On September 30, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and the law firms Smith & Marjanovic Law, LLC (Taylor E. Smith), The Soto Law Office, LLC (Ramón A. Soto), filed a 6 count civil complaint in State District Court on behalf of Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith, a man who was wrongfully arrested, charged and jailed for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) and forced to pay bribes to get the criminal charges dismissed by APD. Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith is alleged to be one of dozens of people who were “victimized” as part of an APD scheme with private criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear III to wrongfully charge and arrest people and then solicit bribes to get the charges dismissed.
Named as Defendants are the City of Albuquerque, APD Chief Harold Medina, Former APD Officers Joshua Montaño, Honorio Alba, Harvey Johnson, Nelson Ortiz, Justin Hunt, Daren Deaguero, Neill Elsman, Matthew Trahan, and Mark Landavazo. Also named as Defendants are criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear, III and Clear’s paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.
The Civil Complaint is a 6 count, 17-page lawsuit filed in the Second Judicial District Court alleging the 9 former APD officers exploited DWI arrests they had made to solicit bribes in exchange for dismissal of the charges. The 6 counts allege:
- Unlawful Detention and Arrest charged against the city.
- Malicious Abuse of Process (2 Counts) charged against the city.
- Deprivation of Due Process of Law charged against the city.
- Negligent Hiring, Training, Supervision, and Retention charged against the city.
- Racketeering charged against the 9 former APD Police Officers named and attorney Thomas Clear III and Clear’s paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.
The lawsuit alleged the defendants, including APD Chief Harold Medina, each conspired with and amongst each other to violate New Mexico State law.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Postscript to this blog article provides a detailed summation of the 6 counts of the civil complaint.
The Plaintiff’s “Prayer For Relief” requests the Court to enter judgment against the Defendants for:
- Compensatory damages.
- Hedonic damages.
- Punitive damages.
- Pre-judgment interest.
- Post-judgment interest,
- Declaratory relief.
- Treble damages.
- Reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in bringing the action, including expert fees.
- Such other and further relief as the Court deems just.
The link to read the civil complaint in full is here:
https://www.krqe.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/10/Smith-APD-Lawsuit.pdf
FACTUAL BASIS OF CLAIM
Editor’s Note: The following factual basis of the complaint was gleaned from review of the complaint itself and all 6 counts as well as news accounts.
Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith’s was initially pulled over for speeding in June 2023 by APD Police Officer Joshua Montaño. The lawsuit alleges Montaño unlawfully expanded the scope of the traffic stop by initiating a DWI investigation without reasonable suspicion. Plaintiff Sandoval-Smith willingly took a breath test and blew below the legal limit, but he was still booked and charged with DWI by Montaño.
Sandoval-Smith said that when he was being booked on the charges at an APD substation, his gold bracelet was taken off to be placed with his personal belongings by Montaño in a property bag for later return after his booking was completed. The personal property returns never happened. Montaño later called Sandoval-Smith’s about his property and left a voice message on his phone. Montaño’s voice is heard on Smith’s voicemail saying this:
“I don’t know if you realize, but I’m sure you do, that some of your jewelry was missing from the property from Sunday evening. … And it looks like the PTC officers didn’t put that in your property bag, but I have it”.
Sandoval-Smith said APD officer Montaño referred him to criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear III’s office. Sandoval-Smith said he had an uneasy feeling that prompted him to record his interaction with Clear’s Paralegal, Rick Mendez.
A transcript portion of that recording reveals the following discussion:
Paralegal Rick Mendez : So we charge $8,500 and you could do it in payments.
Sandoval- Smith: And with you representing me, that would guarantee that this doesn’t go on my record?
Paralegal Rick Mendez: Yes.
It’s clear from the entire recording the $8,500 up front was part of the scheme to get the case dismissed. In January, Carlos Sandoval – Smith’s DWI case was dismissed. The same month Attorney Clear’s office was raided by FBI agents and news of the alleged scheme was made public for the first time and Sandoval – Smith saw the news coverage.
