** Lawyer for Santa Fe, New Mexico paramedic, who stole and used dead patient’s debit card, applies for lighter sentence
** Funeral services set for recent California paramedic graduate who died while boating
UNITED STATES NEWS
** Lawyers for a New Mexico paramedic, convicted of stealing a dead patient’s wallet, are now seeking a lighter sentence for him. That is the word from The Albuquerque Journal (Edmundo Carrillo/July 10) which said the lawyer for Santa Fe resident Michael John Harcharik, 32, filed a motion in Santa Fe District Court in May. According to the newspaper, Harcharik’s attorney Don Marlowe said the felony convictions for identity theft and violating the Remote Financial Services Act are too harsh. Marlowe said stealing the wallet and racking up $11,000 in charges on the dead man’s debit card resulted from a momentary lapse of judgement. Marlowe said he wants the sentence changed to a conditional discharge from the current five year probation given Harcharik. Prosecutor Peter Valencia, however, took issue with the supposedly spur of the moment crime. Valencia said Harcharik used the card around 50 separate times between March 25 and April 8, 2016.
** Funeral services have been set for July 17th for a California paramedic who died while on vacation near Parker, Arizona July 1st. The Daily Press (Charity Lindsey/July 6) said the commemoration for San Bernadino resident Matthew Bashaw, 27, will take place in Victorville at the Holy Innocents Parish at 10:30 a.m. Bashaw, who had only recently graduated from the Victor Valley College Paramedic Academy, drowned after failing to retrieve a boat anchor that had become stuck in the mud. He was unresponsive when taken from the water and remained so despite CPR being administered.
