Bernalillo County undersheriff blasts Albuquerque police investigation of deputy crash as 'embarrassing'

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office aired some grievances Wednesday about the way the Albuquerque Police Department handled the investigation into a fatal crash involving one of its deputies.

And BCSO Undersheriff Johann Jareno said the agency may seek to have APD removed from such cases in the future.

The strong words came after APD recently released its investigative report into the Aug. 6 crash involving deputy Bryan Lassley that left Alexandria Gerard, 43, dead in the North Valley.

Jareno called APD’s report “borderline embarrassing,” taking particular issue with the detective noting BCSO policy violations, which, Jareno said, is not in “their purview.”

“I’m starting to be very suspicious, to the point that we are not going to use APD for our investigation of our personnel at all,” he told the Journal. “... It’s almost to me, to be honest with you, that they’re trying to just make us look bad.”

An APD spokesman batted away Jareno’s claims, saying the detective reviewed BCSO pursuit policy “to determine whether the deputy’s statements during his interview justified his actions under state statute.”

Jareno said the detective, whose report he described as “a lot of fluff and use of words without actual evidence,” was also “absolutely incorrect” to cite Lassley’s “speed alone” as grounds for a reckless driving charge.

“If that was the case, then everybody who’s driving 20 miles over the speed limit will be going to jail because of reckless driving,” he said.

Jareno said the detective also didn’t include data from the car Gerard drove the way it was included from Lassley’s SUV. He also said the APD detective had only been with the traffic unit for a year.

He said “nearly every” district court in the state refused to take the case, starting with the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, due to the poor quality of the detective’s report.

Nancy Laflin, a spokeswoman for the 2nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said the report had nothing to do with it. In what is common practice, they “conflicted out” the case to the 1st Judicial District “because we work with APD and BCSO,” she said.

Jareno said after the criminal investigation is completed, BCSO will conduct an internal probe into the crash to determine policy violations.

“It could very well be that the criminal case goes through and no criminal aspect is found,” he said. “Then we do an internal affairs investigation and we find that several policies were violated, that’s perfectly possible.”

In response to Jareno’s critiques, APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said the report “did not rely only on speeding” for the potential charge of reckless driving. He said the data from Gerard’s car, a 2004 Honda, could not be accessed due to the vehicle’s age and the detective, while new to traffic, was with APD since 2013.

Gallegos said the report was also reviewed through APD’s higher-ups before it was submitted to the District Attorney’s Office for possible charges.

“BCSO investigators also shadowed the investigation. Ultimately, it will be up to a prosecutor to decide what, if any, charges should be brought,” Gallegos said.