The ACLU law suite alleges officers with APD’s DWI unit would refer DWI suspects to DWI Criminal Defense Attorney Thomas Clear, III and his paralegal Mendez for legal services. The complaint alleges “Defendant Officers would agree not to attend pre-trial interviews or testify in those individuals’ criminal cases in exchange for consideration from Defendants Clear and Mendez.”
The ACLU’s complaint also points to what it describes as negligent hiring, training and supervision by the police department of the police offers involved. It alleges that Police Chief Harold Medina was aware of an agreement between some officers assigned to the DWI Unit and Clear’s office to work together to get cases dismissed in exchange for payment. Complicating things for APD Chief Harold Medina is the fact that the bribery and conspiracy scheme to dismiss DWI cases spans a decade and during some of that time APD Chief Harold Medina was the then Deputy Chief of Field Services where he oversaw and was in charge of the DWI unit and may have known or should have known and have been aware of what was his subordinates were doing.
The lawsuit states that federal authorities first informed the police department in June 2022 of an alleged attempt by one of the officers to extort $10,000 from another defendant charged. It goes on to say that in December 2022, the police department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit received a tip that officers in the DWI Unit were being paid to get cases dismissed and were working in collaboration with a local attorney who turned out to be Clear. The ACLU alleges in the complaint that the city and the police chief “did not adequately investigate these allegations, if at all, prior to the involvement of federal authorities.”
REACTIONS BY PARTIES
The ACLU claims Smith’s case deserves its day in court. Attorney Taylor Smith is working with the ACLU representing Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith and he gave extended interviews to the media and said this about the case:
“This is essentially a mob-like practice that’s being perpetrated by our officers. …They are taking people’s belongings and forcing them to have interactions with private attorneys in order to facilitate obtaining money for the scheme. … Officer Montaño did not operate in a vacuum, at least based off of his statements made [as] part of his resignation. We know that this is a pervasive issue. … [Carlos Sandoval-Smith’s] life has been ruined. … He’s now been forced to rebuild his life since all this happened. And our opportunity to do this is through the civil process.”
“The reason to include all the officers is we know that Montaño was not operating in a vacuum. We understand that there are a large number of individuals that were involved. My client lost everything. He’s without a home, he’s without a job, and he’s been trying to put his life back together since then. … As a result of these allegations and things that were relayed to his family, he was immediately no longer allowed to live with them. He owned a business with his aunt, which evaporated overnight, given the rift that this arrest caused.”
“We’ve brought racketeering claims against the individual officers in this case. It’s a criminal statute that we can use as civil attorneys to figure out what was going on within the conspiracy. … We’re trying to find out exactly each role they played in this scheme. And so when it comes to this, it’s just making sure that our officers are following the law, much like they expect all of us to do.”
“What we know from Officer Joshua Montaño’s interactions with our client [Carlos Sandoval-Smith], as well as our client’s interactions with Mr. Clear’s office, specifically, Mr. Mendez, is that there was a scheme in place to arrest somebody allegedly for DWI through the process of taking them to Metropolitan Detention Center, removing their personal items, taking those personal items and violating all the rules of what we call a chain of custody”
“When you take evidence or items from someone, they stay at APD evidence or at the jail, and then they’re given their belongings. That chain was completely broken here. When Officer Montaño, or whoever did it, took our client’s belongings to the home and office of a private attorney in order to require them to go there for his services to further the scheme by charging a large amount for the DWI, which we assume was shared between the attorney and the officers.”
“We do not believe that Chief Medina was involved with the scheme. What our concerns are regarding his supervision of officers within the department, based off of the reporting that we’ve seen to date, we’re aware that Chief Medina was likely aware of what was going on well before Carlos was ever arrested or Mr. Smith. Our concern there is, if we have this knowledge, why are these officers still allowed to conduct their duties and further harm members of our community, like Mr. Smith?”
“We really hope that this spurs some change and ensures that other people aren’t affected, as well as rectifying what’s happened to Mr. Smith. I don’t think any amount of money could ever compensate somebody for these types of injustices, but we will be seeking everything that we believe we’re entitled to, including the loss of income, being displaced and everything that we can, in order to make him whole.”
