Albuquerque Criminal Defense & Expungement Lawyer
Former Bernalillo County Deputy DA Now Defending Albuquerque Clients
Land of Enchantment Law represents people facing criminal charges and people seeking to clear their records across Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. Attorney Johnn Osborn spent over a decade as a prosecutor in New Mexico, most recently as Deputy District Attorney of the Second Judicial District, the office that prosecutes every felony filed in Albuquerque. He now defends people in the same courthouse.
If you have been arrested in Albuquerque, charged with a crime in Bernalillo County, or want to expunge an old record so it stops costing you jobs, housing, and opportunities, the first call is free.
Albuquerque Criminal Defense Lawyer
Most Albuquerque criminal cases start at one of two courts. Misdemeanors and DWIs stay in the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court at 401 Lomas Blvd. NW. Felonies start there with a first appearance and bind over to the Second Judicial District Court at 400 Lomas Blvd. NW after a preliminary hearing or grand jury indictment. We handle cases on both tracks. See our full criminal defense services.
Drug Charges in Albuquerque
Cannabis is legal in New Mexico, but possession of other controlled substances, distribution, and trafficking remain aggressively prosecuted. Enforcement concentrates along the I-25 and I-40 corridors and on East Central, where Operation Route 66 has logged over a thousand arrests since February 2025.
Federal cases tied to fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking through the Big I are common. We handle state and federal drug cases.
Assault and Domestic Violence
Domestic violence misdemeanors in Albuquerque are heard on Metro Court's specialized DV docket and often involve no-contact orders and DV Solutions Treatment Education Program (DVSTEP) referrals. Felony aggravated assault and battery cases are bound over to the District Court.
Convictions under the Crimes Against Household Members Act trigger a 10-year expungement waiting period, the longest the statute provides. Getting these resolved the first time matters correctly.
Felonies and Misdemeanors
From shoplifting petty misdemeanors to first-degree felonies, we represent clients at every stage: first appearance, preliminary hearing, grand jury, arraignment, motions, plea negotiations, and trial.
The Second Judicial District uses a three-track case-management system (LR2-308) with trial deadlines of 210, 300, or 455 days depending on case difficulty. Knowing how those tracks work, and how the local judges run them, is part of the job.
Albuquerque DWI Lawyer
Bernalillo County is one of the most heavily patrolled DWI jurisdictions in New Mexico. APD, BCSO, NMSP District 5, and UNMPD all operate checkpoints and saturation patrols, with NMSP District 5 alone making 803 impaired-driving arrests in 2024.
The 2025 omnibus crime bill (HB 8) expanded blood-draw authority on probable cause and added cannabis impairment to the Motor Vehicle Code, which has changed how these cases get built. The 2024 to 2025 federal corruption probe that put 16 officers on the Brady-Giglio do-not-call list also changed how DWI cases get challenged.
Our Albuquerque DWI practice covers the 10-day MVD hearing request, the criminal case in Metro Court, aggravated DWI charges, and felony fourth-offense DWI cases that bind over to District Court. If your case was dismissed, it may also qualify for expungement under the 2024 to 2025 amendment treating Motor Vehicle Code deferred sentences as non-convictions.
Charged with a Crime in Albuquerque?
Call: 505.585.1235
Free Consultation, No Obligation
Albuquerque Expungement Lawyer
A New Mexico criminal record blocks jobs, housing, professional licenses, and loans, even when the case ended in dismissal. Expungement under the Criminal Record Expungement Act (NMSA § 29-3A) seals those records from public view and lets you legally answer “no” to most questions about arrests and convictions.
Non-Conviction Expungement
For dismissals, acquittals, nolle prosequi, conditional discharges, and certain Motor Vehicle Code deferred sentences. One-year waiting period. Court must grant if you qualify. See our step-by-step non-conviction expungement guide.
Conviction Expungement
For actual convictions. Waiting periods of 2 to 10 years, depending on offense, with a mandatory hearing and a written narrative showing justice will be served. See our step-by-step conviction expungement guide.
DWI Expungement
DWI presents its own rules. Convictions cannot be expunged under § 29-3A-5(G), but a dismissed-and-deferred DWI under the Motor Vehicle Code may now qualify under the non-conviction track after a 2024 to 2025 amendment. See our DWI expungement guide for what records can and cannot be sealed.
How to Get a Criminal Record Expunged in Albuquerque
Every Albuquerque expungement petition follows the same procedural skeleton, regardless of which track you are on. Most Albuquerque non-conviction expungements take four to six months from records request to fully cleared databases. Conviction expungements take seven to ten months because of the longer objection window and the mandatory hearing. We file petitions at the 2nd JDC, in the Third Judicial District in Las Cruces, and in the First Judicial District in Santa Fe.
Pull your records
Request a New Mexico Department of Public Safety arrest record (notarized authorization, $15) and an FBI Identity History Summary ($18). Both must be dated within 90 days of filing. Pull court records
File the right forms
Form 4-952 for non-convictions, Form 4-953 for convictions, plus the Notice of Hearing (Form 4-960.1) and any supporting forms. The New Mexico Supreme Court overhauled all expungement forms effective December 31, 2025, so confirm you are using the current versions.
File at the right court
Petitions are filed at the Second Judicial District Court at 400 Lomas Blvd. NW, even when the original case was in Metro Court or a municipal court. The filing fee is $132.00, waivable with an Affidavit for Free Process (Form 4-222).
