannabis records expungeable. Section 29-3A-4 covers arrests that did not end in conviction, on petition a year after the release, dismissal or acquittal. Section 29-3A-5 covers convictions: "a person convicted of a violation of a municipal ordinance, misdemeanor or felony, following the completion of the person's sentence and the payment of any fines or fees owed to the state for the conviction, may petition the district court in which the person was convicted for an order to expunge arrest records and public records related to that conviction," after a conviction-free waiting period that runs from two years for an ordinance violation or misdemeanor up to ten for a first or second degree felony, with offenses against children, sex offenses, driving while intoxicated, embezzlement and crimes causing great bodily harm excluded. An expunged New Mexico record is removed from the public records of the court, the arresting agency and the Department, and the person may state it did not occur; a copy sold before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page.

New Mexico's Inspection of Public Records Act, 14-2-1 through 14-2-12 NMSA 1978, "provides the public access to public records" and, as the Secretary of State's guide puts it, "requires open access to almost all public records in state and local government, with a few exceptions." One exception, in Section 14-2-1, covers law enforcement records that would reveal confidential sources, methods, information or "individuals accused but not charged with a crime," and the annotations to the section draw the line the other way for everyone who was charged: "neither the Arrest Record Information Act nor the Inspection of Public Records Act authorizes a law enforcement agency to protect the identity of persons who have been arrested or charged with a crime." So the arrest, the charge and the booking are public in New Mexico, the investigative file may be withheld, and the Department's confidential rap sheet is a separate thing from the police report of the arrest. Who is in custody is posted by the county detention centers, the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center for Albuquerque among them, with its inmate custody and release list, and by the Corrections Department's offender search, which covers "offenders who are incarcerated or on probation and/or parole supervision" and warns that "NMCD does not have jurisdiction over the county or city detention facilities." The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the roster.

A New Mexico money judgment lasts fourteen years. Under Section 39-1-6 NMSA 1978, a transcript of the judgment filed with the county clerk is a lien on the debtor's real estate in that county, the lien is void once a supersedeas bond is filed on appeal, and, in the section's words as carried in the legislature's bill text, "judgment shall be enforced for not more than fourteen years thereof, unless the statute of limitations is tolled pursuant to Subsection B of Section 37-1-2 NMSA 1978." The court records page covers where the judgment dockets and the county clerks' records are searched.

New Mexico is a single federal judicial district, the District of New Mexico, under 28 U.S.C. 111, and court is held at Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Roswell, Santa Fe and Silver City. A federal criminal case from any of New Mexico's 33 counties is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a New Mexico state record: the Department answers it for $15, on the person's notarized authorization, and for no one without it.

Whether a person was charged in any New Mexico court: Case Lookup answers it free, statewide, from municipal court to the Supreme Court, with no registration.

Whether a person was arrested: the arrest and the charge are public, and no agency may withhold the name of a person arrested or charged.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county detention center's list answers it, and the Corrections Department's search for state prison, probation and parole.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is off Case Lookup and the Department's file, a judgment lapses at fourteen years, and a copy that predates the expungement is reached through the federal rule.