Investigators say off-duty Albuquerque police Sgt. Andrew Gallegos was driving the truck that ran over and killed 47-year-old Vera "Tonie" Haskell in the parking lot of an East Central bar on April 6, the Albuquerque Journal reported this morning.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg told the Journal on Monday that she plans to call for a preliminary hearing so a judge can determine whether charges should be file against Gallegos -- a process that could take months.

"There is no evidence of any intention to commit a crime," Gallegos' attorney Sam Bregman told the Journal.

Brandenburg acknowledged there were problems with the evidence and questions about whether there was intent to commit a crime, and she also told the Journal that a preliminary hearing -- unlike a grand jury proceeding -- is open to the public and a finding of whether a crime has been committed is up to a judge.

"Because there have been a lot of accusations and insinuations of a coverup, the public needs to know there was an investigation and the amount of work that was put into it," Brandenburg said. 

Gallegos was placed on paid administrative leave after the incident because investigating officers, whom he directly oversees, thought they recognized him in the bar's surveillance video, according to court records.

That surveillance video was sent to a special lab to Minnesota to have it enhanced, the Journal said. 

5:55am 4/10/08 -- Hit-Run Victim 'Lost It' After Son Died: Woman who died in East Central bar parking lot lost her son to hit-and-run.

Vera "Tonie" Haskell, the 47-year-old woman who died Sunday after being run over in the parking lot of an East Central bar, was killed just nine blocks from where her son Jeremy was struck by a hit-and-run driver in 2006, the Albuquerque Journal reported this morning.

On July 28, 2006, Haskell's 25-year-old son was struck by a vehicle as he walked across Central Avenue near Grove around 10 p.m., according to police records.

"This is all so tragic," Haskell's sister, Verni Yazza, told the Journal. "After her son died, she lost it. She was very depressed, and she was so depressed that she wanted to die sometimes."

Haskell had been arrested five times for alcohol-related offenses, police records said.

"She was an alcoholic. She had to have her vodka every day, but she was not a dirty drinker," Yazza told the Journal. "She was a quiet drinker. She always took it home to drink."

Yazza told the Journal her sister went to area bars to sell jewelry, including Sidewinders, the gay country-and-western bar where she was run over by a pickup truck leaving the parking lot around 9:40 p.m. Sunday.

Police are looking into the possibility that the man who ran over her was APD Sgt. Andrew Gallegos, who resembled the driver seen in a surveillance videotape, the Journal reported. 

10:45am 4/9/08 UPDATE:  The attorney representiing Albuquerque Police Department Sgt. Andrew Gallegos, who is on paid leave from APD and is a "person of interest" in a fatal hit-and-run accident Sunday night, said the 19-year-old APD veteran has committed no crime, KOB-TV is reporting.

"I want to make it very clear that Sergeant Gallegos committed absolutely no crime," attorney Sam Bregman told KOB-TV.

Meanwhile, Chief Deputy District Attorney Deborah DePalo defended the way the case is proceeding.

"I think this is being handled the same way with whoever the suspect might be," DePalo told Eyewitness News 4.

9:55am 4/9/08 -- APD Supervisor on Leave in Hit-Run Case: Traffic officers joked about how suspect in surveillance video looked like their boss.

Sgt. Andrew Gallegos, a supervisor at the Albuquerque Police Department's traffic unit, is on paid administrative leave while police investigate the possibility he is the man who ran over a 47-year-old woman in the parking lot of an East Central bar Sunday night, according to this morning's Albuquerque Journal.

Gallegos has not been arrested and has been called a "person of interest" in the death of Vera Haskell, who was run over by a pickup truck around 9:40 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Sidewinders bar at 8900 Central SE, the Journal reported.

"At this time, we don't know if it is him, but because of the similarities and his position in the traffic unit, we felt we needed to put him on leave," Police Chief Ray Schultz said at a news conference on Tuesday.

According to a search warrant affidavit, APD officers reviewing videotape from four surveillance cameras at the bar saw a man pull up in a maroon Ford pickup truck at 8:31 p.m., then leave at 9:40 p.m., showing the man trying to back out three times before running over something, the Journal reported.

As officers from the traffic unit wathced the video, they joked about how the pickup driver resembled Gallegos, one of their supervisors, but later dismissed the idea because they couldn't get a very clear look, according to the search warrant.

The following day, an officer called Gallegos to follow up on the investigation, telling his boss "in a joking manner" how much the driver looked like the police sergeant, the affidavit continued.

Three hours later, according to the search warrant, Gallegos called the officer back and asked how much the man being sought looked like him, then called five minutes later to ask if he could look at the video, saying he had gone to a party Sunday night and "blacked out," the Journal reported.

The officer later contacted other supervisors, who then asked for APD's violent crimes detectives to investigate, according to the Journal. 

11:55am 4/7/08 UPDATE: Albuquerque police tell the Albuquerque Journal's T.J. Wilham that the woman who died as a result of being run over by a pickup truck in the parking lot of Sidewinders bar last night was seen by witnesses and surveillance video to be lying down behind the truck before it moved.

Her head was next to one of the truck's rear wheels, police told Wilham.

11:05am 4/7/08 -- Parking Lot Fatality ID'd: Police still looking for Chevrolet pickup that backed over woman twice last night.

Police have identified the victim of a fatal accident that took place around 10:30 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Sidewinders bar on Central near Wyoming as Vera "Toni" Haskell, the Journal's T.J. Wilham reports.

(4/8/08 UPDATE: Haskell was 47, not 39 as earlier reported). 

9:05am UPDATE: Police are looking for a Hispanic male in his late 20s or early 30s driving an older model maroon or brown Chevrolet pickup who struck a woman while backing up out of a parking space at Sidewinders bar on Central near Wyoming around 10:30 p.m. Sunday, according to Albuquerque Police Department Officer Nadine Hamby told ABQjournal.com.

The man actually pulled forward and backed over the woman again before leaving the parking lot at a normal pace, Hamby told us.

Hamby said it's possible the man didn't realize he actually had struck a person, but police want to question the man as well as witnesses to the incident.

The woman, who is believed to be from out of town and whose relatives haven't been notified yet, was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

8:05am UPDATE: Albuquerque police are looking for a small maroon or brown pickup truck in connection with a hit-and-run incident around 11 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of Sidewinders Bar on Central near Wyoming, according to 770 KKOB Radio.

7:55am -- NE ABQ Hit-and-Run Proves Fatal: Woman dies after being run over by pickup truck in nightclub parking lot Sunday.

Police are looking for the driver of a pickup truck that backed into a woman in the parking lot of a Northeast Albuquerque nightclub, near Wyoming and Central, late Sunday night, KOAT-TV is reporting.

The woman died on her way to the hospital, according to Action 7 News.

Police don't have a good description of the truck or the driver, and anyone with information is asked to call the department's anonymous tipline at (505) 242-COPS. 

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