Driver logs 9th DWI arrest in 3rd state

(KRQE) RIO RANCHO - The more Rio Rancho police dug the more DWI arrests in three states they found for a man stopped for a traffic violation Saturday and charged with drunken driving for the ninth time.

Sigifredo Durán, 49, was arrested on Saturday about 9 p.m. along State Road 528.

An officer running radar at the intersection of NM 528 and 21st Street reported he saw Durán driving 69 mph in a 40 mph zone. The officer engaged his lights and said Durán pulled over about a mile later in Albuquerque near Coors Bypass and Ellison Drive NW in Albuquerque.

According to the police report, the officer smelled alcohol on Durán's breath smelled of alcohol and his eyes were bloodshot and watery. The officer also said Durán was fumbling when trying to find his driver's license.

The report says Durán began taking a field sobriety test but after a few seconds said he didn't want to "because he was drunk," according to the report. When asked how much alcohol he had consumed, the reported quoted Durán as saying, "A lot. Well, not a lot."

Later at the DPS station Durán did take a breath-alcohol test. According to the report his results were 0.13 and 0.15, well above 0.08, the state's level of presumed intoxication.

The Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety found Durán's DWI history dates back to 1990 when he was arrested in El Paso, Texas. His next two arrests were in January and March of 1993.

Seven months later he was arrested in Albuquerque for his fourth DWI. Durán's next three arrests were all in El Paso in September 1994 and February and July 1996.

Nearly five years later Durán was arrested for DWI in Las Vegas, Nev., in June 2001.

Police said they were surprised Durán's driver's license wasn't revoked. His New Mexico license had simply expired.

Rio Rancho Officer John Francis said Durán may have fallen through the cracks because of the old laws.

"It used to be very hard," Francis said. "In years past you would have seven or eight DWIs in Texas and could come to New Mexico and basically be clean.

"Now we can charge them with previous DWIs, and it's a great thing for New Mexico."

A law passed in 2007 also requires convicted drunk driver from other states to install an ignition interlock device on their vehicle in order to get a driver's license in New Mexico. It applies to drunk drivers convicted after July 17, 2005.