r/New_Mexico_

ALAMOGORDO, NM — Eddy and Lea County Exposed releases new records on State Rep. John P. Block, IV, R-District 51, is asking a judge to seal court records, strike a discovery motion, and impose $5,000 in sanctions against his former domestic partner, Otero County Treasurer Karl P. Melton, in a civil case that has become entangled with Block’s public conduct, his bid for reelection, and his running conflict with local media.
The filing released to Lea and Eddy County Exposed, submitted June 23 in the 12th Judicial District Court by Block’s attorney, Michael J. Seibel, is a reply brief supporting an “emergency motion to strike” a discovery request Melton filed last month. That underlying motion sought court-ordered inspection of household property Melton says was removed from the pair’s former shared residence on Sunnyside Avenue — and attached text messages that Block’s filing does not deny sending, but insists have nothing to do with the property dispute.
What the filing says
Block’s reply argues Melton never followed the required procedure — a formal written discovery request under Rule 1-034 NMRA — before going straight to court, despite what the filing describes as a written warning from Block’s counsel in May that any filing containing “scandalous or impertinent matter” would trigger sanctions. Block’s team characterizes the attached texts as unrelated to the furniture dispute and says their real purpose was to put personal allegations into the public record.
Block “categorically denied” having an affair, according to the filing, while arguing that even if the allegation were true, it would have no bearing on a dispute over household items. His attorneys point to Rule 1-012(F) NMRA, which allows courts to strike “redundant, immaterial, impertinent or scandalous” material from filings, and to Rule 1-011 NMRA, the state’s frivolous-filing standard, as grounds for sanctions.
Notably, the filing singles out this outlet by name. It argues that because Melton had threatened in September 2025 messages to “work with Chris Edwards” to create a public “circus,” and because this outlet published on the discovery motion shortly after it was filed, that sequence is itself evidence Melton’s filing was made for an improper purpose — to embarrass Block publicly rather than to obtain evidence.
Block is asking the court to strike Melton’s discovery motion in whole or in part, impose the $5,000 sanction plus attorney’s fees, and seal both the discovery motion and this reply — along with a protective order barring Melton “or anyone acting in concert with him” from disseminating the allegations further.
The backdrop: a pattern of legal threats to local press
This filing did not emerge in a vacuum. Alamogordo Town News has reported for more than a year on Block’s personal conduct, his legislative record, and the breakdown of his relationship with Melton. In April, Block demanded ATN retract that reporting, raising the prospect of a defamation suit. ATN declined, citing First Amendment protections and standing by its reporting — a position the outlet has maintained as subsequent court filings, including a May 22 motion from Melton and now this June 23 reply, have continued to surface details consistent with prior coverage.
That May 22 motion — and Exhibit A attached to it — was itself the subject of an Inspection of Public Records Act request that supplied additional documentation to the Eddy and Lea County Exposed newsletter, whose reporting on Block has run in parallel with ATN’s. Block’s own filing this week references a “pending” state ethics complaint, though it does not identify the complainant.
Block, the youngest sitting member of the New Mexico Legislature and the founder of the conservative outlet Piñon Post, has built a public brand around “traditional family values” messaging and has been an aggressive user of ethics complaints himself — including one filed against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year, which the Secretary of State’s Office found lacked evidence of a violation. Critics, including local voices quoted in prior ATN coverage, have pointed to the gap between that messaging and the litigation now playing out in Otero County court as a defining contradiction of his 2026 reelection campaign.
Part of a wider Otero County reckoning
The filing lands amid a broader shakeup in Otero County Republican politics. Former state GOP Chair Amy Barela — an Otero County commissioner who nominated Block for a state Senate vacancy earlier this year — was ordered off the party chairmanship by a district judge in late May over a separate dispute involving primary-election impartiality rules, a ruling the state Supreme Court left in place in June. Barela went on to lose her own commission primary by 46 votes. That case is legally unrelated to the Melton v. Block litigation, but both have fed a narrative, advanced in recent ATN commentary, that Otero County’s conservative political establishment is facing unusual public scrutiny over the space between its public messaging and members’ private conduct.
Sealing the record won’t unring the bell
Even if the court grants Block’s request to seal the discovery motion and this reply, the practical effect may be limited. The underlying May 22 filing and its attachments are already circulating outside the courthouse. Copies were pulled by multiple outlets before any sealing request was filed, including this one, and Eddy and Lea County Exposed — which obtained related documentation independently through an IPRA request and has covered Block’s conduct with the same persistence as ATN. Once a public record has been downloaded, cited, and reported on by more than one outlet, a subsequent sealing order restricts what the court file shows going forward — it does not retrieve copies already in the hands of the press or the public.
