‘World-Class Jerk’ Is Back In Jail

Remember him? Back in 2008, I wrote about the 44-year-old ponytailed manager of Alliance Drug Testing in Albuquerque who was accused of terrorizing a female job applicant during a particularly creepy and intimidating interview for a “personal assistant” position that, as he envisioned it, would be on her knees, very personally assisting him.

He was convicted of misdemeanor assault in August that year, laughing in Metro Court as his accuser tearfully testified about the smarmy horror he had put her through.

He appealed the conviction to state District Court, where in September 2009 he lost and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, plus 150 more in community custody.

It wasn’t much, but there was a modicum of hope that it was enough to end Bice’s string of dubious encounters with women, which began — at least as far as I can trace through court records — with charges of forcible sodomy and soliciting prostitutes in Virginia Beach, Va., in the early 1990s and continuing to 1998 when, as a manager at First Choice Community Health Care in Albuquerque, he interviewed and, according to a criminal complaint, groped a 16-year-old female job applicant.

A jury hung in that case.

Two other women had accused Bice of making inappropriate comments to them during job interviews at First Choice, although those allegations resulted in his leaving the job, not criminal charges, court documents say.

But, alas, Bice’s short jail stint in 2009 wasn’t his last.

On Dec. 19, he was arrested on charges of bribery and tampering with evidence — both fourth-degree felonies. He is accused of offering to alter the results of a blood test for a DWI suspect in exchange for sex — with her and her friend.

Bice remains in the Metropolitan Detention Center with bail set at $50,000, cash only.

BICE: Faces two felony charges

Bice, I suspect, isn’t laughing anymore.

And this time, his troubles may just be beginning.

“We’re looking into the possibility that there may be more victims,” Albuquerque police spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “Due to the propensity of the circumstances in the case, the probability of more victims is high.”

Which the women who have called to tell me that they, too, had unsavory, scary, criminal encounters with Bice, have known all along.

Last October, a woman caller related how Bice told her she had failed a drug test (she hadn’t) but that he was willing to fudge the results in exchange for sexual favors.

The woman refused.

Earlier this week, the woman told me she filed a police report and never heard anything more.

She will now, police said.

As for the current DWI case, that woman said she was arrested Nov. 18 for drunken driving after failing a breath test but, as allowed by law, was given the opportunity to take an independent blood test to be used later in court if she could find a blood tech willing to come out.

She found Bice in the phone book.

According to the criminal complaint, Bice showed up at the Prison Transport Center Downtown, took two vials of her blood and left.

The woman said Bice called her Dec. 16 and told her there were discrepancies in the test and that she would have to come down to the Alliance office to “work something out.”

Although it was late, she agreed, taking along a friend.

Bice, according to the complaint, admonished the women not to tell anybody about the meeting. It was the first of several occurrences the woman found weird, she told police.

According to the complaint, Bice made her park on the side of the office at 120 Madeira NE. He locked the door behind them. He separated the women into two rooms, one that was nothing more than a closet with a chair, and asked the friend to leave her purse behind in a separate waiting room — a request she refused. He told the woman with the DWI charge that she might have to come back several times for additional blood tests, that she needed to stick around until the vials of her blood reached room temperature.

The complaint continues: She was a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders, he told her. She needed her job. She needed a better blood test result, and he could do that even if it meant switching her blood out for her friend’s. He would take no money for his services, because that would be a bribe and illegal.

But they could work something out.

The woman said Bice left her in the room several times. Both women said they realized later that every time he left he was going to the room where the other was and offering her the same proposition to help her friend.

On Dec. 18, a day after the woman had gone to police, she returned to the Alliance office, where once again Bice offered to fudge the test result in exchange for sex, as he had done for other women, the complaint says.

A call to Alliance, which Bice now owns, this week was answered by a woman who said the office is closed until Jan. 10.

That may be a bit optimistic.

But jerks have a knack for skating through the system unscathed. It remains to be seen whether this time for Bice will be any different.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal