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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Saturday, April 23, 2011
City Taxpayers Stuck With Ex-Cop's Big Tab
There are a lot of people without jobs in New Mexico. About 176,000 despite a recent improvement in the numbers. Until Monday, that number of unemployed didn't include Levi Chavez.
Because Chavez was a union-dues paying member of the Albuquerque Police Department, he not only kept his job for 3 1/2 years while under investigation in the death of his wife, he got two raises.
Chavez's wife, Tera Chavez, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the mouth in the couple's Los Lunas home on Oct. 22, 2007. Chavez was placed on leave soon after and continued to collect his $19 an hour salary for 19 months. In August 2009, he was sent back to work, assigned through APD to the Animal Welfare Department, where he got a raise to $23.15 an hour to go on ride-alongs with animal control officers and pick up dead animals. In Jan. 2010 he got a raise to $25.80 an hour for that job.
And when all city workers took a pay cut last year because of the tough economy, Chavez was busted down — to a paltry $25.18 an hour.
Even being indicted for murder and evidence tampering April 7 just got him back on paid leave. It took not showing up at an employment hearing this week to finally get Chavez off the taxpayers' payroll.
Now that the criminal investigation is done, APD can finally conduct an internal investigation into purported wrongdoing by Chavez and four or more of his fellow officers, who showed up at the scene back in 2007 to either take control of it and tamper with evidence or simply console a comrade. And while Chavez has maintained his innocence throughout the investigation, the bottom line is this:
Employment regulations made firing Chavez before he was indicted a potentially dicey and costly proposition. Meanwhile, taxpayers shelled out more than $155,000 in pay to a cop who wasn't working as a cop, $230,000 to the family of his dead wife to settle a wrongful death suit, and $450,000 to defend him. That's $835,000.
Meanwhile, around 176,000 New Mexicans are still trying to get a paycheck.
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