Plaintiff Carlos Sandova – Smith’s for his part said this in a statement about his lawsuit:
“This lawsuit isn’t just about getting justice for me, it’s about stopping this abuse so no one else has to suffer the way I did. … I lost my business, my home, and my dignity because of APD corruption. It even caused a deep rift in my family that we may never heal from. … [Joshua Montaño] needs to definitely pay for what he did to me and for anybody else that he did this to.”
ACLU legal director Maria Martinez Sanchez said she hopes the lawsuit results in reforms to dismantle what she described as “systemic corruption” within the Albuquerque Police Department.
APD ISSUES STATEMENT
The Albuquerque Police Department took issue with the allegations in the lawsuit and issued the following statement:
“The lawsuit filed by the ACLU contains knowingly false information. Chief Medina worked closely with the FBI to uncover the DWI scheme and opened an internal investigation to hold all involved accountable and leave no stone left unturned. APD leadership continues to cooperate and work with federal partners as they complete their investigation. APD will share more information with the public when details are permitted to be released.”
CHARGES YET TO BE BROUGHT
Aside from the internal investigation launched in February by APD, the FBI is conducting its own inquiry into allegations of illegal conduct. No charges have been filed against any of those identified as being involved with the scandal. It will be up to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the US Department of Justice to determine whether any federal laws were violated.
The links to relied upon and quoted news sources are here:
https://www.krqe.com/news/investigations/aclu-suing-former-officers-apd-over-dwi-corruption-scheme/
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-dwi-scandal/62492382
https://www.krqe.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2024/10/Smith-APD-Lawsuit.pdf
APD BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION SCANDAL IN A NUTSHELL
It was on Friday January 19, 2024 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed search warrants and raided the homes of 3 Albuquerque Police officers and the home and law office of prominent DWI criminal defense attorney Thomas Clear, III. All 6 of those targeted with a search warrant are allegedly involved in a bribery and conspiracy scheme spanning a decade to dismiss DWI cases. Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman ordered the dismissed 196 DWI cases because of the scandal due to the main witnesses’ credibility being called into question which in all the cases are APD officers.
The FBI searched the homes of APD Officers Honorio Alba and Harvey Johnson and the law offices of Thomas Clear III and the home of Clear’s paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez. The US Department of Justice and US Attorney’s office have confirmed the APD police officers and the criminal defense attorney are at the center of the federal investigation involving the dismissal of hundreds of pending DWI criminal cases by the APD Officers for remuneration to have the cases dismissed by the officers failing to appear for hearings. No one has yet to be charged as the federal investigation is ongoing.
The Albuquerque Police Department opened its own Internal Affairs investigation. APD Chief Harold Medina appointed Commander Kyle Hartsock of the Criminal Investigations Division to lead the internal investigation into officers’ conduct as well as into whether anyone else at the department knew about wrongdoing but did not report it.
A total of 9 APD Police officers have been implicated in the scandal and 7 have resigned during the Internal Affairs investigation, one is on paid leave and one has been terminated. One by one, the accused Albuquerque police officers have been turning in their badges and resigning rather than talking to Internal Affairs investigators about an alleged public corruption scheme involving DWI cases. The names and dates of those officers who have resigned or who have been terminated are:
- On February 7, 2024 Justin Hunt,who started at APD in 2000, resigned.
- On February 29, 2024, Honorio Alba, who started at APD in 2014, resigned.
- On March 13, 2024, Harvey Johnson, who started at APD in 2014, resigned
- On March 15, 2024, Nelson Ortiz,who started at APD in 2016, resigned.
- On March 20, 2024 Joshua Montaño, who started at APD January 2005, resigned.
- On May 2, 2024 Daren DeAguero, who started with APD in 2009, resigned.
- On May 9, 2024, Matthew Trahan was placed on paid leave as the investigation playsout. Trahan has been with APD since 2006, was with the DWI unit from 2014-16 and recently worked as a detective.
- On July 30, 2024 APD Officer Neill Elsman, who had worked in the DWI unit within the past several years, resigned before returning to work from military leave.
