On October 16, APD Deputy Commander Gustavo Gomez, with APD’s Internal Affairs Force Division was placed on paid administrative leave in relation to the DWI dismissal and bribery scandal. It is alleged DWI officers took kickbacks from local attorney Thomas Clear, III and his paralegal in exchange for not filing the DWI citations in court or for failing to appear in court on drunken driving cases.
Gomez was named deputy commander of the Internal Affairs Force Division in January and has been with APD since 2008. Gomez, like the majority of APD personnel targeted in the investigation, was a DWI officer, from 2010 to 2013.
APD is conducting a separate internal affairs investigation as the FBI does a criminal investigation into the allegations. Gomez is the 11th APD officers, including supervisors and a former APD spokesman, who have been placed on paid administrative leave in APD’s probe. Seven officers have resigned, two have retired and one was fired by the department.
The investigation became public in January after FBI agents searched 3 APD officers’ homes and the law office of prominent defense attorney Thomas Clear, III and his paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez. The search warrants remain sealed and no one has been charged in the investigation. The Federal investigation is ongoing
Parallel to the FBI criminal investigation, APD created an internal affairs task force to conduct all administrative investigations into alleged misconduct by current or past members of the DWI Unit. The findings of the investigation will be submitted to the Superintendent of Police Reform to determine whether APD policies were followed.
In the fallout of the investigation and because the officers’ credibility potentially could be questioned, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office dismissed nearly 200 DWI cases that had been filed and were pending at the time of the FBI searches.
Link to the quoted and relied upon news sources are here:
https://www.koat.com/article/albuquerque-police-commander-leave-dwi/62642588
CIVIL RIGHTS LAWSUIT FILED
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.
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, placed on leave 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 Trahanwas 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.
- October 16, Deputy Commander Gustavo Gomez placed on paid administrative leave. Gomez was with the DWI unit from 2010 to 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 all the identified 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 criminal 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.
The link to a related blog article is here: