At a release hearing for Julio Cesar-Rueda earlier this month, the woman he is accused of raping at a New Year’s Eve party told 1st Judicial District Judge Michael Vigil she was terrified at the possibility of Cesar-Rueda’s bond being reduced.

Arrest charges of embezzlement and fraud against former Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano could come as soon as this week. But federal charges—if they occurred—would likely hold graver consequences.

Two months before Jennifer Stephenson allegedly caused serious injury to her 2-year-old son, Children, Youth and Families Department social workers investigated her infant daughter’s near-drowning.

The family of the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility inmate who died of an apparent suicide plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, according to Richard Martinez, a paralegal at The Rothstein Law Firm.

Forensic technicians didn’t come up with a match to known offender Richard Fresquez when they ran DNA from a 2002 Taos rape case, and six weeks later, Fresquez bludgeoned and stabbed 22-year-old LeAnne Martinez to death and absconded to California in her Mustang.

We wrap up 2010 with a look back at the top stories that shaped the roller coaster of the last 12 months. True, not all of these stories woke us at 3 am with our teeth chattering. But the pervasive sense of seditious intent from the powers that be did fuel our thinking as we wrapped up the year. So we present not just the top 10 stories, but our own take on the conspiracies behind them.

After last week’s brutal head-on collision that killed a wrong-way driver and left a Rocky Mountain EMS paramedic in critical condition, law enforcement is examining ways the accident could have been prevented, or how future incidents could be.

The former Santa Fe police officer who was caught on tape beating a handcuffed teenager still has his law enforcement academy certification more than two years after he was fired for his role in the incident.

As the investigation into the horrific Dec. 14 accident that claimed the life of Kylene Holmes and gravely injured Santa Fe EMT Vanessa Carillo continues, the public will receive a detailed rundown of the actions of Holmes and injured passenger Jennifer Michelle Belvin in the hours before they collided with Carillo, at high speed, heading the wrong direction on Interstate 25.

The last time Elena Fuller saw her older brother Robert Montoya alive, she was dropping him off Dec. 3 at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he was checking himself in to get a medical clearance for drug rehab.