Albuquerque police deputy commander on leave amid probe into DWI corruption

The Albuquerque Police Department placed a deputy commander on leave — months after he took the position — in relation to an alleged corruption case involving DWI officers.

APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Deputy Cmdr. Gustavo Gomez, with APD’s Internal Affairs Force Division, was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday as APD, and separately, the FBI, investigates “allegations of (wrongdoing) by DWI officers.”

Gallegos said Gomez was named deputy commander of the Internal Affairs Force Division in January and has been with APD since 2008. He said Gomez, like the majority of APD personnel targeted in the investigation, was a DWI officer, from 2010 to 2013.

APD is conducting an internal probe as the FBI does a criminal investigation into the allegations, which point to a yearslong scheme in which DWI officers took kickbacks from a local attorney and paralegal in exchange for not filing the citations in court or for failing to appear in court on drunken driving cases.

In all, 10 officers — including supervisors and a former APD spokesman — have been placed on paid administrative leave in APD’s probe. Since then, seven have resigned, two have retired and one was fired by the department.

The investigation became public in January after FBI agents searched several officers’ homes and the law office of prominent defense attorney Thomas Clear and his paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.

Those search warrants remain sealed, and nobody has been charged in the investigation.

Parallel to the criminal investigation, APD created an internal affairs task force to conduct all administrative investigations into alleged misconduct by current or past members of the DWI Unit. The findings of the inquiry will be submitted to the Superintendent of Police Reform to determine whether APD policies were followed.

In the fallout of the investigation and because the officers’ credibility potentially could be questioned, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office dismissed nearly 200 DWI cases that had been filed and were pending at the time of the FBI searches.