Former APD supervisor admits to helping set up drivers for DWI arrests

A former Albuquerque police lieutenant who pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge Tuesday revealed how co-conspirators in the bribery scheme would get "targets" intoxicated so he could later pull them over for drunken driving.

One of the "targets" was a client of the mastermind of the scheme, former attorney Thomas Clear III, court records show.

In a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen in Albuquerque, Justin Hunt pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by extortion under color of official right.

He was released on conditions pending sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

"Justin Hunt served the community in APD for 24 years," said his attorney, Ryan J. Villa, in a statement. "The conduct he took responsibility for today, represents a tiny fraction of the work he did for the community, but he recognizes his conduct was wrong and he believes in personal accountability. As an officer, he was responsible for and participated in hundreds of arrests of offenders that were not related at all to the conduct he admitted to in his plea."

Hunt is the latest of a dozen individuals, including two Albuquerque defense attorneys, to plead guilty in the ongoing federal investigation into a near 30-year conspiracy in which a group of DWI officers received cash, free legal services and other benefits for helping get DWI cases dismissed.

Like others who have entered guilty pleas, Hunt admitted that he conspired with Albuquerque attorney Clear and Clear's legal assistant, Ricardo Mendez, to intentionally fail to appear at required administrative and criminal proceedings for DWI offenders who hired Clear. 

Clear would cite Hunt's failure to appear as grounds for dismissal, a judge would agree, and Hunt would receive benefits from Clear that included free legal help and "wheels, tires and lift kit for my Jeep."

Hunt, who worked as a DWI officer from 2011 to 2014, said DWI offenders were "both aware and unaware of the bribery scheme."

"The illegal conduct — that being me receiving benefits or payments from CLEAR and MENDEZ — would occur after I conducted the otherwise legitimate DWI arrest," according to his plea agreement. 

However, the agreement states, "Clear, Mendez and I also developed another method of operating the scheme."

In that method, Mendez and others would orchestrate the traffic stop, "thereby allowing me to conduct the DWI arrest, with the expectation that I would then be paid or receive a benefit to not appear as required," according to the plea agreement.

The plea agreement states, "Under this scheme, Mendez and other co-conspirators would go out drinking with a particular target. Once that target had consumed alcohol and was heavily intoxicated, I would receive notification of where the target was driving. I would then conduct a traffic stop on the target's vehicle and arrest them for DWI." 

After the arrest, and if the suspect hired Clear, he and others in the conspiracy would coordinate pretrial hearings and MVD hearings to ensure that Hunt would fail to appear.  

The state criminal charges would be dismissed, no fines, fees or interlock devices would be required, and the offender's driver's license wouldn't be revoked. 

Hunt's plea agreement states that in May 2014 Mendez took one of Clear's clients, identified as C.F., out drinking for C.F.'s birthday. Mendez, C.F. and others ended up at a strip club where Mendez purchased alcohol for C.F.

According to the plea agreement, "Once C.F. was preparing to drive after consuming a large amount of alcohol, Mendez alerted me to when C.F. would be leaving the strip club, what vehicle C.F. would be driving, and where C.F.'s vehicle would be. After C.F. drove out of the strip club parking lot, I conducted a traffic stop on C.F.'s vehicle (with Mendez and others in the vehicle)."

Hunt stated in the agreement that he then arrested C.F. and charged him with DWI, noting that C.F. hired Clear to defend him in the case. Hunt stated that he received the equipment for his Jeep from Mendez for his role in the arrest.

"In my police report, I purposefully omitted the information I received from Mendez prior to the stop and purposefully omitted that Mendez was in the vehicle with C.F. at the time of the stop," according to the plea agreement.

Hunt also admitted that after he left the DWI unit, he discussed non-public Internal Affairs and APD information with Mendez. For example, he said, when then-APD officer Honorio Alba became the subject of a complaint sent to the city's Civilian Police Oversight Agency relating to Alba's handling of a DWI case in November 2023.

"I discussed this complaint with Mendez in an attempt to assist Alba from having adverse action taken against him," Hunt states in the agreement. 

It isn't clear what, if any, action Mendez took in response. But the complaint about Alba, after then-APD Chief Harold Medina learned of it, helped fuel the FBI investigation into the scheme.