Prosecutors dropped felony domestic violence charges against a Hernandez man after his ex-wife “made it clear she will not cooperate with the prosecution of this case.”

District Judge Anastasia Martin ordered Peter Velarde, 40, released from jail on Nov. 24, after prosecutor Kent Wahlquist filed the dismissal motion. Velarde had been held without bail after being found to be a danger to the community in September.

Velarde is a former North Central Solid Waste Authority employee who was present when a co-worker died while on the trash truck he was driving. Velarde then filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the North Central Solid Waste Trash Authority, alleging he was fired for talking to federal investigators. His whistleblower lawsuit is still pending.

He was charged in July with stealing a man’s truck in Española, charges that prosecutors dropped citing the need for “further investigation.”

In the newly dismissed case, he was charged for allegedly ramming his ex-wife’s car with his truck.

Wahlquist’s motion to dismiss was filed on Nov. 26, but Velarde was released two days earlier on Nov. 24, following what was supposed to be a pretrial detention and preliminary hearing, that had been set for an hour. During a preliminary hearing, witnesses testify to what happened.

Velarde initially waived an evidentiary hearing and agreed to be held without bail pending trial in exchange for prosecutors dropping a charge of tampering with evidence, as they proceeded with charges of aggravated battery against a household member, child abuse, criminal damage to property over $1,000, felon in possession of a firearm and aggravated stalking.

The initial 911 call came in on Sept. 1, from Velarde’s ex-wife, who told a deputy that Velarde rammed the back of her car with his truck multiple times, pulled alongside her car, was shouting profanities and “continued to act aggressively,” Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholas Diaz wrote in a criminal complaint.

She told Diaz that Velarde previously asked her via Facebook to buy .380-caliber ammunition. Deputies found .380 bullets when they searched him and his girlfriend, Melody Honyumptewa, told them she was with Velarde and he rammed his ex-wife’s car repeatedly. Deputies then arrested her on tribal warrants.

Deputies later found a pistol hidden in a wood pile and then charged him, he wrote.