What are those marks on your on your face though? How did you get those I know bro I'm trying to figure out those those marks. I see those fresh marks on your left on your right cheek bro. They're right fresh they look like scratch marks to me but I need to figure that out okay. She hit him. She went at him she hit him. She went like at his face. They were sitting side by side and she went like at his face. Like she punched him? But you didn't hit him you didn't hit me you did not hit me. But they have Look at me look at me look at me can you look at me? They have to take you to jail because that lady said that you hit me. What are you TALKING ABOUT? HEY. STOP TALKING TO HER. CAN YOU ROLL down the window for me? This window. This one. Sir Step out of the car for me bud. It's okay. Put your hands I'm not going to pat you down. Put your hands right here. Put your hands right here. Turn around. I was going to pat you down okay? Can you put your phone down for now for me? Hey he just Stop talking [snorts] to her. Do you have any weapons on you bud? What's this right here? Oh no don't reach for it. Just what is it? All right do me a favor and take a seat right here for me bud. On September 5th, 2025 a third-party witness called 911 after observing a physical altercation between a married couple in a New Mexico parking lot. Officers separated both subjects immediately. What followed was a legally mandatory chain of events neither party could reverse. Appreciate you. Sir honestly my All right. My my wife just got this job. Okay. Do you have a wallet on you bud? Yes sir I have my ID and stuff. That's all right. I'll just get your information here you from New Mexico bud? Yeah All right. Hey, bud, I need you to stop talking to her, okay? You're talking to me right now. You're going to have time to talk to her, all right? She's your wife. You're already with her, all right? So, hang tight right now. I'll try to investigate something, okay? No, leave me alone. She's very mad, bro. She's very mad. Yeah? No, I don't need to. I don't know why the [ __ ] YOU'RE HERE. LEAVE ME ALONE. >> [screaming] >> WHAT HAPPENED, BUD? I left her at work, bro. You left What are those marks on your on your face, though? How'd you get those >> left her at work, bro. I know, bro. I'm trying to figure out those those marks. I see those fresh marks on your left on your right cheek, bro. They're right fresh. They look like scratch marks to me, but I need to figure that out, okay? Hey, take a seat, bud. Take a seat. Babe. >> Hey, take a seat, bud. >> Calm down. Bud. Bro, I tried I tried to calm her down. >> Take a seat for me. Just take a seat for me. >> you don't even know what I Hey. Sir, I don't want John. >> Hey. Bud, I don't want to put you in cuffs. You're You're cool with me. I'm being chill, bro. >> Just chill out. >> calm. All right. I know she's screaming, bro. She's just screaming. She's okay. No one's harming her. No, they just grabbed me. Yeah, they're putting her in cuffs cuz she's how she's acting. She's not arrested yet. Okay? I need to figure out what happened. What she Okay. So, now now you can tell me what happened, bro. Okay? What happened? You dropped her off at work. Where does she work? Bro, it's plain and simple, bro. I was working on on the trailer and I got scratched right here. Bro. Trailer. I know you're trying to protect your girl, bro. I and I That's fine, bro. I mean, you can lie to me. I I see what I see, though, okay? So, were were you were you working on the trailer? >> Just be quiet. Shut the [ __ ] Oh. So, what happened, bro? And then So, what happened? She was just yelling right now, bro. Okay, so you dropped her off at work and then what happened? >> I I dropped her off at 3:00, bro. You dropped her off at 3:00. >> her off at 3:00. She just got off. Okay. And I drove off and she's mad. She's mad. That's Spanish and Puerto Rican. Okay. I Everybody has arguments, bro, but then what happened in the car? Nothing happened in the car. She never got in the car, bro. I left her and she started walking. Oh, she started walking? >> She's She's screaming. She's screaming. Okay. And what How'd you get those scratches on your face? Huh? I told you I was working. On the right side of your face, bro. All right. Yeah. >> Just take off. All right. I really am sorry about this, bro. I All right. Take off. I don't know if you guys have a wife. But you probably not like that. Just take off. Hi, ma'am. Leave me the [ __ ] alone. Okay. Leave me alone. Okay, ma'am. Relax. What the [ __ ] are you guys even here for? Leave me alone. Relax. No, I don't need to. I don't know why the Come here. YES, YOU DO. NO, I DON'T. >> [screaming] >> THE MALE SUBJECT RAISED A FACTUAL DEFENSE. The marks were scabs from a four-wheeler accident several days prior, not fresh injuries from that morning. One problem, his explanation shifted during the encounter from trailer work to the four-wheeler fall. That inconsistency is not fatal to a defense, but it is the kind of credibility gap prosecutors exploit and jurors remember. STOP. [screaming] WHAT DO YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME FOR? MA'AM. OH MY GOD, I JUST GOT OFF OF WORK. LEAVE ME THE MA'AM. YOU GUYS ARE [ __ ] WEIRDOS. [ __ ] ALL OF YOU. YOU GUYS ARE [ __ ] WEIRDOS. DON'T [ __ ] FOLLOW ME. MA'AM, COME HERE. NO. [screaming] BRO, DON'T [ __ ] COME NEAR ME. HEY. LEAVE ME ALONE. Don't [ __ ] get up on me, YOU [ __ ] WEIRDO. RELAX. I JUST WANT TO GO TO SLEEP. OKAY. LEAVE ME ALONE. RELAX. >> [screaming] >> WHAT? I DON'T GIVE A I DON'T CARE. What do you [ __ ] WANT FROM ME? [ __ ] [ __ ] BRO. THERE YOU ARE. HELLO. LISTEN, I was on the dispatcher cops. Oh, you wanted to call? Okay. You called me. So, they were arguing. I pulled I was coming down the road and I could hear her yelling. So, as I got closer to them down there, I offered to if she was okay and she needed me to drive her somewhere. >> Uh-huh. She's like, "No, just leave me alone. You're yelling like she is right now." And then um right before I had done that she hit him. She went at him. She hit him. She went like at his face. They were sitting side by side and she went like at his face. Like she punched him? Okay. She hit him. How many times did you say? Uh it was like maybe twice. >> Twice? Um I did tell him once he was like, "You can leave. You can leave us alone. She's my wife." I said, "I'm not going to leave you like that." I said, "Something happens to you guys and I see it, I'm not going to live with myself the rest of my life knowing that that happened. That something happened to either one of you." And he's like, I'm like, "This is the beginning." >> Was she in the passenger seat or was she in the She's always been out. She's never been in the car. Okay. So, when you said that When I found them, she was right in that um front of that parking lot right there of the Comet Cleaners right here down the street. >> Okay. And I could hear her just crying so I pulled up side by side. They were talking and then he ended up getting out to talk to her and then she went at him. And then So, they were both outside of the vehicle? >> He came out of the vehicle after I had approached her. Okay. So, when she hit him, was he inside the vehicle? >> next to her. He got up. So, when I approached >> So, they were sitting on the curb? She was on the curb first and then when I approached them shh um he got off the car and he was like, "Baby, everything's going to be okay." And then she went at him. That's And that's how they were sitting. She was sitting this Andrea, can you get us a water bottle? And he was sitting next to her. I do. Yeah. I'll get it to you right now. I'm on my way. Okay. So, you said that this is at the Right in front cleaners, right? front of the cleaners. She was sitting on the ground and then when I approached her, um he ended up getting off and he was >> Three is on three. "We're good. Um she's my wife." he said, huh? And then that's when he ended up getting out sitting next to her telling her that everything was going to be okay. Like, "Let's go." She didn't want to and then she went as I was leaving, she had hit him she hit him twice. >> Okay, what did you say it was a closed fist, open hand? How is that feeling? She strikes him. Um, I don't even know if she didn't realize it, but it could have been like kind of like closed >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. >> Um, okay, and around what time was this at? >> happened like maybe >> Yeah, like I called um, as soon as I had called the the thing I want to say it was like maybe 9:33 like 2 minutes before that. So like 9:30? Yeah. So I just want to make sure that I just want to make sure that I had this straight. So, they were at the comic cleaners park, right? >> She was no, she was sitting there She was sitting there, okay. Um, what? Yeah, she was she was right here on this street right here walking, okay, and then when I went up to her she went and she sat down and I asked her are you okay? And then she was like, yeah, she said just leave me the [ __ ] alone and I said, no, I said I'm not. I said um, do you need help? Are you okay? She said, just leave me the [ __ ] alone. So then I was as I was driving not driving off >> Mhm. is when I saw her going and she was hitting him. Okay, and that's when he got out of the vehicle, right? >> He got out of the vehicle, he got out of the vehicle and he approached her. >> and then that's when she went after him. >> He was like, that's my wife and then that's when he sat down with her and when he sat down next to her that's when she went after him. >> went after him. Okay, got it. Was she was did he sit down on the left hand side of her or the right hand side of her? >> Um, the right hand side. Right hand side of her. So she didn't okay, I'm with the witness, police department, okay. The officer's first independent action was to observe and document visible injury fresh marks on the right side of the male subject's face before taking any formal statement. That sequencing matters. Under Illinois versus Gates, probable cause is assessed by the totality of the circumstances. Locking in the physical evidence before witness testimony strengthens that foundation independently. The third party witness provided a spatially specific account. Both subjects seated on a curb, the male subject to her right struck approximately twice in the facial area. Spatial detail of that nature