Party On, Suze

UPDATED Governor demands to know who complained about noisy hotel party that drew police response, later says she 'regrets' handling of situation

A hotel party attended by Gov. Susana Martinez in Santa Fe last weekend was apparently a rowdy affair. No arrests were made, but a spokesman for the city of Santa Fe says police officers met with the governor and officials at the Eldorado Hotel in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Audio recordings obtained and published this morning by the Santa Fe New Mexican, KRQE-Channel 13 and other outlets tell the story plainly, including how a slurring and sing-songy Martinez asked dispatchers at the Emergency Dispatch Center to tell her who had made a complaint.

"Tell me what the complaint is," Martinez says.

The dispatcher responds that there was a complaint for loud noise.

"Loud noise? We are in a room eating pizza," the governor says.

"I'm sorry, someone called us out there and we have to go," the dispatcher continues.

"Someone. Who is someone?" Martinez interrupts.

"I can't give you that information, ma'am."

"Why can you not? It is public record. Give it to me," she says. 

City spokesman Matt Ross says that police were called out to the hotel after 1 am because the dispatch center received a call from the hotel "that there was a party going on in a room and that someone had complained about bottles being thrown out of a window or off of a balcony, and they were asked to come out and check it out."

But after talking with the hotel security, state police who were also in the lobby and the governor herself, the officers felt the matter was resolved, Ross tells SFR.

"After talking with hotel staff staff and being assured by hotel security and staff that the situation had been addressed internally before the police were there and that everything was taken care of, that everything was under control, that there was not an ongoing disturbance," and after investigating the perimeter of the building for broken glass and finding none, he says, "They left without any further steps being taken."

Ross said no police report was written "since there wasn't an arrest made or a formal investigation."

Do police believe the governor was wasted?

"I'm not going to speculate," Ross says. "I don't have any information or details from the police officers who responded about whether or not the governor was intoxicated."

Listen for yourself:

The governor's office issued the following statement just before 2 pm:

SFR asked Sanchez to clarify the claim that Martinez "took a call," but Sanchez did not respond.


Later in the day, Ross issued this statement:


"In the interest of accuracy in the record, we are correcting an error in the statement from the Governor's spokesman. At no point in the evening did the Santa Fe Police call Governor Martinez for any reason."


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