Emailed tip from 2022 surfaces alleging DWI corruption on part of Bernalillo County deputy

A tipster came forward in the fall of 2022 with a sensational accusation of a crime: A man arrested for aggravated drunken driving two years earlier had paid a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy $10,000 to get his criminal case dismissed.

The tipster asked to remain anonymous in sending the email, which was forwarded to BCSO Lt. Aaron Williamson and two other DWI unit supervisors. Within hours, Williamson sent the email, complete with the citizen’s email address, to the accused deputy, Jeffrey Hammerel, then a 12-year BCSO veteran who spent most of his time working in the DWI unit.

A BCSO spokesperson said Friday that the agency ruled the accusation was “unfounded” some time after receiving the tip, which came during the end of the administration of then-Sheriff Manny Gonzales. She said Gonzales’ successor, current Sheriff John Allen, was notified by Williamson, but she wouldn’t say when.

Earlier this year, Hammerel was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice as a participant in a DWI bribery scheme that went back to the mid-1990s, devised by prominent Albuquerque defense attorney Thomas Clear III and his paralegal, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez. Federal authorities allege that law enforcement officers with the Albuquerque Police Department, BCSO and New Mexico State Police took bribes from Clear and Mendez to enable the defense to get DWIs dismissed.

In pleading guilty to the charges, Hammerel stated he had participated in the scheme since 2017 and conspired with a “supervisory BCSO deputy” to do so. Hammerel resigned in February and has yet to be sentenced in federal court.

He is the only sheriff’s deputy to be charged in the investigation so far.

The covert scheme first became public in January 2024 after FBI agents raided the homes of several APD officers, Clear’s law office and Mendez’s home. Eventually, with the conspirators pleading guilty, the breadth of the scheme widened as BCSO deputies and at least one State Police officer were alleged to have taken part and lost their jobs.

Jayme Gonzales, BCSO spokeswoman, said the tip received in 2022 “came well before the federal investigation became public, and no one involved could have known the magnitude of what was about to unfold.” She said staff acted appropriately “with the information available to them at the time.”

The September 2022 email, which was obtained by the Journal last week, was one of the earliest known tips from the public about the massive decades-long bribery scheme and the first such tip to involve a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy. Though the DWI defendant was different, the tip was similar to one sent to an APD Internal Affairs commander several months earlier.

Questions linger

How the Sheriff’s Office handled the bribery allegation, which the tip said happened in July 2020, and the unusual practice of sending the email to the accused within hours of its receipt has shed new light on BCSO’s methods of investigating its own.

On Friday, BCSO spokesperson Gonzales wouldn’t say why the tip was ruled “unfounded” nor why the matter apparently was not investigated by the agency’s Internal Affairs department. She also did not answer questions about why Williamson almost immediately forwarded the tip to the deputy being accused or say if that was common practice then or now.

“After receiving the tip, Lt. Williamson, along with the unit’s Sergeant and Captain, reviewed the information and referenced case file. The case was from two years prior,” Gonzales said in response to Journal questions. “And after their collective review, no irregularities or suspicious activity were identified.

“The matter was deemed unfounded at the time, and the team’s actions reflected the reasonable judgment and protocol expected for such tips, which are evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on the circumstances and credibility of the information.”

She added that while it was unknown “whether the matter ultimately rose to the level of the Sheriff’s attention, it was handled through the proper supervisory chain at the time.”

At the time, Sheriff Gonzales was still in office but barred from seeking a third term. After winning the November 2022 election, Allen appointed Williamson to a top job as a BCSO undersheriff.

On Friday, the BCSO said it wouldn’t make Williamson available for a Journal interview. Nor would the agency say when Allen learned of the 2022 tip involving Hammerel, other than to say that Williamson informed him about it.

“Upon being briefed by Undersheriff Williamson about the historical email, Sheriff Allen provided the information to our federal partners to assist in their investigation,” Gonzales, the spokesperson, said.