corroborated by marks on the corresponding side of his face meets the reliability threshold Gates requires for a warrantless arrest based on third-party observation. The female subject was asked whether she would answer questions. She declined. That is an absolute right under the Fifth Amendment silence cannot be used as substantive evidence of guilt in a criminal proceeding. But the Fifth Amendment operates prospectively, not retroactively. It cannot reach evidence already independently gathered. The arrest was driven entirely by the witness statement and the physical corroboration. Her silence changed nothing. Under New Mexico statutes, Section 31-1-7, once probable cause exists for domestic battery against a household member, the arrest is mandatory. Officer discretion is removed by statute. The victim cannot recant it away. The subject cannot deny it away. The legislature made that policy choice deliberately in response to decades of documented under-enforcement in domestic violence cases following the Violence Against Women Act. Force used during the arrest remained within the Graham versus Connor standard. Restraint was applied only after the female subject physically resisted exiting the vehicle. No strikes were delivered at any point. The force continuum moved one step from verbal commands to physical control and stopped there. That proportionality sustained under sustained verbal aggression reflects both legal compliance and tactical discipline. Uh are you willing to answer any questions about what happened today? What happened? What? Well, that's that's exactly what I'm asking you. Nothing happened. I got off work and he wasn't [ __ ] there to pick me up. So, I took off. I was mad. That's it. That's the whole [ __ ] thing. I'm just mad. Okay? That You're going to arrest me for being [ __ ] mad? I didn't hit nobody. I didn't DO NOTHING BUT WALK OFF. Is that something you can [ __ ] arrest me for? Okay, then. No. So, please let me out of here so I can go home and go to [ __ ] sleep. Are you going to be willing to answer questions, ma'am? Copy 10-4-3. No. What? >> Okay. All right, ma'am. Well, at this point you're going to be placed under arrest for battery on a household member, okay? Oh my god. >> you step out of the car so I can do a search, okay? Can you step out for me, please? Why am I going to jail? For what? >> Because because there's a charge, ma'am. If you're not going to step out >> A charge for what? >> Battery on a household member. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? >> ARREST. YOU WANT ME TO [ __ ] stick me, stab me, ma'am? Hey. HEY. HEY. RELAX. >> [laughter] [screaming] >> HEY. HEY. HEY. HEY. RELAX. >> [screaming] >> OKAY, WE'RE NOT DONE. I JUST WANTED TO GO HOME. NOW I'M GOING TO JAIL FOR SCREAMING. OH MY GOD. LIKE GUYS, I DON'T REALLY CARE. YOU'RE TAKING ME TO JAIL FOR NOTHING. LITERALLY NOTHING. WHAT? WE'RE TAKING YOU TO JAIL FOR BATTERY ON a household member. WELL, WHO DID I HIT? WHO? >> Your husband. No, the [ __ ] I didn't. >> I saw his marks and the WITNESS SAW IT. WHAT MARKS? YOU MEAN THE MARKS HE [ __ ] fell off the four-wheeler from a couple days ago? >> Those [ __ ] scratches on his face? I don't know. I WAS AT WORK. THEY SAW YOU HIT HIM, MA'AM. Oh my god. What I'm trying to tell you is you can scream and yell and run around and you're going to be placed under arrest. We don't want to do that, so Oh my god. He's already on the way, so you better calm down. You know what I'm saying? Are you going to let us do a search on you or are we going to place you under arrest? Just take my purse. There's pins in my [ __ ] pocket in my neck and my back pocket. That's it. >> Okay. Can you step out so we can get all this property off you? Thank you. Just place it in your uniform, okay? Perfect. That way you have it with you. Okay, you can go and step inside, ma'am, okay? All right, ma'am. Close it. Would I Would I be able to talk to you guys real fast? What's up? Like like straight up, bro. Like like like seriously, bro. Like What's up? From the bottom of my heart, she just started her period today. Like like like straight up, bro. I I just bought the tampons. Like for real, it's like >> it. No, like like really though, bro. >> it. And like she really didn't hit me, bro. And like like please, bro. No, no, no. Like >> Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Before you go any further, bro. Okay, for you I don't want to waste waste your time. No, bro. We have a witness, okay? The only reason why she she didn't give you a reason If it was a girl in the Nissan, >> Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. No, if it was a girl in the Nissan, bro, we were hugging, bro. It wasn't a hit. Maybe she seen that, but that's it. Okay, well, regardless, bro, because of her statement and because of the injury in your face, it matches exactly to what happened to your face. >> Oh, no, bro. No, no, no, bro. She She did not Look, there's a There's scabs. There's scabs, bro. This wasn't right. Look at the Look at it. It's scabs. They weren't right now. This wasn't right now. There's scabs, bro. That's fair to say. >> you this, bro. Why is there one that's in the shape of a fingernail? Because I scratched