That gap is part of why Block’s request also seeks a protective order barring Melton “or anyone acting in concert with him” from further disseminating the allegations. But that language reaches Melton, not the outlets that have already published based on the public record as it existed at the time of filing. Whatever the court decides on sealing, the documents underlying this story are not going to become unknown — they are simply going to stop being updated in real time in the public docket, which cuts against transparency without changing what has already been reported.
What’s next
The court has not yet ruled on Block’s motion to strike or the sanctions request. Melton, who is representing himself in the case, has not filed a public response to this latest reply. Under the alternative relief Block’s motion proposes, the court could instead simply deny the discovery motion without prejudice and require Melton to refile a proper written request — a narrower outcome that would leave the sealing and sanctions requests unresolved.
ATN will continue to follow the case as it develops.
This article is based on court filings in Melton v. Block, Case No. D-1215-CV-2025-00757, released to Eddy and Lea County Exposed  from the 12th Judicial District Court, Otero County, and prior 4 years of reporting by Alamogordo Town News and other outlets on state Representative John Block. 
More News from Alamogordo
Cloudcroft TSA Shines at 2026 National TSA Conference in National Harbor, Maryland Cloudcroft High shines at Stem conference
NMSU Alamogordo July Highlights Student Success, Campus Events, Scholarships & More What’s happening at NMSU Alamogordo this summer…

Kimberly Ann Skaggs, the now-ousted Treasurer of the Republican Party of New Mexico, will remain locked up at the Doña Ana County Detention Center through trial. State District Judge Conrad Perea handed down that ruling Monday following a contested pretrial detention hearing, closing the door — for now — on any release ahead of trial in the death of bicyclist Andrew Brown.
Skaggs is presumed innocent. The allegations against her have not been proven in court. She retains all constitutional rights, including the right to counsel and a fair trial.
The Judge’s Decision
Perea found clear and convincing evidence to detain Skaggs without bond, citing two findings: first, that the estimated speed of her vehicle when it struck Brown on the two-lane Fairacres Road showed she posed a danger to the community; and second, that no combination of release conditions — daily check-ins, GPS monitoring, driving or travel restrictions — could reasonably guarantee she would appear for trial rather than disappear.
That flight-risk finding carries extra weight given who Skaggs is. She has described herself in past campaign material as a “wife, mother, private pilot, neighbor… and businesswoman” — a licensed pilot with the means and skillset to leave the state on her own terms if she chose to.
Skaggs’ attorney, Brock Morgan Benjamin, tried to get Perea removed from the case Friday with a disqualification motion. Perea heard it anyway. Whether the defense appeals the detention order remains an open question.
What Happened on June 22
Andrew R. Brown, 40, was crossing North Fairacres Road on his bicycle when a black Cadillac Escalade struck him. He died at the scene, suffering a compound leg fracture among other severe injuries, according to testimony from Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Deputy Fabian Fernandez. A witness photographed a woman exiting the SUV, walking around the crash scene, then driving away northbound — without rendering aid or calling 911. Investigators documented roughly 208 feet of skid marks and recovered vehicle debris, including pieces matching an Escalade.
A Flock surveillance camera captured a matching vehicle near the scene minutes later. Investigators traced the registration to Skaggs’ own business, 50 State DMV — a vehicle registration and title service — a detail prosecutors say is directly relevant to how the plate on the vehicle was altered, and the basis for the tampering-with-evidence charge against her. A prior Las Cruces Police Department citation from September 2025 for Racing/Exhibition Driving was tied to the same plate and the same driver: Kimberly Ann Skaggs. More recently, court records show she was cited in December for driving 88 mph in a 55 mph zone in a Lamborghini SUV.
OnStar GPS data and Doña Ana County Assessor’s records led deputies to a property on Northwind Road owned by Skaggs. A search warrant executed June 23 located the Escalade hidden behind the residence under a carport, with front-end damage, blood spatter, a tire tread pattern consistent with a bicycle, and missing bumper pieces matching those recovered at the crash site.
Skaggs is charged with two felonies: Knowingly Leaving the Scene of an Accident (Great Bodily Harm or Death), a third-degree felony under NMSA 1978 §66-7-201, and Tampering with Evidence.
