Deborah Aaron mouthed the words "I love you" to her friends and family as she was escorted in shackles into a downtown Santa Fe courtroom Tuesday.

The 56-year-old Santa Fe doctor faces up to six years in prison on allegations of driving her Land Rover into a minivan last Friday night, killing a 4-year-old girl.

Aaron, who was briefly employed at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center several years ago, was arraigned Tuesday in First District Court on one count of vehicular homicide. Santa Fe police say she had both alcohol and antidepressants in her system and was likely speeding through the intersection of St. Francis Drive and Siringo Road because she was late to pick up a friend at the Albuquerque International Sunport.

Aaron was released from the Santa Fe County jail at 4:01 p.m. Tuesday after her family paid 10 percent cash of the $100,000 bond state District Judge Michael Vigil imposed. She will be allowed to live with her mother in Scottsdale, Ariz., while awaiting trial. But she will have to wear a GPS device that will monitor her movement, and she will be required to stay sober while the charge is pending.

Her attorney, Dan Cron, said his client is heartbroken. "[She is] devastated by this tragic loss of life and very sorry about what happened," Cron said in the courthouse lobby after the arraignment.

According to a criminal complaint filed by Santa Fe police Officer Daniel Parsons, Aaron was recorded telling police the night of the crash that "she believed another driver ran a red light because hers was green."

Her 2004 Land Rover T-boned the driver's side of the 2002 minivan driven by Carla Vasquez Rivera, whose two young daughters — Juliana Reyes Vasquez, 4, and Yeretez Jasmine Reyes Vasquez, 3 — were in the car with her. Juliana was pronounced dead as a result of her injuries at 12:45 a.m. Saturday. Yeretez was released from the hospital later in the day. Vasquez Rivera, who is still hospitalized, was said to be in stable condition Tuesday afternoon.

"We're still awaiting all the facts here, but without causation, she cannot be convicted of vehicular homicide," Cron said of his client.

His statement invited comparisons to last year's high-profile acquittal of Scott Owens, also a Cron client, in a vehicular homicide case. Owens did not deny being drunk at the time of a 2009 crash on Old Las Vegas Highway that killed four teenagers and critically injured a fifth, but a jury was not convinced his actions were the principal cause of the crash and found him not guilty of the charge.

Cron would not comment on the similarities between the two crashes other than to reiterate that "causation" was the key factor in both, "and at this point I have not been able to review all the information about this crash to say much further about what the cause was."

Blood samples were taken from both Rivera and Aaron, but they were only delivered to the state crime lab for processing on Tuesday morning because of the holiday weekend. Santa Fe police Capt. Aric Wheeler said he would not release the results of Aaron's Breathalyzer test conducted at the scene, but the criminal complaint drafted by Parsons stated her BAC was "at or above the legal limit" of 0.08.

The court document states Aaron was read her Miranda rights in the back of a police car and, while being recorded, told police she is taking the antidepressant prescription drug Lexapro, had consumed two glasses of wine between 5 and 6 p.m. Friday, then went home and went to sleep. She awoke upon receiving "texts or voice mail on her phone, realizing she was late to pick up a friend from the airport in Albuquerque." The crash occurred at 10:48 p.m.

Wheeler said police are still interviewing eye witnesses and would not comment yet on a specific speed or who had the green light at the time of the crash. He did say that police believe Aaron was exceeding the posted limit of 45 miles per hour.

According to information on the Lexapro website, mixing the drug with alcohol has not been conclusively proven to lead to any more impairment than the alcohol alone would cause. But the company advises that the drug can cause drowsiness, affect a person's ability to make decisions and should not be taken when drinking.

Marg VeneKlasen, a local property manager who has rented a home to Aaron for the past three years and is a close friend of the doctor, said Tuesday that she has never seen any indication of alcohol or drug abuse by Aaron.

"I have always known her to be caring, kind and involved in helping others," VeneKlasen said. "She's generous in nature and just a very wonderful human being. She has such a sense of goodness in the world, and I'm sure that this is something that is just devastating to her.

"I don't know what happened that night, but I want everyone to know that the woman is a fine, wonderful person."

Vasquez Rivera and her family have declined to speak with the media.

In fact, District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco told the court that Santa Fe police made six attempts to contact the family so someone could attend Tuesday's arraignment, but they had no success.

Wheeler said the father of the young girls involved in the crash, Adolfo Tapia, expressed no desire to speak to the media on the matter.

Aaron, who recently returned from Libya as part of the Doctors Without Borders program, will have to surrender her passport to the court while awaiting trial. The Libya trip was Aaron's second with the organization.

She did not respond to reporters' questions while being escorted from the courtroom to a holding cell on Tuesday, nor did her family and friends in attendance want to talk with the media.

Aaron's next court appearance has not been scheduled.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at santafecrime.com.




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