Serve the right parties
The Bernalillo County District Attorney at 520 Lomas Blvd. NW, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety LERB in Santa Fe, and the arresting agency (APD, BCSO, NMSP, or UNMPD). The objection period is 30 days for non-conviction petitions and 60 days for conviction petitions.
Attend the hearing if scheduled
Conviction petitions require a mandatory hearing. Non-conviction petitions may be decided on the paperwork alone if no objections are filed.
Albuquerque NIL and Business Law
UNM Lobos, transfer-portal athletes, and rising New Mexico high school stars all face NIL contracts, revenue-sharing agreements, and tax obligations that did not exist five years ago. Land of Enchantment Law represents student athletes and small businesses across
Albuquerque, including contract review, LLC formation, and compliance with the New Mexico Student Athlete Endorsement Act.
Albuquerque Courts and the Bernalillo County Criminal Justice System
Within four blocks of 4th and Lomas, four institutions decide nearly every criminal case in Bernalillo County. We practice in all of them.
Second Judicial District Court
Bernalillo County Courthouse
400 Lomas Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 | (505) 841-8400 | seconddistrict.nmcourts.gov
The 2nd JDC handles every felony case in Bernalillo County, every expungement petition, civil cases over $10,000, domestic relations matters, and appeals from Metro Court. Roughly 30 district judges sit across Civil, Criminal, Domestic Relations, and Children's Court divisions.
Specialty programs include the Felony DWI Court, Mental Health Court, Veterans Specialty Court, Young Adult Court, and Pre-Prosecution Diversion. The Children's Court division operates from the John E. Brown Juvenile Justice Center at 5100 2nd Street NW.
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court
401 Lomas Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 | (505) 841-8151 | metro.nmcourts.gov
Metro Court sits directly across Lomas from the District Court. It hears every misdemeanor in Albuquerque (including DWI), every domestic-violence misdemeanor, traffic and ordinance violations, civil cases up to $10,000, and felony first appearances and preliminary hearings.
As of October 1, 2024, all proceedings filed or pending in Metro Court are recorded under New Mexico Supreme Court order, which extended court-of-record status across all dockets. Metro Court runs 10 specialty programs, including DWI Recovery Court, Behavioral Health Court, Community Veterans Court, Outreach Court, and the Urban Native American Healing to Wellness Court.
How Felony Cases Move from Metro Court to District Court
Most Albuquerque felonies start at Metro Court with a first appearance, where the judge sets conditions of release and the State decides whether to file a pretrial detention motion. Probable cause must be established within 10 days of first appearance if the defendant is in custody, or 60 days if out of custody.
The DA's Office then chooses between a preliminary hearing in Metro Court (the standard path since 2018, when the District Court reduced grand-jury panels) or a grand jury indictment for the most serious cases. A bind-over order moves the case across Lomas to District Court, where a track is assigned at the status hearing and the trial clock begins.
Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office
520 Lomas Blvd. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102 | (505) 222-1099 | da2nd.nm.gov
District Attorney Sam Bregman heads the Second Judicial District Attorney's Office, the prosecutor on every felony case in Bernalillo County and the agency you must serve on every expungement petition filed in Albuquerque. Knowing how that office screens cases, builds them, and decides which to take to trial is something Johnn brings from the inside. He worked there.
Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC)
100 Deputy Dean Miera Drive SW, Albuquerque, NM 87151 | (505) 839-8700
If a family member was just arrested in Albuquerque, MDC is where they were booked. The Bernalillo County inmate tools will help you find them: bernco.gov/metropolitan-detention-center/overview
Bonds may be posted at the MDC Prisoner Property Room window 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Cash, surety (through a licensed New Mexico bail bondsman), property bond, and cashier's checks or money orders are accepted. Personal checks are not.
New Mexico imposes a state bail surcharge of up to $85 per bond, payable at the time of posting. The Metro Court bonding window at 401 Lomas is open Monday through Friday, 5:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., for bonds set during off-hours.
If your loved one is in MDC, call us at 505.585.1235. Bond conditions, charging decisions, and detention motions all happen in the first 24 hours.
Call: 505.585.1235
Free Consultation, No Obligation
Why Choose Attorney Johnn Osborn for Your Albuquerque Case?
Few Albuquerque criminal defense lawyers spent eleven years prosecuting in the same courthouse where they now defend.
From 2010 to 2021, Johnn worked in the First and Second Judicial District Attorney's Offices, including as Deputy District Attorney of the Second Judicial District, the same office that now prosecutes his clients across the street at 520 Lomas. He knows how the Bernalillo County DA evaluates cases, which factors trigger objections to expungement petitions, how preliminary hearings get built and challenged, and how local judges run their dockets.
He also championed treatment-focused and diversion-based programs as a senior prosecutor, which means he knows when those programs are an option for a defendant and how to make the case for them. That perspective on second chances now shapes how he handles expungements, DWI cases, drug cases, and any matter where the right outcome means more than just winning at trial.
Johnn is licensed in New Mexico and Texas, currently chairs the New Mexico Bar Association Historical Committee, and previously served on the Bar Ethics Committee, the Cannabis Law Section board, and the Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Choose Johnn as your Albuquerque Criminal Defense & Expungement Lawyer.
Schedule a Free Albuquerque Consultation
If you have been arrested in Albuquerque, charged in Bernalillo County, or want to clear an old New Mexico record, the first call is free. Land of Enchantment Law offers free consultations on criminal defense and expungement matters across Albuquerque, the Northeast Heights, the Westside, the International District, UNM and Nob Hill, and every neighborhood in between.