DOJ: Farmington officers who fatally shot Robert Dotson won't face charges

A lengthy investigation and review of the fatal shooting of a Farmington homeowner last year by three Farmington Police Department officers has ended with a finding by the New Mexico Department of Justice that the officers involved did not use excessive force in the incident and that they should not face criminal charges.

In a Jan. 26 letter to San Juan County District Attorney Rick Tedrow, Greer Staley, New Mexico’s deputy attorney general for criminal affairs, states that the investigation and review found that, despite approaching the wrong house, the three officers acted appropriately during the shooting that took place late on April 5, 2003.

Officers Daniel Estrada, Dylan Goodluck and Waylon Wasson shot homeowner Robert Dotson dead in the doorway of his home late that evening while they were responding to a domestic violence call that originated from the neighborhood. The officers responded to the wrong address on Valley View Avenue, erroneously knocking repeatedly on the Dotson family’s door.

When Robert Dotson opened the door armed with a handgun, the officers alleged he pointed the weapon at them, and they opened fire on him, killing him. After finding her husband on the floor of their home, Kimberly Dotson, Robert Dotson’s wife, picked up his handgun and fired at the officers, who returned fire. The gunfire exchange stopped without anyone else being hit once Kimberly Dotson realized the men standing in her front yard were police officers.

Staley’s letter to Tedrow states the DOJ’s conclusion was reached after the examination of all available evidence, including police reports, witness statements, videos and photographs. The review findings also were based on a report provided by Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and a tenured professor of law at the University of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice School of Law. The letter indicates Stoughton regularly conducts reviews of use-of-force incidents and has rendered opinions both for and against police officers in state and federal cases.

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Stoughton’s report indicates he found the three Farmington officers did not use excessive force in their shooting of Robert Dotson or when they returned fire at Kimberly Dotson. He found that even though the officers approached the wrong home, their actions did not “foreseeably create an unnecessary dangerous situation,” according to the letter.

Moreover, Stoughton’s report concluded that Robert Dotson raised his weapon into a firing position after opening the door, presenting “an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm to the officers, and all three reasonably fired their weapons, acting within the bounds of accepted police practices,” according to Staley’s letter.

Staley concludes his letter by stating the DOJ review is limited to potential criminal liability and does not address any potential disciplinary and/or civil liability issues.

Attorneys for Robert Dotson’s family filed a federal lawsuit in September 2023 against the city of Farmington and the three officers. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, describes the shooting of Robert Dotson as unjustified but unintentional, and maintains the actions of the three officers were extreme and unreasonable.

Dotson family, Chief Steve Hebbe react to decision

Mark Curnutt, one of three attorneys representing the Dotson family, emailed a statement Jan. 31 to The Daily Times on behalf of the Dotson family that criticized the DOJ’s decision. The statement takes particular issue with the finding in Stoughton’s report that Robert Dotson lifted his gun and pointed it at officers after answering the door.

“An already distraught family will now begin to process living in a town, and a state, that believes the actions of Officers Wasson, Estrada, and Goodluck were justified to end the life of Robert Dotson,” it states. “A representative from the Office (of) the Attorney General has explained that her office agrees with Professor Stoughton’s analysis that Robert Dotson, a private citizen, opening his own front door with his legally owned firearm, posed such a threat, that it was reasonable for three officers to fire over twenty rounds at Mr. Dotson, despite never being fired at, nor even having a firearm pointed at any of the officers.”

The Dotson family statement asserts the report relies heavily on the initial investigation that was conducted by the New Mexico State Police, claiming that fact raises concerns about the validity of the information provided to the attorney general and pointing out State Police referred to Robert and Kimberly Dotson as “suspects.”

The statement goes on to assert that the DOJ only reviewed the information provided by State Police instead of conducting an independent investigation. DOJ officials did not speak with or contact the family or the officers before making its determination, according to the statement.

“At this time, the family cannot give an opinion as to why the AG’s investigation was limited to document review only, given the bias in the NMSP report,” it states. “Unfortunately, a devastated family is not particularly surprised by the decision.”

Steve Hebbe, chief of the Farmington Police Department, thanked the New Mexico DOJ for what he described as a thorough review of the shooting and said he agreed with the findings.

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But he acknowledged the finding doesn’t change anything for Robert Dotson’s family and likely will cause them more pain, which he said he regrets.

“This makes it another tough day for them,” he said.

Hebbe said he had spoken to one of the officers involved in the shooting on the morning of Jan. 31 and expected to reach out to the other two later in the day. He said the officer to whom he spoke, who he declined to name, was relieved by the DOJ’s conclusion.

“(The officer and his family) have seen what’s happened in other communities around the country (in officer-involved shootings), so this comes as a welcome conclusion to the criminal portion of the investigation,” Hebbe said.

It took more than nine months for New Mexico State Police and the DOJ to complete the investigation and review into the shooting, a relatively lengthy period compared to some other officer-involved shootings that have drawn national scrutiny. But Hebbe acknowledged the case was complicated and said he wasn’t unduly concerned by the length of time needed for the investigation to draw to a close.

“I thought it would be a slower process,” he said.

Luis Robles, the Albuquerque attorney hired to represent the three officers, said Jan. 31 he had spoken to Estrada, Goodluck and Wasson.

“They were relieved, as would (be) anyone who is facing the possibility of criminal charges,” he said.

Robles noted that while Stoughton’s report does not provide a deep analysis of the state of federal law in regard to officer-involved shooting, it does make clear that the officers’ actions on the night of April 5, 2003, were constitutional.

While he acknowledged the unusual circumstances of the case, Robles said that didn’t change the bottom line.

“Although tragic, this is a very straightforward shooting,” he said.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Farmington officers won't face charges in Robert Dotson death