Chief federal judge asks DWI lawyer to explain his alleged conduct

New Mexico’s chief federal judge this week ordered prominent DWI attorney Thomas Clear III to show why he should not be disciplined for his alleged role in a racketeering scheme involving bribery and kickbacks to a group of Albuquerque police officers and others.

Clear’s former investigator, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, 53, pleaded guilty a week ago after admitting he helped orchestrate the scheme with law enforcement officers who would refer arrested drunken drivers to Mendez and Clear and subsequently help Clear get the cases dismissed in court. The suspects would pay higher than usual legal fees to Clear, and the officers received cash, gift cards, free legal services and other perks in exchange for not filing required paperwork or missing DWI hearings, Mendez said in his plea agreement.

Clear, who has not been criminally charged, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. Court records show he has been practicing in federal court in New Mexico since at least 1998, when he represented Mendez on federal criminal drug charges related to the smuggling of a kilo of cocaine. With Clear as his attorney, Mendez’s charges were ultimately dismissed months later by federal prosecutors.

Some 25 years later, Mendez was working as Clear’s investigator when the FBI launched a criminal investigation in 2023 into what has now been dubbed the “DWI Enterprise.” Mendez, who pleaded guilty to bribery, conspiracy and extortion, told federal authorities the scheme spanned at least 15 years, court records state.

Chief U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales in an order Wednesday cited Mendez’s plea and news media coverage about the allegations in notifying Clear that the statements, if true, “indicate Mr. Clear may have violated a New Mexico Rule of Professional Conduct” that pertains to professional misconduct by a lawyer.

“Given the nature of Mr. Clear’s apparent conduct and the potential for undermining the public’s confidence in the Court, the Court orders Mr. Clear to show cause why suspension, disbarment or other discipline is not appropriate,” Gonzales wrote in his order.

Gonzales noted that federal case law recognizes that the federal district court in New Mexico has “inherent supervisory power” over the conduct of attorneys who practice in federal court, and noted that federal judges in New Mexico “have an obligation to enforce high standards of conduct...”

Attorneys subject to disciplinary proceedings are entitled to procedural due process, the judge noted.

“Mr. Clear may request that the undersigned appoint a panel of Judges to review his response to this order and to conduct a hearing to determine whether suspension, disbarment or other discipline is appropriate,” Gonzales wrote. If Clear doesn’t make that request, Gonzales stated that he will review Clear’s response and make that determination.

If Gonzales or the panel decides a hearing isn’t necessary, Clear is ordered to furnish “all the materials Mr. Clear wishes (Gonzales) or the Panel to consider.” The judge gave Clear 30 days to respond in writing, and two weeks if he is charged with a crime.

Clear resigned as the chair of the state’s Public Defender Commission and stopped representing DWI clients when the FBI investigation came to light and his law office was searched a year ago.

Though the alleged racketeering scheme focused on misdemeanor DWI cases, Clear also has been practicing in U.S. District Court. He represented mostly defendants facing drug charges, but also filed several civil lawsuits against APD. One involved a female DWI officer who alleged harassment by a supervisor.

In February 1998, Mendez was one of four defendants arrested after U.S. Border Patrol agents at a southern New Mexico immigration checkpoint discovered a kilo of cocaine inside a car. He was accused of being the driver of a different vehicle that pulled up to a motel in Albuquerque to receive the cocaine and was arrested on federal drug charges along with two others.

By October of that year, federal prosecutors dismissed charges against Mendez. The dismissal motion states, “The United States is currently investigating information provided by the defendant which, if true, could exonerate the defendant.”

Five years earlier, Mendez and his mother, Elsa Ramos, were charged federally with attempting to board a Continental Airlines plane in Albuquerque with a suitcase containing 24 pounds of marijuana. That case was dismissed after Mendez and Ramos pleaded guilty to the same offense in state district court, court records state.

It wasn’t clear what happened if there was a state prosecution. There is no public record of either defendant pleading guilty to the state charges. There is mention in one court filing that those records were subject to automatic expungement in 2022.