A Tularosa Friend Testifies — and It Doesn’t Land
Monday’s hearing brought a familiar Tularosa name into the courtroom. Schanen Yates-Unser, who has volunteered alongside Skaggs in Tularosa community circles, took the stand for the defense, arguing Skaggs’ family, business, and character gave her every reason to see the case through rather than flee. As quoted in the Albuquerque Journal’s hearing coverage, Yates-Unser told the court:
“Kim is not the type of person who runs from issues. Kim has always faced things head-on.”
It’s a sentiment that didn’t survive contact with the prosecution’s case. Prosecutors countered — and the judge ultimately agreed — that Skaggs did exactly the opposite on June 22: she left a dying man on the road, didn’t call 911, and allegedly used her own business to alter the vehicle’s plate before hiding it on a remote property she owns.
A Familiar Figure in Local Politics and Business
Skaggs isn’t a stranger to southern New Mexico. Beyond running 50 State DMV for years, she’s run for the state Legislature three times since 2020 — once for Senate District 36, twice for House District 36 against Democrat Nathan Small — and sat on multiple civic and volunteer boards across Tularosa and Las Cruces, including a recently vacated seat on the Alma d’Arte Charter High School governing board.
Her treasurer post put her at the center of an already-raging fight inside the state party. Skaggs had been a visible ally of RPNM Chairwoman Amy Barela, appearing alongside her at state and national party events.
Both women were named — along with RNC Committeeman Sen. Jim Townsend — in a state district court injunction tied to an internal RPNM leadership dispute, which barred them from publicly backing candidates in contested primaries under threat of contempt.

That dispute traces back to Barela’s March filing for re-election to her Otero County Commission seat, which triggered a party rule requiring her to vacate the chairmanship — a rule she refused to follow, touching off lawsuits, a Supreme Court petition, and multiple failed quorum votes by the State Central Committee.
Skaggs’ arrest landed in the middle of that chaos, just days before an SCC meeting in Belen called to resolve the chairmanship question. The party has since cut ties with its former treasurer, stating she is “no longer affiliated” with the organization and scrubbing her name from its officer page.
Chair Candidate Brandon Vogt: “This Party Needs to Be Broken”
The Skaggs case has become a talking point in the RPNM chair race itself. Brandon Vogt, the KKOB talk radio host and rancher who entered the race after arguing the party was “in a coma,” addressed the case directly in a segment streamed on Alamogordo Town News via KALHRadio.org.
“Again, no real answers from the New Mexico Republican Party on another recent scandal as their treasurer, Kim Skaggs, is sitting in jail after a man died. No answers, no explanation, no leadership. This entire model for the Republican party needs to be broken, needs to start over. Another embarrassment and another national punchline.”
He continued:
“In recent weeks, you’ve had a judge vacate the chairwoman’s post and your treasurer sitting in jail because a man is dead. At some point, this party will hit rock bottom and we’ll need real answers and real leaders to step up and move this party forward.”
Vogt is one of several candidates — alongside Albuquerque attorney Robert Aragon, Valencia County GOP chair John Brenna, and others — vying for the chairmanship at the SCC’s twice-rescheduled meeting, now set for July 26 in Albuquerque after two prior quorum failures.
What’s Next
Prosecutors have indicated they intend to present the case to a grand jury. 
Over the weekend, Andrew Brown’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Skaggs in New Mexico’s 1st Judicial District Court on behalf of Brown’s minor child and the child’s mother, seeking damages for medical and funeral costs, lost income, loss of relationship, and punitive damages.
No criminal trial date has yet been set.
Meanwhile, the RPNM heads into its July 26 SCC meeting in Albuquerque still without a permanent chair, with the Skaggs case now woven into the broader argument reform candidates are making about the party’s need to rebuild from the ground up.
This is a developing story. Alamogordo Town News will continue following both the criminal case, the civil case and the RPNM leadership race through their respective conclusions.
Sources: Albuquerque Journal coverage of the June 29 detention hearing (Algernon D’Ammassa); Doña Ana Magistrate and District Court filings, Case #2026-00028962; Village of Tularosa public records; Brandon Vogt interview, Alamogordo Town News/KALHRadio.org; prior Alamogordo Town News reporting on the RPNM leadership dispute.
Questions, tips, or document requests: chrisedwards@kalhradio.org or via X @ChrisEdwardsNap.
More News from Alamogordo
Fact Check: Rardin Said Six City Manager Contracts Were ‘the Same.’ The City’s Own Records Contradict HimEach part of Rardin’s claims can be tested against documents released from the city. Each part fails.
Records Contradict Rardin’s Claim That a “Crisis” Forced a Stockwell Contract Modeled on 2012 Carter Deal Rardin’s statements disproven yet again…