Charges dropped against New Mexico Chief Eddie Velarde. He had been arrested while in command of a fire.

Previous coverage of this story

Remember the case of Eddie Velarde, the chief of Northern New Mexico's Velarde Volunteer Fire Department?

Velarde was arrested last March while in command of a brush fire. He was charged with obstructing a sheriff's officer, disorderly conduct and concealing his identify.

Geoff Grammer at The New Mexican reports that Chief Velarde received a directed verdict of not guilty on Friday. It occurred after Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Lt. Adam Archuleta presented his the to a magistrate. The decision came before Velarde's attorney called any witnesses. Now Velarde's attorney is considering a wrongful arrest lawsuit.:

Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Lt. Adam Archuleta on March 29 arrested Velarde, 54, at the scene of a small brush fire in Lyden, in which Velarde's department was the lead agency working the blaze. According to police reports, Archuleta arrested Velarde because he was creating general hysteria at the scene that was doing more harm than good.

"He was calling for a mass evacuation (of surrounding residents) with all these agencies responding under the false belief that this was a much larger emergency," said Jake Arnold, a spokesman for Sheriff Tommy Rodella, in March. "Numerous times at the scene, he was yelling about people being trapped when the fire was nowhere near any structure."

Within 10 minutes of Velarde's arrest, Arnold said in March, the 2- to 3-acre fire was contained.