TAOS COUNTY, New Mexico – A San Antonio police officer served a 15-day suspension this summer after failing to report an encounter with law enforcement at a New Mexico ski resort. A witness described him as “super intoxicated.”
Officers were dispatched Jan. 6 to the base area of Taos Ski Valley for a report of two people who were highly intoxicated.
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Officer Taylor Thompson, a five-year veteran of SAPD, and his girlfriend were identified as the subjects of the call.
An eyewitness described Thompson to arriving officers as being “super intoxicated,” discipline records show.
On scene, officers noticed Thompson using a ski rack to balance himself and wrote that he had “blood shot watery eyes, slurred speech and an odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his person,” discipline records show.
Officers wrote that Thompson was “very confused” and was unable to communicate with them.
Thompson later identified himself as “law enforcement” and told a medic attending to him that he was a San Antonio Police Department officer, according to records.
Surveillance cameras recorded Thompson consuming pre-packaged bottles of liquor in a public place and showed him “staggering, falling down, and requiring his transport to a hospital.”
Thompson’s girlfriend was arrested on charges of battery on a peace officer and concealing identity, records show.
One day after the incident, a lieutenant with the Village of Taos Ski Valley Department of Public Safety emailed SAPD internal affairs and wrote, “I wanted to reach out (to) SAPD and inform you of the incident because the level of intoxication was concerning,” records show.
Thompson had not reported the incident to his immediate supervisor, according to records. He was suspended for rules violations covering intoxication and incidents involving officers.
Thompson served the suspension between June 17 and July 1.
Read more reporting on the KSAT Investigates page.