Co-op trustee files complaint

A criminal complaint has been filed in Magistrate Court in Socorro against a San Antonio, N.M. man accused of assaulting a Socorro Electric Cooperative trustee after a court hearing involving the co-op on May 18.

Xavier Ortiz, 65, is accused of verbally assaulting District 5 trustee Charlie Wagner of Magdalena after a judge ruled against the co-op in a lawsuit Socorro Electric brought against its member-owners.
According to the criminal complaint filed on Tuesday, Wagner said Ortiz aggressively pointed a finger at him and verbally abused him with offensive language that led Wagner to believe he was in danger of being battered.
Wagner told Socorro Police Officer Victor Chavez that Ortiz was apparently upset about the outcome of the hearing. The complaint indicates that Ortiz told Officer Chavez that he was upset about what Wagner said at a meeting.
The incident took place in a downstairs hallway of the Socorro County Courthouse minutes after the hearing was adjourned. The judge ruled that the co-op must follow the Open Meetings Act and Inspection of Public Records Act, as member-owners of the co-op had mandated at the co-op’s annual meeting in 2010.
Ortiz is scheduled to be arraigned in Magistrate Court at 1 p.m. on Monday, June 13, before Judge Jim Naranjo.