Albuquerque police lieutenant, officers being investigated by FBI identified

An Albuquerque police lieutenant and four officers being investigated by the FBI in connection with years of corruption related to DWI cases have been identified.

The Journal has learned, through court records and property searches, that Lt. Justin Hunt and officers Honorio Alba Jr., Joshua Montaño, Harvey Johnson Jr. and Nelson Ortiz are those under federal scrutiny.

None of the men has been charged, and no arrests have been made in the ongoing investigation by the FBI.

The allegations involve the dismissals of DWI cases filed in Bernalillo County’s Metro Court over at least the past decade and involve a group of current and former DWI-unit officers, at least one Albuquerque defense attorney and his paralegal.

Hunt is on administrative assignment, and the other four are on paid administrative leave.

Albuquerque Police Department officials have not identified the officers or detailed the nature of the alleged scheme, but said all five are also facing an investigation by the Internal Affairs division.

The FBI also has been tight-lipped about the particulars of the case, and APD officials told the Journal on Tuesday they have received only limited information.

Hunt and Montaño both declined to comment to the Journal on Wednesday. Johnson Jr. and Alba Jr. did not return calls for comment, and Ortiz could not be reached.

On Jan. 18, FBI agents searched the homes of Johnson and Alba in Los Lunas and Edgewood, respectively. They also searched the law office of prominent defense attorney Thomas Clear III and the home of Clear’s paralegal, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.

Within hours of the searches, the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced the dismissal of more than 100 misdemeanor DWI cases. A Journal analysis of the 152 cases dismissed so far found that 136, or nearly 90%, were filed by four of the officers on leave.

Alba was responsible for 67 of the cases; Montaño had 41; and Johnson was listed as the arresting officer on 28. Ortiz was listed as the arresting officer on five of the dismissed cases.

All four officers were added to the District Attorney’s Giglio disclosure list, which names law enforcement personnel deemed untrustworthy to testify.

APD Chief Harold Medina told the Journal on Tuesday that the department caught wind of an alleged scheme in December 2022 after overhearing a conversation about it that involved one of the officers now under scrutiny. Medina said the details weren’t accurate and the lead didn’t materialize into a full-fledged investigation.

In October, Medina said, a similar allegation came up in court, leading APD to open a probe into the officers and other players in the criminal justice system. He said that’s when he learned the FBI was already doing its own investigation.

“In the end, the FBI and I spoke and I said, ‘Look, we’re looking at the same thing. Let’s work together,’” Medina said. Nevertheless, he said FBI officials kept many details of the case “close to their chest.” The two agencies began to work together to some degree, he added.

The officers

• Lt. Justin Hunt was the second-highest paid city employee in 2022, earning more than $217,000. Hunt, who lives in Rio Rancho, had left the DWI unit and, most recently, was a lieutenant in the Southeast area command.

• Honorio Alba Jr., senior police officer, was one of more than a dozen officers who made more than $124,000 in 2022. In August, MADD recognized Alba as Outstanding Urban DWI Officer for New Mexico. APD noted the award on its Instagram, writing, “Officer Alba is 1 out of 50 recipients of the award. Thank you for your hard work and dedicated service!”

• Joshua Montaño, senior police officer, made headlines in July 2022 when a drunken driver ran a red light and hit his car as he left work — putting him through multiple surgeries and a stint in rehabilitation. Before that, Montaño made the news for two high-profile DWI stops: the May 2017 arrest of Ryan Flynn, Gov. Susana Martinez’s former secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department, and the 2018 arrest of former Albuquerque legislator Monica Youngblood. In 2021, Montaño made a recruitment video for APD, saying he loved the prevention aspect of his job on the DWI unit. He said in the video, “knowing that person is impaired and being able to stop them and safely get them off the road is the thing I love most about this job.”

• Harvey Johnson Jr., senior police officer, who lives in Los Lunas, was a subject of a 2020 article written by his wife, Alyssa, about her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article discussed living with a police officer who was required to continue working with the public when many businesses were shuttered because his profession was deemed essential. The post appeared on abqmom.com.

• Nelson Ortiz, senior police officer, was in a KRQE news story in January 2020 after he arrested two men who were driving drunk and drag racing on Montgomery. In lapel video shared with the news story, Ortiz told one of the men, who could barely stand, “You could have killed somebody out there. You think that’s funny?”