you. Cuz I scratched you. Look, it literally looks like I scratched you, bro. I just scratched you. Let me see your hand. Let me see your fingers. Look, bro. I scratched you. Like my fingers are just very but like No, there's no there's no there's Hold on. There's no There's no There's no thing but I was telling you. Bro, she just started her period today, bro. We have We have been together for for years, bro. Let me tell you guys something, bro. We're actually going through a court situation right now. Um like like being serious, bro. We've been together for so long that um she she also had a battery already. I also had a battery. I'm I'm I'm going actually through through the court right now. Mhm. And right now she she doesn't she we just don't need that bus. We're trying to start a riot. No, no, no, guys guys no, let me explain, please. I know, bro, but I but it's I What does it matter, bro, what you tell me? Because at the end of the day, if that witness tells us what happened and it matches actually what's on your face, we have to affect your arrest. And And if you've already been to the process, then you already know that it's a Hold on. Then you already know that it's a state Okay. Well, hold on. Not from today. If you could just please let us just explain everything to you. >> Hold on. Okay. So, the state we have to we have to arrest. Okay, there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If someone says they saw something, which they did in this in this case, okay, we have to. All right. Now, whether you guys want to Now Now, whether you want to go through with it in the court, that's totally up to you. Okay? But as a But right now we have to arrest. There We can't We can't go We can't dismiss that. Okay? So, No, I'm I'm All right. Look, cool. So, that's that's where we're at, okay? I understand it's a tough situation. It always is. Okay? But we have to go through with it. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You'll probably get released tomorrow morning. If you let us get get us through real quick. Yep, it's up to you. I I have no problem with it. But if she starts yelling or you guys start yelling, that's it. Cuz we we have Cuz she was really upset, bro, so we have to calm her down. So, we're not going to let that happen. That part that was from Okay, go ahead. He He just said that you did. But you didn't hit me. You didn't hit me. You did not hit me. But they have Listen. Look at me. Look at me. Babe, can you look at me? They have to take you to jail because that lady said that you hit me. And I have a scratch, but I'm showing them that it's a scab and it's not from today. It's a scab. I'm telling them it's a scab and it's not even from today. Like and I told them what it's from. Like it's not from you. I'm sorry. You should have stopped screaming. I'm really sorry. What did they do first when they asked? You want me to get some more? >> No. The primary officer receives a B+. Methodical investigation, accurate articulation of mandatory arrest law, and consistent composure across a volatile encounter. The deduction, the male subject was physically detained before the witness interview was complete. If the facts had been inverted and he had been the aggressor, that early detention without fully articulated reasonable suspicion would carry Fourth Amendment exposure. Sequencing matters on both ends. The female subject receives a C+. Invoking the Fifth Amendment was sound. But physical resistance during arrest served no legal purpose. It elevated the force level applied and added a resisting charge risk. More critically, her prolonged emotional escalation on a public street created the conditions for third-party witness involvement. The arrest that followed was in part a consequence of her own visibility. The male subject receives a B-. Full cooperation throughout. But his shifting account of the facial injury, two different explanations in the same encounter, creates a credibility gap that will travel into any subsequent proceeding. Cooperation earns credit. Inconsistency costs it. The male subject's voluntary disclosure of both parties' prior domestic battery history further complicates the defense narrative. The witness receives an A-. She stayed at the scene, gave a structured and internally consistent account, and provided the legal foundation for the arrest. The only residual ambiguity, whether the contact she observed was a strike or an embrace, is the sole factor preventing a felony. That question is for the court, not the curb. Three lessons from this encounter. One, familiarity with the legal system is not the same as knowing how to navigate it under emotional pressure. Both parties had prior domestic battery cases in court. Neither used that knowledge to de-escalate. Two, emotional behavior in public is not private. The screaming that drew the witness was the proximate cause of the arrest. Three, offering multiple explanations for the same physical evidence is more damaging than offering none. Inconsistency compounds the prosecution's case. Silence does not. Let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic that you would like us to discuss in the comments below. Thank you for watching.