BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Lucas Fresquez, 45, of Santa Cruz, a chief deputy assessor for Los Alamos County, and his wife, Andrea Fresquez, 37, a records specialist with the Los Alamos Police Department, were arrested October 11 by Santa Fe Police Department officers and charged with shoplifting at the Target store in Santa Fe.

Santa Fe Magistrate Court documents indicate that asset protection personnel at Target informed SFPD officers that the couple had “skipped scanning” items at the store’s self-checkout and that they were “known shoplifters” who had multiple cases against them since July. Police ran their license plate and then followed them along Cerrillos Road before locating them in the parking lot of the Smith’s store. When the couple was approached, each told officers they would return to Target and pay for the items they had failed to pay for earlier in the evening. The items they allegedly failed to pay for that were located in their vehicle were valued at less than $200 and they were each charged with shoplifting $250 or less.

Court documents indicate that a “search incident” to arrest Lucas Fresquez revealed that he had a blue plastic contrainer with a white powdery substance inside it in his front pocket. Fresquez claimed the substance was Subutex and that he had a prescription for it but had crushed it into tiny pieces and placed it in the container, which allegedly did not indicate he had a prescription for it. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance. (Subutex is a buprenorphine medications developed for the treatment of opioid addiction.)

Andrea and Lucas Fresquez are being represented by attorney Johnn Osborn. Andrea Fresquez is scheduled for an initial pretrial hearing Dec. 12 before Santa Fe County Magistrate Judge Donita Serna. She is no longer employed by LAPD. Lucas Fresquez is scheduled for an intermediate pretrial hearing Dec. 19 also before Judge Serna. According to a Los Alamos County spokesperson, he continues to be employed by the County,