Report on APD fatal crash complete; officials won’t release it

Bernalillo County Sheriff’s investigators have completed their report on a Feb. 10 two-vehicle crash in which an APD sergeant drove through a red light on Albuquerque’s West Side and t-boned an SUV, killing that vehicle’s 21-year-old passenger.

But in a news release issued shortly after 5 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office directed “all questions pertaining to this case” to the District Attorney’s Office. The release did not include a copy of the report.

Reached by phone, DA Kari Brandenburg confirmed that she has received the report. But she described it as an “open file pertaining to a pending criminal case in our office” and declined to release the report.

Deputy Aaron Williamson, the sheriff’s spokesman, responded to a Journal email request for comment this way: “The case is pending review at the DA’s office. Until they have reviewed the case it will not be released. I will provide updates as they become available.”

Read previous Journal coverage of the crash — which involved APD Sgt. Adam Casaus and sisters Ashley Browder, who was killed, and Lindsay Browder, who was seriously injured — here and here.

And here is the full text of this afternoon’s BCSO news release:

“Sheriff Dan Houston confirmed today that Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department Traffic Investigators have completed more than a month long investigation into the February 10, 2013 fatal crash that involved APD Sergeant Adam Casaus. The multi-agency report has been turned over to the District Attorney’s Office for review and disposition. As such, all questions pertaining to this case must be addressed through the District Attorney’s Office.”