BCSO would not answer other Journal follow-up questions.

“As this remains part of an ongoing federal investigation, we will not be commenting further or providing additional interviews at this time,” she said. “Sheriff Allen has been clear from day one: any employee found to have participated in, known about, or ignored the DWI corruption scheme will not remain with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.”

She said since taking office, Allen has been “implementing reforms focused on accountability and rebuilding public trust across the agency.”

Aside from Hammerel, two other BCSO deputies have come under fire after Allen alluded to them being tied to the scheme, former Undersheriff Johann Jareno and Deputy Jeffry Bartram. Allen did not elaborate on any alleged involvement in the scheme by Jareno, only to say Jareno had been interviewed by the FBI in relation to the criminal conspiracy.

Jareno resigned on Feb. 24 of this year.

A month later, Allen placed Bartram on paid leave after Allen said he “received information” from the FBI. Neither Bartram nor Jareno has been charged, and federal authorities have not publicly hinted at any wrongdoing from either.

Federal prosecutors alleged, in Hammerel’s criminal case, that Mendez contacted “persons in authority at BCSO, including a supervisory BCSO deputy,” to ensure that officers in the conspiracy, including Hammerel, “would not get in trouble for failing to appear at required (court) settings.”

That supervisory deputy wasn’t identified in federal court records.

The scheme

The Journal last week verified the identity of the tipster, and the Albuquerque man whose aggravated DWI and other charges were dismissed in early 2021. Both declined to comment. Hammerel couldn’t be reached for comment and his defense attorney in the case didn’t return a phone message last week.

The scheme, according to federal authorities, saw law enforcement routing DWI suspects through various means to Clear and Mendez. In exchange, Clear and Mendez would give them cash, gifts and legal services for intentionally failing to show up to court proceedings or by withholding evidence. Clear would then file motions to dismiss the charges, typically granted by Metro Court judges.

In his plea, Hammerel said he had committed the scheme at least twice, in December 2021 and May 2022, during separate DWI arrests. He said he was paid by Clear and Mendez to not show up for court and both cases were dismissed.

The DWI case referenced in the citizen’s email tip was not mentioned in the federal charges. Court records show that case was dismissed in January 2021 after Clear filed a motion to dismiss because Hammerel “was unable to access his police report” due to computer issues.

The tip to BCSO stemmed from a July 2020 traffic stop.

Hammerel was called to do a sobriety test on a suspected drunken driver who had been traveling without his truck’s headlights on. The man told the deputy he had taken his prescribed pain medication earlier in the day and declined to take a breathalyzer.

The suspect was initially assigned a public defender, but months later Clear became his defense attorney, according to court records. In January 2021, Clear filed a motion to suppress the testimony of Hammerel, or dismiss the case.

In the motion, Clear states Hammerel “did not wish to be interviewed without access to a review of his report.” Five days later, Metropolitan Court Judge Maria Dominguez dismissed the case without prejudice, suppressing Hammerel’s testimony.

The tip

It wasn’t until more than a year later that an email was sent to a BCSO administrative support technician. The email included a screenshot of the suspect’s online booking page from the 2020 DWI arrest.

The page listed Hammerel as “arresting officer.”

The tipster wrote in the email, “Hello, I received a tip regarding a person who supposedly Bribed/Paid off an officer $10,000 not to show up to court so his case would be dismissed.”

“I need this to be anonymous even though you have my email address. Normally I would not get involved in something like this,” according to the email.

The tipster wrote “I was told by a very reliable source that this did happen... I’m very nervous about doing this.”

Within minutes of receiving the email, the BCSO support technician forwarded it to Williamson and CC’d John McCauley and David Funes, Hammerel’s supervisors at the time. That evening, Williamson forwarded the email — with no additions to the subject line, body or apparent redactions — to Hammerel.

The support technician on Friday told the Journal she had no recollection of receiving the citizen’s email.