- On August 1, APD announced that it fired Mark Landavazo, the APD Commander of Internal Affairs for Professional Standards, who started with APD in 2007 and was with the DWI unit from 2008 through 2013.
No one has been charged in the case. The FBI is investigating the allegations as a criminal matter. U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez has said the probe focuses on alleged wrongdoing by “certain” APD officers and others.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
It is very disappointing but not at all surprising that federal charges for government corruption have yet to be brought against APD and the identified 9 former APD Police officers. The Feds tend to be very cautious in bringing criminal charges, especially against law enforcement. The delay may also signal the likelihood that the FBI is doing a deep drill into APD and many more of APD’s finest will be charged and may even include present members of APD’s high command. It will likely be over a year before charges are filed. One thing is for certain, the civil lawsuit file by the ACLU has the greatest potential to expose to the public sooner rather than later the extent of the corruption within APD.
There is absolutely no doubt that APD’s reputation has been trashed to a major extent because of this scandal. It’s downright disgusting that the APD Commander for Internal Affairs for Professional Standards was fired who was the very commander who should have caught and perhaps prevented the corruption. APD will likely be viewed by many as again having just another bastion of “dirty and corrupt cops” who have brought dishonor to their department and to the department’s professed values of “Pride, Integrity, Fairness and Respect”.
This is so even before any charges have been filed against anyone, before anyone else is fired from APD and before any action is brought against the police officers involved for government corruption and criminal conspiracy to dismiss cases working with a prominent criminal defense attorney. Should the criminal defense attorney be charged and convicted of the crimes, he is likely facing jail time in prison as well as disbarment from the practice of law.
There is little doubt that this whole DWI dismissal bribery scandal has shaken the public’s faith in our criminal justice system and APD to its core. The only way that any semblance of faith can be restored and for people to begin trusting APD again is if all the police officers involved in this scandal are held accountable and the lawyers involved are held accountable. That will only happen when there is aggressive prosecutions and convictions, the police officers are terminated and they lose their law enforcement certification and disbarment occurs with the attorney.
Ultimately, it is Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Harold Medina who need to be held accountable with what has happened. Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Harold Medina must ultimately be held accountable and take full responsibility for failed leadership of APD and this most egregious APD scandal. Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Harold Medina instead have been in full fledge “politcal spin cycle” of “pivot, deflect and blame” since the news broke and since the Albuquerque City Council accused them of failed leadership in dealing with the scandal as they attempted to get ahead of this most recent scandal involving APD. They both have attempted to take credit for the federal investigation and for taking action to hold bad cops accountable for the corruption when it was in fact the federal investigation that forced their hand and after they both allowed the problem to fester for 6 years under their watch.
Mayor Tim Keller has already made it known that he is seeking a third four year term as Mayor in 2025. There is no doubt this APD scandal of corruption calls into question Keller’s management of APD, who he has appointed Chief of Police and if he should be elected to a third term.
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POSTCRIPT
The civil complaint filed by the ACLU alleges the following 6 counts:
Count One against the City: Unlawful Detention and Arrest in violation of Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution. It is alleged Montaño unlawfully arrested the Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith with the intent to advance a conspiracy to directly or indirectly defraud Plaintiff and request a bribe from Plaintiff in exchange for a promise not to participate in the prosecution of criminal charges Defendant Montaño intended to bring against Plaintiff. It is alleged Montaño initiated a DWI investigation into Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith without reasonable suspicion that Plaintiff had committed or was committing a DWI and Defendant Montaño arrested Plaintiff without sufficient probable cause.
Count Two against the City: Malicious Abuse of Process in violation of New Mexico Constitution, Article II, Section 10. It is alleged that the Defendant Montaño misused the legal process against Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith and that Montaño did not have a reasonable belief, based on the facts known to him, that the DWI charge against Plaintiff could be established to the satisfaction of a court or jury. Defendant Montaño’s primary motive in misusing the legal process was to accomplish an illegitimate end and that was to induce Plaintiff to participate in Defendants’ extortion scheme.
