Former fire chief avoids jail time

Editor’s note: The victim and those associated with her are not identified in this story, in line with Quay County Sun poilcy not to identify victims of alleged sexual assault.

A former Tucumcari fire chief avoided time behind bars for embezzling city funds and drugging and trying to sexually assault a city employee, but not without hearing scathing statements from the victim and her acquaintances and receiving additional conditions from the judge during sentencing Monday in Tucumcari District Court.

Shane Warner, 42, now of Clovis, in a plea deal with prosecutors received a 9 1/2-year suspended sentence from District Judge Albert Mitchell and other conditions as part of his five years of supervised probation.

The victim and several family members or acquaintances had urged a tougher sentence. But Mitchell said Warner’s crimes “don’t qualify” for a stiffer penalty, although he added several conditions not in the plea agreement.

District Attorney Tim Rose acknowledged outside the Quay County Courthouse the plea deal was “not ideal for the victim or the defendant.”

“The plea agreement reached in this case was a result of several factors which included avoiding retraumatizing the victim by going through a long and stressful trial,” Rose later stated in an email. “I am glad that the victim and her family can finally move forward.”

Warner’s attorney, Daniel Lindsey, said his client was happy with getting probation.

“There was no rape; there was no sexual assault,” Lindsey said, echoing his comments in court earlier. “We’re very pleased with the outcome.”

Warner exited the courtroom through a side door after Mitchell ordered him to promptly register with the probation office.

Warner pleaded no contest April 16 to assault with intent to commit a violent felony (second- or third-degree criminal sexual penetration), attempt to commit a felony (extortion), felony tampering with evidence, misdemeanor resisting, evading or obstructing a police officer and misdemeanor embezzlement of over $250.

The plea deal occurred less than two weeks before Warner was scheduled to go to trial. Charges of distribution of a controlled substance, tampering with evidence and fraud were dropped.

Warner in March 2017 was accused of drugging an emergency medical technician with the intent of sexually assaulting her, plus sending her text messages that required sexual favors for her to be recertified as an EMT. He also was accused of embezzling money from a city petty cash fund intended for per-diem payments to ambulance employees. He was accused of claiming to state police investigators he didn’t have his cellphone until it rang during an interview with them.

Mitchell imposed plea-agreement terms of an evaluation for treatment, including possible sex-offender treatment, paying restitution of $2,000 to the city of Tucumcari, paying fees and costs with the case and avoiding contact with the victim or her family. Warner also must make a $100 donation to the Quay County Domestic Violence Program and submit a DNA sample to the New Mexico Department of Corrections.

Mitchell, calling Warner’s actions “premeditated” and “despicable,” imposed other conditions not in the plea deal:

n Warner and his fiancée must enroll in a six-month domestic-violence education class within the next year. Referring to the victim’s impact statement of her initial inability to see “red flags” in Warner’s behavior, Mitchell said he wants Warner’s fiancée to have the ability from those classes to see those red flags.

n Warner must undergo a sex-offender evaluation immediately, then another such evaluation in four years if he isn’t in sex-offender probation.

n Warner must wear an electronic monitoring device until his sex-offender evaluation is complete.

n Warner was ordered to stay away from Quay County unless his job on a harvest crew in Muleshoe, Texas, requires him to travel here.

n Warner’s employers with access to medicine must be notified of his acknowledgement of the facts in the plea agreement.

Mitchell declined to require Warner to perform community service as recommended by Rose.

“Frankly, I don’t want you around,” the judge said.

Mitchell said Warner had abused his trust, and “I’m not willing to expose” the public to him in a position where trust is required.

Rose recommended many of the conditions Mitchell added to Warner’s sentence. He also recommended a curfew and an eight-hour course taught by retired police officers about making better choices and “make him realize he’s responsible for his decisions.”

Rose said Warner needed deterrence because his crimes “were not just crimes of opportunity, but because he could, because he thought he could get away with it. He thought he was smarter than everybody else.”

Lindsey objected to Rose’s recommended additional conditions.

“Make them honor the agreement,” Lindsey said to the judge. “Hold their feet to the fire. Make them be honest here.”

Mitchell noted in the plea deal that sentencing is subject to “the discretion of the court.” He offered to Lindsey to delay the sentencing for 48 hours if he truly objected.

Before giving his sentence, Mitchell noted Warner had no previous criminal record and was supporting five children, including two by his fiancée.

The hearing Monday began with a statement from the victim, who recounted her experiences in the months leading up to the drugging. In a voice that occasionally wobbled from emotion, she said she ignored “red flags” in Warner’s behavior (“I didn’t think it was serious”) and his requests for sexual favors. She said when he injected her that day in March 2017, “everything went dark,” and “my body didn’t feel right” afterward.

She said the experience and subsequent investigation left her “bitter” and “broken.”

“You took a piece of me that will be gone forever,” she said. “My nightmares are less, but this will always be a part of me.”

The victim’s grandmother said: “This incident stays with her day and night. He took away her ability to trust people.”

A younger sister said the victim quit her job because of post-traumatic stress syndrome and was reluctant to attended ballgames, family gatherings and weddings because crowds made her anxious.

The victim’s mother said her daughter suffered from depression, anxiety and a strain on her heart condition from the experience.

“He raped my daughter in every sense of the word,” she said. “He also raped her trust. Shane, if you’re able to move on without any remorse, you are a worse person than I thought.”

The victim’s former boyfriend said Warner was a “monster” that should go to prison.

After the incident, the boyfriend said he held the victim as she sobbed in the middle of the night. He also revealed in the courtroom he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child.

“I have suffered in every relationship in my life because of what happened,” he said, and urged Warner be registered as a sex offender. “It would be a stark reminder the rest of his life for what he did.”

Warner was hired as Tucumcari’s fire chief in January 2015. Then-city manager Jared Langenegger fired him March 2017. Warner previously had spent 14 years as a professional firefighter in Clovis and three years as a volunteer firefighter before that.