NM Attorney General Asks Judge to hold Man in Contempt For Blocking Pecos River

By Ben Neary

NMWF

The New Mexico attorney general has asked a state judge to hold a San Miguel County landowner in contempt, saying the man has threatened fishermen on the Pecos River with a shotgun and has excavated the riverbed to impede passage.

Lawyers with the New Mexico Department of Justice on Wednesday filed an emergency request with District Judge Flora Gallegos of Las Vegas for action against landowner Erik Briones.

The state is asking Gallegos to take whatever steps are necessary “up to and including incarceration” to protect the public from Briones’s threats and conduct. The state asked the judge to impose fines and order Briones to cover the costs of the state’s legal action.

Gallegos had not scheduled a hearing on the state’s request for a hearing by Thursday afternoon, according to the court clerk’s office. Court records don’t reflect that Briones is represented by an attorney.

Briones in 2024 entered an agreement with the state in Gallegos’s court. Under the agreement, he pledged to stop posting signs, fences or other barriers to public access on the Pecos River. He also agreed not to threaten members of the public who were boating or recreating there.

In the AG’s request to find Briones in contempt, lawyers say the state recently learned that Briones is violating the agreement.

“(Briones) continues threatening violence against New Mexicans who exercise their right to fish and recreate in the Pecos River, including making ongoing death threats against people he repeatedly had menaced with a shotgun,” the lawyers wrote. “More recently, he brought in heavy equipment to trench the river, creating underwater hazards. And he has laid barbed wire in the river. The effect is to funnel river users into an area where water depths in his trenches create a drowning hazard.”

The state included a sworn statement from Kennis Romero, a Santa Fe resident and flyfishing guide. 

“In three separate occasions in the summer of 2023, Mr. Briones threatened me with a shotgun,” Romero stated. He stated that he and a friend left the river as a result of the threat.

“I felt extremely fearful during this incident,” Romero stated. “I was concerned that Mr. Briones would shoot me and my friend if we did not leave the section of the Pecos River that traverses his property. We left because of his threatening actions and reported him to law enforcement.”

Attorney General Raúl Torrez issued a statement on Thursday.

“This is not just noncompliance, it is a blatant disregard for the law, the court’s authority, and the safety of New Mexicans,” Torrez stated. “We secured a clear victory to protect the public’s constitutional right to access our rivers. We will not hesitate to return to court to enforce that ruling and hold bad actors accountable.” 

Torrez’s office undertook the original enforcement action against Briones and other landowners on the Pecos following a unanimous 2022 ruling by the New Mexico Supreme Court. That decision  reaffirmed the longstanding right of New Mexicans to walk or wade on the streambeds of water that flows over privately owned lands for fishing or other recreation. The court also made it clear that the public has no right to trespass over private lands to reach the water.

“We hold that the public has the right to recreate and fish in public waters and that this right includes the privilege to do such acts as are reasonably necessary to effect the enjoyment of such right,” the New Mexico Supreme Court stated in its unanimous opinion.

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruling came in response to a legal challenge brought by the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, the Adobe Whitewater Club and the New Mexico Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. The groups had challenged a regulation adopted by the New Mexico State Game Commission that went into effect in 2017 that purported to allow landowners to close streams over their properties.

The United States Supreme Court in early 2023 declined a request from some landowners who have fenced off public waters to reconsider the state court ruling.

After Briones entered the agreement with Torrez’s office in Gallegos court, he and other landowners launched another federal court challenge, arguing that the state supreme court ruling amounted to an unconstitutional government taking of their property rights. A federal judge in New Mexico ruled against Briones and the others. Early this year, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the landowners’ appeal.

“New Mexico’s public waters are a priceless resource for everyone in the state,” said Jesse Deubel, executive director of the NMWF. “The federation applauds AG Torrez for standing up for the public’s right to use these waters for fishing, boating and other recreation.”