Lordsburg officer charged with DUI after crash, placed on leave

A City of Lordsburg police corporal is facing DUI and related charges after Hidalgo County deputies say he crashed a gray Mercedes-Benz near the Pilot Travel Center, ran from the scene and tried to hide behind a sign.

The officer was identified as Iram Hernandez, 34. Mayor Martin Neave said Hernandez has been placed on administrative leave as the case moves forward through District Attorney Norman Wheeler’s office and the Hidalgo County courts.

According to charging documents and deputies’ account of the April 27 crash, Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded about 1:40 a.m. to reports that a vehicle had struck a yield sign, crossed the median and left the area on foot on Motel Drive in Lordsburg. Deputies said the Mercedes was registered to Hernandez. After searching the area, they found him hiding behind a sign.

Deputies said Hernandez showed signs of impairment, including slurred speech, watery eyes, difficulty with balance and the smell of alcohol. They also reported finding two open containers of alcohol in the vehicle. Hernandez allegedly refused sobriety tests. He was booked into the Hidalgo County Detention Center and later released under pretrial conditions.

The charges listed in the case are aggravated driving under the influence, failure to notify owner upon striking a fixture or property, careless driving, having an open container in his car and criminal damage to property under $1,000. All five are petty misdemeanors. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for June 2026.

The case lands hard in Lordsburg, the county seat of Hidalgo County, where the 2020 census counted 4,178 residents countywide and 2,335 in the city itself. In a place that small, allegations involving a sworn local officer can quickly shape how neighbors judge the department’s credibility, especially when the arrest was handled by the county sheriff’s office after local officers called for a supervisor.

No public statement from Hernandez or his attorney was included in the initial reporting, and no further explanation from the city has been released beyond Neave’s announcement that Hernandez is off duty. For a department that serves one of New Mexico’s smallest county seats, the case is now about more than a crash on Motel Drive. It is about whether the city can show that accountability applies inside the police department as well as outside it.