Bernalillo County sheriff touts reforms after deputies prosecuted

Over several months in 2020 and 2021, Bernalillo County deputies Kyle Linker and Paul Jessen Jr. — who served on a federal task force — were commended by their superiors and a highly respected federal agent for taking down drug traffickers.

“They continue to provide a stellar example of teamwork and collaboration between Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office personnel and Federal Taskforce Officers,” a supervisor wrote in June 2021, adding that the pair’s work is what is “envisioned when thinking of optimal partnerships between BCSO and federal agencies.” They were subsequently awarded top non-uniformed deputies of the quarter by then-Sheriff Manny Gonzales.

But within months, according to federal prosecutors, the pair began actively working to obstruct the Drug Enforcement Administration from busting one of Linker’s informants — a drug trafficker in the North Valley. Ultimately, the informant alerted the DEA and began working with federal officials in the investigation of the deputies as early as November 2021.

This week, Linker, 33, pleaded guilty to a felony obstruction of justice/aiding and abetting charge in thwarting the DEA investigation. He resigned in 2022. Jessen, 34, is facing charges of obstruction, conspiracy and lying to the FBI. Both were released on their own recognizance.

Sheriff John Allen, who became sheriff in January 2023, said at a news conference on Thursday he wasn’t with the department when the alleged “obstruction” occurred but has learned from limited details about the federal investigation that their alleged actions “crossed the line, and it shouldn’t have gone that far.”

“This is serious,” Allen said, adding that he regrets not being informed by federal officials until recently of the details of what occurred and what the deputies were accused of.

Allen said he has taken steps, some just after he took office, to ensure far more oversight of sheriff’s detectives who work drug cases by attaching them to federal task forces where they will not be acting on their own.

“I believe with the protocol and safety safeguards that we have in place currently, I don’t believe this would happen again,” he said.

There has been no explanation why the pair of deputies would risk potentially stellar careers to tip off an informant, a Los Ranchos drug trafficker, about the DEA’s plan to search his home in November 2021.

There are no allegations that either deputy received any financial benefit or remuneration for doing so.

The BCSO detectives wanted to keep the informant as their own; the DEA took actions to try to arrest him on federal charges. Now the informant is awaiting sentencing on federal drug charges.

A DEA spokesman did not respond to several questions from the Journal.

Allen said on Thursday that the alleged obstruction occurred during the Gonzales administration, when both detectives served on a now-disbanded sheriff’s Community Action Team. The team of four to five deputies handled a variety of cases, including narcotics, property crimes and gangs.

Allen said even as sheriff-elect, he wanted to dissolve that team and did so in January 2023 because of issues he had learned with how the team operated.

“I didn’t feel, as the current sheriff, that there were enough safeguards put into place,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I wanted there to be far more oversight.”

He said he never worked with Linker, but considered Jessen an asset to the agency.

“Detective Jessen has been a great deputy for us,” Allen said. “It’s very surprising when his name did come up. But like I said, anything can happen.”

Jessen, who became a deputy in 2012, was placed on administrative leave on Wednesday after the indictment against him was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Linker joined the agency in 2015.

Allen said as sheriff-elect in late 2022, he was notified and given “some small details” about the allegations involving the DEA and the informant. By that time, Linker had already resigned. Jessen was placed on administrative leave in March 2022, but Allen, after he became sheriff, brought him back to work light duty in July 2023.

Since then, Allen said he didn’t have enough information to make a “personnel decision” about Jessen despite his contacting the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Texas, which was overseeing the prosecution after New Mexico federal prosecutors recused their office.

“We had no real inkling completely what we were dealing with. We had a gist of what was going on, so I felt that we could place him back in the field. ... I can’t work with something that I don’t know, and that’s why I’m a little frustrated.”

Allen said he plans an internal affairs investigation, but that will be put off pending the outcome of the criminal cases.

Allen said the sheriff’s office will be teaming detectives with federal task forces managed by agencies such as the FBI and DEA, which offer more training to sheriff’s detectives and supervision of their activities.

Back in May 2020, Jessen was assigned to the Albuquerque FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force, according to Allen.

Later that year, FBI Special Agent Bryan Acee — well respected in law enforcement circles for dismantling New Mexico gangs — called deputies Linker and Jessen “superior detectives and a pleasure to work with” after a large drug bust in Albuquerque, according to a letter obtained by the Journal through a public records request.

“We would not ask for a better group of professional investigators to work with,” Acee wrote in a December 2020 commendation letter to BCSO leadership.

A sheriff’s sergeant forwarded Acee’s commendation, writing in another letter obtained by the Journal that Linker, with the Community Action Team, gave Jessen information on a drug trafficker and “began a cooperative investigation at that time.”

“The successful results of this operation show the great value in such cooperative efforts,” sheriff’s Sgt. Kyle Woods wrote. “There was no ‘small’ role. Every moving part depended upon the other.”

In June 2021, BCSO Sgt. Ryan Schmidt commended the pair again for a case involving a separate drug trafficker.

“Their teamwork, thorough investigations, and ability to work and coordinate with others represented the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in an exemplary fashion,” Schmidt wrote.

In that case also, Schmidt wrote, Linker identified a drug trafficker who “met the criteria” for federal charges. Jessen, a FBI task force member, became co-case agent with Linker, and both coordinated with Acee.

Schmidt wrote the pair “did an incredible job in gathering information, communicating and coordinating with others.”

Schmidt recommended the pair be awarded “non-uniform deputy of the quarter,” which was given to both on July 13.

According to Linker’s plea agreement, he and Jessen met another drug trafficker around that time and enlisted him as an informant.

When Linker found out the DEA was coming after the informant, he warned the man and foiled the initial bust, according to the plea agreement. The DEA became suspicious and then used the informant to gather evidence against both deputies.

The plea agreement states Linker was placed on leave by BCSO after the allegations surfaced, and he told Jessen to contact the informant to find out if the man was cooperating with the DEA.

By January 2022, Jessen allegedly lied to the FBI when questioned on the matter, saying he “had no personal knowledge” that Linker had obstructed the DEA’s investigation.

It took more than two years after that for the pair to be criminally charged in the case.

Allen said, going forward, he plans to continue to make improvements and increase accountability to the public. And he says he believes the sheriff’s office and its federal law enforcement partners are on great terms these days.

“I am in charge now,” he said. “I don’t blame it on anybody else. They want solutions, and that’s what I’m here for.”