Count Three against the City: Deprivation of Due Process of Law in violation of New Mexico Constitution, Article II, Sections 4 and 18. This count alleges Defendant Montaño deprived Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith of his rights secured by Article II, Section 18 of the New Mexico Constitution by demanding and/or agreeing to receive money from Plaintiff in exchange for not testifying or otherwise participating in the prosecution of criminal charges Defendant Montaño had filed against him. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Montaño’s actions, Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith suffered and continues to suffer substantial past and future damages, including, but not limited to, loss of liberty, loss of income, severe emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, and humiliation
Count Four against the City: Malicious Abuse of Process. This count alleges Defendant Montaño misused the legal process against Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith. It alleges Defendant Montaño did not have a reasonable belief, based on the facts known to him, that the DWI charges against Plaintiff could be established to the satisfaction of a court or jury. Defendant Montaño’s primary motive in misusing the legal process was to accomplish an illegitimate end which was to induce Plaintiff to participate in Defendants’ extortion scheme. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Montaño’s actions, Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated with a minor in his vehicle, even though Defendant Montaño did not have probable cause to believe that Plaintiff had committed this crime. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Montaño’s actions, Plaintiff spent time in jail and Plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer substantial past and future damages, including, but not limited to, loss of liberty, loss of income, severe emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, and humiliation.
Count Five against the City: Negligent Hiring, Training, Supervision, and Retention. This count alleges the Defendant City owed a duty to Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith to adequately hire, train, supervise, and retain Defendants Officers to reasonably protect and ensure the safety of the citizens of the City of Albuquerque, including Plaintiff Carlos Sandoval-Smith. Defendant City breached its duty to the Plaintiff by hiring Defendant Officers, who were not qualified or competent to work as police officers with APD, by failing to train and supervise Defendant Officers so that they would not extort Plaintiff or deprive Plaintiff of his civil rights. By the continued retention of Defendants Officers, Defendant City’s negligent hiring, training, supervision, and retention of Defendant Officers directly and proximately caused injuries to Plaintiff. As a direct and proximate result of Defendant Officers’ actions, Plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer substantial past and future damages, including, but not limited to, loss of liberty, loss of income, severe emotional distress, mental anguish, embarrassment, and humiliation.
Count Six: Racketeering against the 9 former Police Officers named and attorney Clear and his paralegal. This count alleges the Defendant Officers collectively and individually engaged in instances of direct and/or indirect bribery by demanding or receiving money with the intent to have their decision or action regarding their participation in the prosecution of a particular DWI case influenced.
Count 6 alleges the Defendant Officers collectively and individually engaged in instances of bribery by receiving, agreeing to receive, or soliciting a bribe or anything of value to testify falsely or abstain from testifying to a fact in judicial, administrative, or other proceedings.
Count 6 alleges the Defendant Officers collectively and individually engaged in instances of fraud by taking personal possessions by means of fraudulent conduct, practices, and/or representations, or embezzlement by converting property with which Defendants had been entrusted to Defendants’ own use with fraudulent intent to deprive the owner of property.
Count 6 alleges Defendants Officers, Clear, and Mendez collectively and individually engaged in instances of extortion by communicating or transmitting threats to accuse individuals of a crime with the intent thereby to obtain things of value and/or to wrongfully compel individuals to retain Defendant Clear as an attorney and refrain from retaining any other attorney, against their will.
Count 6 alleges these actions are incidents of racketeering as defined by New Mexico law Defendants Officers, Clear, and Mendez engaged in this pattern of racketeering activity in order to acquire or maintain, directly or indirectly, an interest in or control of an enterprise.
Count 6 alleges the Defendant Officers, as employees of Defendant City, conducted or participated, directly and/or indirectly, in the conduct of Defendant City’s affairs by engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity. It is alleged the Defendants Clear and Mendez, as persons who received the proceeds of a pattern of racketeering activity in which they participated, used or invested some part of those proceeds in the establishment or operation of an enterprise.
Count 6 alleges Defendants Clear and Mendez, as persons employed by or associated with an enterprise, conducted or participated, directly and/or indirectly, in the conduct of the enterprise’s affairs by engaging in a pattern of racketeering activity. Defendants, including Defendant APD Chief Harold Medina, each conspired with and amongst each other to violate New Mexico law.