FILE – In this January 30, 2018 file photo, Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets and his wife Rebecca acknowledge their introduction by President Donald Trump as they stand with First Lady Melania Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington during the State of the Union Address. The face, uniform and badge of Officer Holets, respected for protecting local residents, are being used as part of an anti-abortion billboard without his permission, his superiors say. The Albuquerque policeman appears on a billboard along a highway that runs through town, along with the words, “My favorite right is life.” (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite, File)
SANTA FE, NM – A New Mexico police officer who adopted a child from a pregnant woman who used heroin as an alternative to abortion is featured in uniform on an anti-abortion billboard without his permission, his superiors say.
Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets appears on a billboard along a highway that runs through town, along with the words, “My favorite right is life.”
The pictures show two of him holding his daughters, including a daughter he adopted from a couple he shot heroin while on patrol in 2017.
The heroin using woman was pregnant when Holets found her and she agreed to put the girl up for adoption after birth.
Anti-abortion activists prevented Holets from adopting the girl as an alternative to abortion, including his other daughter’s grandmother, Ethel Maharg.
She is the executive director of Right to Life New Mexico, the anti-abortion group that used his picture on the billboard.
Albuquerque police say Holets refused the group’s permission to use the picture of him in uniform because it would violate guidelines.
“The group still used the images without permission and against the will of a police officer who has distinguished himself through his integrity,” said police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos.
“That’s not true,” Maharg told local TV station KRQE in an edited interview. “Officer Holets never told me I couldn’t.”
It is unclear who took the photos, which are used without attribution on a number of anti-abortion websites.
“I think they came from Ethel or the New Mexico Right to Life,” said Albuquerque Pastor Dewey Moede, who used it in a blog post last year.
Holets has attended political rallies and even spoken at the 2020 Republican National Convention, but he was not wearing a uniform or badge.
Gallegos, the police spokesman, said he had not seen the pictures on the partisans’ blog posts and could not immediately tell if they violated the department’s guidelines.
Maharg didn’t return any messages on Wednesday that she left her staff saying she was traveling. One employee said her comments to the TV station had no context but declined to send a copy of the interview she allegedly recorded.
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Attanasio is a corps member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a not-for-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to cover undercover issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.
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