Legal Reform
Working with Lawmakers and Law Enforcement
We are collaborating with lawmakers to address legal loopholes that abusive adults exploit when forcing or otherwise coercing children into making false felony allegations. Legislative reforms mandating stricter penalties for forcing or coercing children into making false felony allegations can prevent this type of emotional and psychological child abuse. Mediation and therapy are effective and appropriate methods for resolving conflicts within couples and families, providing constructive solutions and fostering healthier relationships. Legal action, if necessary, should never involve exploiting children to make false claims:
- in New Mexico, false felony allegations are classified as a misdemeanor for filing a false police report, but this offense is completely overlooked by the legal system
- even when a child is forced to support a false felony allegation, the adult false accuser faces no charges — not even for filing a false police report
- adults who knowingly make false felony allegations should face felony charges
- adults who force or coerce children into supporting false felony allegations should face second-degree felony charges for emotional and psychological child abuse and mandatory therapy with a court-appointed forensic therapist for a minimum of 3 months, after which they can be released at the discretion of the forensic therapist — supervised visitation with the child involved and their siblings should also be court enforced for a minimum 3 months, after which they can be released at the discretion of the court-appointed supervisor or as otherwise permitted by law
Our efforts include collaborating with local, state, and federal agencies to create policies requiring more thorough criminal investigations before arrests:
- we work with local and state police to develop and implement policies and training focused on preventing false felony allegations
- deeper investigations into the backgrounds of accusers, the accused, and their relationships can help law enforcement make more informed decisions about arrests — sometimes mental health issues, grievances, and other factors could be influencing a false felony allegation and can be easily uncovered with a more comprehensive criminal investigation
Some known motives for making false felony allegations that investigators and prosecutors should pay strict attention to and look for in investigations are to:
- gain an advantage in a family law case to secure sole custody of children or assert control over the other parent
- remove someone from one’s life due to personal conflicts
- seek unjustified revenge against an adult family member, fictive kin, adult family friend, or other adults within the community at large
In the upcoming 2026 legislative session, New Mexico’s Senate and House of Representatives will again be proposing several budget initiatives aimed at enhancing mental and behavioral health services, and the judicial system. These initiatives, which include funding for both existing and new programs, are intended to address core mental health issues, improve quality of life, and reduce crime among the state’s most vulnerable communities. It is our intention, along with certain lawmakers, to also bring awareness to the need for non-denominational spiritual develpment as a tool to aid in improving mental and behavioral health.
These initiatives directly or indirectly impact:
- Appropriation of Funds to a number of agencies and programs to enhance mental and behavioral health across the state
- Increased or matching wages to meet cost of living for court employees, preventing waste of state expenditures resulting from staff turnover – e.g. re-training and administrative
- Training and education for judicial and court employees to improve systemic efficiencies and fairness for defendants and respondents
- Streamlining legal processes in general across multiple agencies
- Technological upgrades like case management systems and electronic filing to improve efficiencies for a number agencies state wide and the people they serve
- Changes in court structure or jurisdiction to better distribute caseloads
- Increasing funding and staffing for court interpreters to enhance fairness by ensuring better language access for non-English speaking defendants and respondents in judicial proceedings
Each of these aspects of Legal Reform contribute to making judicial offices operate more effectively and efficiently, to the betterment of all New Mexico residents and businesses.
We will update this section with more details shortly after the release of the 2026 Sesssion Calendar, and the “Session Link” in the header menu as well.