Suspect ‘Was A Good Cop’

Retired State Police officer Arlen Norby was stunned to learn that a former fellow officer and friend has been accused of the 2011 murder of a Rio Rancho man.

“I was shocked to know that he was involved,” Norby said of Jack McDowell, who was arrested along with his son, John McDowell, this week. They are charged with the killing of 35-year-old James Chavez.

“He (Jack McDowell) was a good cop, a conscientious officer, a family man and a friend,” Norby said in a telephone interview.

Jack McDowell and Norby are both retired from the New Mexico State Police. McDowell was Norby’s training officer when both worked in the Grants substation about 25 years ago, Norby said.

Jack McDowell, 56, and his son, John McDowell, 35, made their first appearance in Sandoval County Magistrate Court on Wednesday, and are slated to be arraigned within 10 days in 13th Judicial District Court, District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said on Thursday.

The father and son will each be charged with an open count of murder, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence, Martinez said.

“This is so very sad to read and to believe,” said Norby’s wife, Ann. “For Jack to go from upholding the law to (being) accused of murder does not make sense to me.”

Authorities have not cited a possible motive in the case, and have sealed records and documents connected to it.

Arlen Norby said he and McDowell worked in Grants as patrol officers for about five years, beginning around 1978.

“He was a good guy. We went hunting together. We hung out on our off-duty times, and his kids and mine were about the same age, so they played together,” Norby said.

After McDowell and his first wife divorced, he seemed to change, Norby said. Several years later when Norby worked with Rio Rancho police, he ran into McDowell at a supermarket.

“To be honest, he had changed quite a bit. He had the biker look,” said Norby, who now works with a private security firm in Maricopa, Ariz., where he now lives.

“I didn’t recognize him at first,” Norby said. “After that, we had our concerns about what had happened to him.”

Both McDowells have had past encounters with authorities, according to online court records. Jack McDowell pleaded guilty to drug charges in 2002, while John McDowell faced assault, gun and burglary charges in 2004.

Chavez was found dead on July 10, 2011, in his home on Idaho Creed Road in Rio Rancho. The arrests of the McDowells came after an exhaustive 18-month investigation by Rio Rancho police detectives.
— This article appeared on page 19 of the Albuquerque Journal