Elijah Hadley Records Release Response and Monday Protest Planned During Motion to Dismiss Hearing

The case against the deputy involved in the shooting death of Elijah Hadley moves to its next phase. Protesters operating under organization of Justice for Elijah are meeting at the courthouse at 12:30 Monday. 

All the while on Monday February 17th, 2025, Judge Angie Schneider will preside over a hearing at 1 pm at the Otero County Courthouse at 1100 New York Avenue, Alamogordo. 

Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Diaz-Austin age 28, is charged in the fatal shooting of 17 year Elijah Hadley outside Mescalero in June, 2024. Deputy Diaz-Austin is seeking dismissal of the first-degree murder charge on grounds that prosecutors filed a criminal complaint that failed to list witnesses to the shooting.

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman last month charged Diaz-Austin after Otero county conducted an internal investigation and found no violations of departmental policies. After charges were filed Austin-Diaz was placed on paid administrative leave.

Rumors have circulated that the Otero County Sheriff's office was blocking communications with local media and had "misplaced" internal investigative documents, as such AlamogordoTownNews.org sought clarification to those rumors and reached to Otero County leaders for answers. 

Otero County Council RB Nichols provided us insight via an emailed response and release of information.

Mr. Nichols denies the allegation by some media outlets that local media was blocked from receiving Sheriff Black's statement clarifying that the department had an incorrect email address for Alamogordo Town News Streaming on KALHRadio.org with Anthony Lucero. His email clarifies that a release was done to Alamogordo Daily News and an incorrect email was used to our request...

AlamogordoTownNews.org and KALHRadio.org appreciates the clarification and recognition that the county now has the correct addresses to send our entities future press releases. 

We submitted an IPRA for the internal investigative notes in response to rumors that notes were missing. We appreciate the clarification that the notes do exist but the county is refusing to release them due pending litigation..

Though the county did not release the investigative notes they did release to us the department's policy around officer involved shootings and their use of force policy for reference...

And finally the county released to us details of the call log via dispatch for public review...

The hearing and protest are both scheduled for Monday and multiple news outlets plan coverage. Stay tuned...

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