Para liberación inmediata
Contact: Amber Fayerberg of Fayerberg Dodd, LLC at amber@fayerbergdodd.com
Contact: Pregnancy Justice at media@pregnancyjusticeus.org
NUEVA YORK - In unanimous agreement with our legal arguments, yesterday, the New Mexico Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument that statements made by a teenager during a hospital bedside interrogation following her traumatic and unexpected labor and delivery of a stillborn are inadmissible in her criminal case for first-degree murder.
In 2023, Alexee Trevizo, then a 19-year-old high school student, went to the emergency room for what she thought was severe back pain. She did not know she was pregnant. Ms. Trevizo was given strong doses of pain medications, including morphine and muscle relaxers, prior to a pregnancy test being performed and was then left unattended for hours. No one informed her of the positive test results. Confused, scared, and medicated, after a 19-minute labor in a hospital bathroom, she delivered a stillborn baby alone and returned to her hospital room.
After the delivery, her doctor waited nearly two hours to address Ms. Trevizo’s life-threatening hemorrhaging, instead calling law enforcement to report the stillbirth, insinuating that she had killed her baby. Still heavily medicated by hospital physicians, and with the cooperation of her doctor, Ms. Trevizo was interrogated by two armed police officers at her bedside who also blocked the door to her room. Ms. Trevizo was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
Yesterday, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that because our client, Ms. Trevizo, was heavily medicated by doctors and suffering through a post-labor medical crisis, she was in no position to waive her right to doctor-patient privilege and that any statements made to police are inadmissible. The court also ruled that mandatory reporting rules by hospital staff are narrow, meaning once a report is made, “the physician’s duty ends,” leaving all prior conversations between a doctor and a patient privileged.
“The New Mexico Supreme Court affirmed that doctors and nurses are there to provide care, not to act as an arm of law enforcement. The court recognized Ms. Trevizo’s incredibly compromised medical condition, her doctor’s inexplicable decision to withhold that condition from her own patient, and the decision to instead ‘ambush’ Ms. Trevizo and disclose her confidential medical information in the presence of armed police. The Court recognized that she went to the hospital for help and didn’t get it. This case makes clear that a doctor’s duty is to the patient, and that the state cannot base its criminal prosecution on a patient’s confidential medical information. This is a win for patient confidentiality, patient care, and privacy in New Mexico,” said attorney Amber Fayerberg.
“For years, Ms. Trevizo has been vilified in the media as a monster, shunned by her community, and had her rights trampled – all because she had the misfortune of suffering a deeply traumatic pregnancy loss as a scared teen. Leaking her hospital footage to the world, during her most traumatic and vulnerable moments when she should have been receiving critical care, deepened that harm. Hospitals should be sanctuaries of care, not sites of surveillance, and we are grateful that the New Mexico Supreme Court sent exactly that message in its ruling,” said Pregnancy Justice Senior Policy Counsel Kulsoom Ijaz.
“Alexee went to the hospital seeking emergency medical care. Instead, her life was left hanging in the balance as medical staff and police surrounded her bed and coldly accused her of being a murderer. This is a powerful win, not only for Ms. Trevizo, but for all women across the country whose devastating pregnancy losses are turned into fodder for criminalization by prosecutors and who may suffer similar treatment by medical providers acting as agents for police at one of the worst moments of their lives,” said Pregnancy Justice Legal Director Karen Thompson.
The ACLU of New Mexico, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the National Police Accountability Project, and Professor Ji Seon Song of the UC Irvine School of Law filed amicus briefs in support of Ms. Trevizo’s defense. The briefs argued that health care providers acting as a proxy for law enforcement cross a dangerous line by abandoning their obligation to do no harm, leaving pregnant patients without critical care.
Yesterday’s ruling upheld a lower court’s decision appealed by the prosecution to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
It is not yet known whether the prosecution will continue its case against Ms. Trevizo. In any subsequent legal proceedings, Ms. Trevizo will be represented by Gary Mitchell and Fayerberg Dodd, LLC.
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Justicia del embarazo advances and defends the rights of pregnant people, no matter if they give birth, experience a pregnancy loss, or have an abortion. No one should lose their rights because of pregnancy.