The APD officer who responded to a single-vehicle crash last week involving the wife of city Public Safety boss Darren White in his report checked a box labeled “under the influence of drugs or medication” in a section titled “apparent contributing factors.”
WHITE: Took wife from crash site to hospital (Jim Thompson/Journal)
Officer Al Walck was the first of two APD officers to arrive at the 11200 block of Montgomery NE shortly after 8 a.m. on July 6, after Kathleen White crashed her black Porsche Boxster into a curb.
Albuquerque Fire Department medical rescue personnel responded, and Darren White also arrived. He eventually drove his wife to a hospital after she declined to be taken by ambulance. He said at a Monday evening news conference that his wife had suffered a seizure.
Walck also indicated in his report that Kathleen White had not been drinking alcohol and that she told him she was taking two prescribed medications: Lavora, a birth-control drug, and Lamictal “for anxiety.”
When asked for comment on the contents of Walck’s report, including the checked box for “under the influence of drugs or medication,” city spokesman Chris Ramirez responded: “Can you really be under the influence of birth control pills?”
According to the Physician’s Desk Reference, which city officials had suggested the Journal consult, Lamictal “may cause blurred vision or impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be alert and able to see clearly.”
It is used to treat epilepsy and seizure disorders.
Walck, a 38-year veteran of APD who ran against Darren White in the 2002 Republican primary for Bernalillo County sheriff, has retained a lawyer because he says he fears he’s being set up for retaliation by the city administration.
Darren White has “expressed concerns about the conduct of certain city personnel at the scene,” according to a statement released Monday by the mayor’s office.
Walck’s attorney, Brian A. Thomas, shot back on Tuesday with concerns of his own.
“With the open investigation that was talked about in the Journal this morning, and given some of the things that are going on that have not been made public yet, we have significant concerns about retaliation against Officer Walck,” Thomas said in an interview Tuesday morning. “My personal guess is that this will end up in federal court.”
Thomas declined to discuss specifics.
Mayor Richard Berry has ordered an investigation into the incident by the city’s independent review office.
According to police officials, Walck did not conduct a DWI investigation, nor did he request a drug recognition expert at the crash scene. Police Chief Ray Schultz said during the news conference that no DWI investigation was conducted because it appears there wouldn’t have been probable cause to do.
City officials held the news conference, in part, to address “anonymous” allegations that Kathleen White had been intoxicated and that her husband acted improperly, criticizing the news media for their coverage of the claims. They also announced the investigation into the incident “from A to Z.”
The police report was Walck’s second attempt at filing one – Schultz said his first report was rejected Monday morning due to some omissions, mistakes and grammatical errors. Both reports were released to the public.
The mayor’s office had said Monday that Walck refused his commander’s order to file a report last week.
Ramirez did not return a later telephone call seeking comment about Thomas’ retaliation claims.
Darren White said in an interview Tuesday that he has some “history” with Walck, but declined to provide specifics. “I will share that information with the IRO,” he said.
Walck has a turbulent history with APD.
He is named as a plaintiff in five different lawsuits against the city and another against the Albuquerque Police Officers Association.
On two separate occasions, once in 1984 and again in 1986, Walck was fired from the department. Both times he got his job back after court battles of two and six years, respectively.
On Monday, the Whites released a copy of a toxicology report from Presbyterian Hospital. The report, which was based on blood tests conducted about five hours after the crash, showed that Kathleen White tested negative for several prescription and illegal drugs. It is unclear from the results whether she was tested for the drugs she told Walck and paramedics she was taking.
Deputy District Attorney Mark Drebing, speaking generally and not about Kathleen White’s case, said there’s a difference between a blood test conducted at a hospital and one conducted by law enforcement officers who are investigating a suspected DWI case.
Police officers are trained to call in a drug recognition expert, who determines through a series of specialized field sobriety tests whether there is probable cause to draw someone’s blood, Drebing said.
Once the blood is drawn, he said, it is treated as evidence and sent to the State Laboratory Division of the Department of Public Safety for testing. Those tests are conducted solely to determine the presence of drugs in the blood.
“Hospitals don’t go through the same process,” Drebing said. “Hospitals are looking more to determine health risks, if a person has overdosed, etc.”
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal
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