Former APD sergeant pleads guilty in bribery scheme

A former Albuquerque Police Department sergeant has pleaded guilty to taking cash payments in exchange for missing court hearings in DWI cases.

In one case, former APD Sgt. Louis A. Henckel III accepted money to skip the trial of DWI offender who was the girlfriend of another DWI officer involved in the bribery and extortion scheme, according to court documents filed Monday.

Henckel is the seventh former APD officer to plead guilty as the FBI investigation continues into a near-30-year criminal conspiracy devised by a leading DWI attorney who paid bribes to law enforcement officers in exchange for them deliberately helping the defense by missing court dates, interviews and withholding evidence in DWI cases.

So far this year, former attorney Thomas Clear III, his investigator Ricardo Mendez, a former Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy, and the former APD officers have entered guilty pleas in Albuquerque federal court. None of them have been sentenced.

Numerous other officers have lost their jobs, but have not been charged, after being targeted in the investigation that began in about mid-2023.

Henckel, who couldn’t be reached for comment on Monday, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by extortion under color of official right. The maximum penalty is up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Unlike other defendants who have admitted participating in the scheme in recent years, court records state that Henckel’s involvement occurred over a six month period in 2020. He had been terminated from the APD in 2021 for “reasons unrelated to the criminal DWI scheme,” states a criminal charging document filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico.

Henckel joined the APD in 2008, and worked in the DWI unit from February 2017 to July 2019 when he was promoted to sergeant. After he left the unit, he continued to be responsible for DWI cases that he had worked on in the unit.

Henckel’s plea agreement states that beginning in January 2020, and continuing until July 2, 2020, he joined other officers in Clear’s scheme. As an arresting officer in DWI cases, he was a necessary witness in court hearings and interviews. DWI offenders he arrested would be solicited by Clear and Mendez as clients. The clients would be both aware and unaware of the scheme.

Then, Henckel admitted, he would be paid in cash to agree not to perform his duties on the case, and was also provided non-cash rewards such as restaurant gift cards and free legal advice.

“I understood that these gifts, while not tied to a particular case, were given to DWI officers to develop goodwill,” his plea agreement states.

When he didn’t appear as required, he knew the case would likely be dismissed. Court records show Clear was the defense attorney on seven of Henckel’s cases, and at least five of those were dismissed by a Metro Court judge as a sanction against the state.

Henckel admitted that he accepted payment from Clear and Mendez to not appear on a case for a DWI offender romantically involved with another APD officer who was conspiring in the scheme. The officer and the offender weren’t named in the plea agreement.

The amount he received was at least the “equivalent of my overtime I missed out on for not attending, which would have been $90 per hearing at which I intentionally failed to appear,” the plea agreement states. The woman’s DWI case was ultimately dismissed after Henckel failed to appear at her trial.

Henckel was fired from the APD in 2021 for violating policies “related to truthfulness and reporting officer misconduct,” said APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos Jr. on Monday.