Misconduct reports detail DWI corruption allegations against Albuquerque officers

Misconduct reports allege that five Albuquerque police officers, while working with a local attorney, took money “or other compensation” to let suspected drunken drivers off the hook.

The misconduct reports, released to the Journal on Friday as part of an Inspection of Public Records Act request, were submitted by Albuquerque Police Department Internal Affairs (IA) to the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy board on March 18.

The board will determine if the officers’ licenses will be suspended or revoked, meaning they cannot work as law enforcement in New Mexico.

The officers, Honorio Alba Jr., Harvey Johnson Jr., Joshua Montaño, Nelson Ortiz and Justin Hunt, have all resigned from APD.

Hunt had been with the department the longest, since 2000, and Ortiz had the shortest tenure, having joined the force in 2016.

The FBI is also investigating the corruption allegations and, in January, searched the homes of officers Johnson and Alba, the law office of defense attorney Thomas Clear III and the home of Clear’s paralegal, Ricardo Mendez.

All five officers had been on paid administrative leave since the FBI raids happened on Jan. 18.

“We are still investigating, despite the resignations of the officers,” APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said Saturday. “APD’s investigation will make a determination and the LEA Board will take that determination into account as it considers action on the license.”

The FBI’s investigation has yet to result in any criminal charges, and what agents found and their rationale for the searches remain under seal. None of the officers who were suspended have commented publicly. Clear and Mendez haven’t returned Journal phone calls.

The allegations spurred 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office to dismiss nearly 200 pending DWI cases filed by the officers, whose credibility could have been challenged in court because of the ongoing investigation.

APD has said all five officers resigned before planned interviews with Internal Affairs investigators.

Gallegos, the APD spokesman, released Montaño’s resignation letter, which said that what the DWI officer got “caught up in” was generational and approved by supervisors. Gallegos has said APD is looking at others in its internal probe of the alleged corruption, including retired officers.

The separate misconduct reports against the five officers use the same language to describe the allegations against each, saying they allegedly “committed felony crimes by working with a local attorney and unlawfully accepted money and/or other compensation in return for dismissing or failing to file DWI charges.”

APD wrote in the report that the IA probe “is ongoing and a determination of wrongdoing has not yet been made.” The report notes that none of the officers have been arrested or charged with a crime, adding that “we have reason to believe a separate agency is conducting a criminal investigation into these allegations.”

The reports state that each officer “was ordered to appear for an interview and chose to resign rather than provide a statement.”

“APD continues to investigate these allegations, and thus, will supplement when our investigation is complete,” according to the reports.