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Albuquerque attorney suspended until at least April 7
Published
Modified
The state Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 4-1 to temporarily suspend the law license of Albuquerque attorney Rudolph Chavez over allegations linking him to an ongoing federal DWI bribery case.
The court set an April 7 hearing to listen to oral arguments on a petition from the Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court seeking the suspension.
The petition states the board is conducting an ethics investigation into Chavez’s alleged role in the near 30-year criminal conspiracy that so far has led to the convictions of six people, including four former law enforcement officers. Chavez has not been criminally charged.
The court order stated that Supreme Court Justice Michael Vigil dissented “only with respect to suspension prior to the hearing.”
Chavez filed a response to the petition on Monday denying any involvement in the criminal conspiracy led by former Albuquerque attorney Thomas Clear III. Clear, with an assistant, paid off DWI officers to sabotage DWI prosecutions so offenders who hired Clear would go free.
Chavez is alleged to be one of the co-conspirator attorneys mentioned in plea agreements recently filed in the federal cases of former Albuquerque police officer Honorio Alba Jr., and Clear’s assistant and investigator, Ricardo Mendez.
“Given the length and nature of the enterprise and the allegations against (Chavez), as well as the hundreds of dismissed DWI criminal cases as a result of the enterprise, the continued practice of law by (Chavez) will result in the substantial probability of harm, loss or damage to the public,” the disciplinary board petition states.
Chavez, who served as an assistant county attorney from 1989 to 1993, started his own firm in 1993. He practices criminal and civil law.
To date, more than 269 DWI cases have been dismissed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office because they were filed by the officers with the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office under investigation.
